Otto Wagner, the father of modern Viennese architecture,

Question

Otto Wagner, the father of modern Viennese architecture,  designed buildings that earned him an  international reputation and influenced an entire generation of artists and architects.

(A)
(B) who designed buildings that earned him an
(C) whose design of buildings earned him an
(D) designed buildings which earned him an
(E) designed buildings earning him an

 Please provide explanations for your answer

Dharmin · Answer

Is it "B", MBA ?
the stem demands for two corrections
1. the underlined clause was missing subject in all other choice, but B (in choice "C" - 'whose' is not a subject)
2. the verb 'influnced' should be driven by subject "who"

Dharmin

jo1to6 · Answer

I choose A as well. Was a difficult choice between the similar response with which instead of that. The rule for that vs. which is given in the link below: https://www.accuratewriting.com/w1-12.shtml

mba · Answer

It is (A).

Anand I would appreciate comments from your side.

(Also as it is a reference to a "thing" and not to a person, so shouldn't "which" be used rather than "that")

anandnk · Answer

The stem has an adjective phrase  "the father of modern viennese architecture" . This phrase can be moved around as follows without affecting the meaning of the sentence. Once the phrase is moved the commas also move with it.

 the father of modern Viennese architecture ,
Otto Wagner  designed buildings that earned him an  international
reputation and influenced an entire generation of artists and architects.

Now try to replace the underlined piece with answer choices

B) replacing this will have  "Otto Wagner who designed blah blah" 
The "who" is redundant and unncessary.
C) It changes the meaning because Otto Wagner earned the reputation because of the buildings he designed and not that the designs earned a reputation for him
D) "which" and "that" can both refer to anything other than humans.
"which" is generally used for non restrictive clauses and "that" is used for restrictive clauses. "that" is apropriate here.
E) It lookes like he earned reputation while designing the buildings. This is awkward

Dharmin · Answer

Outstanding explanation anandnk,

Thanks, Dharmin

Otto Wagner, the father of modern Viennese architecture,

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