Meinhard von Gerkan, founder of von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (gmp), and one of the most influential German architects, passed away in Hamburg at the age of 87, on November 30, 2022. With a worldwide contribution to the field of architecture, in his 50 years of career, von Gerkan has created one of the largest practices in Germany, with 600 employees in seven locations. University professor and critic, the architect together with gmp, has completed more than 500 projects all over the world.
James Stewart Polshek, founding partner of James Stewart Polshek Architect, later Polshek Partnership, and currently Ennead Architects, has passed away after a 70-year-long career designing significant works of public architecture. In an era dominated by so-called starchitects, his work is often seen as a modest approach to architecture, prioritizing social values over aesthetic ones. Key projects completed by Polshek include the 1987 restoration and renovation of New York’s Carnegie Hall; the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (2000); the William J Clinton Presidential Center and Park (2004) and the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia (2010).
Clásicos de Arquitectura: Árbol para Vivir / Fruto Vivas. Image Cortesía de IX BIAU
Venezuelan architect José Fructoso Vivas, better known as Fruto Vivas, has passed away at 94 in Caracas on Tuesday, August 23.
Recognized for his design of projects such as the Tree for Living social housing, the Táchira Club, the Divino Redentor Church, and the Mausoleum of the Four Elements where the body of Hugo Chávez is preserved, Vivas has always aimed to further integrate the life of the human being to nature.
Doreen Adengo. Image Courtesy of Adengo Architecture
Doreen Adengo, architect from Kampala, Uganda has passed away, as reported by African Futures Institute’s Instagram Account, after a long battle with cancer. Founder of Adengo Architecture in 2015, a research-based multi-disciplinary practice operating out of her hometown Kampala, Doreen, a registered architect in the United States and Uganda, had earned her undergraduate at the Catholic University (Bachelor of Science in Architecture) and graduate studies at Yale (Masters of Architecture). She has taught at The New School and Pratt Institute in New York, the University of Johannesburg’s Graduate School of Architecture, and was currently teaching at Uganda Martyrs University. In celebration of International Women’s Day 2022, Doreen Adengo was recognized by ArchDaily as one of the established practitioners implicated in change.
American architect Gyo Obata, FAIA, co-founder of renowned architecture firm HOK, has passed away on March 8 at the age of 99. The news was announced by the office through a statement, honoring the architect's legacy and highlighting his holistic approach which "helped drive HOK’s ongoing expansion into new specialty practices, market sectors and geographic regions".
Ricardo Bofill, the Spanish architect founder of Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA), designer of the iconic Walden 7 and more than 1,000 projects in forty countries, has passed away at 82 in Barcelona on Friday, January 14, as officially announced by his own firm through a statement.
Richard Rogers, the fourth British architect to be awarded the Pritzker Prize, has passed away at 88 on Saturday, December 18, as reported by The New York Times.
Virgil Abloh, a great American influential figure in the fashion, art, culture, design, and architecture scene, passed away at 41, after a silent battle with cancer. Known for his collaboration with AMO, especially for the Off-White Flagship Store in Miami, a brand he founded back in 2012, the trained architect was the first African-American to become the artistic director of a French luxury brand.
The news was announced on Sunday on Abloh’s official Instagram Account. The Creative Director of Louis Vuitton menswear battled a “rare, aggressive form of cancer, cardiac angiosarcoma […] privately since his diagnosis in 2019”, according to the post.
One of the biggest names in Brazilian and worldwide architecture, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, passed away at the age of 92. As his son Pedro Mendes da Rocha reported to ArchDaily, the architect was hospitalized in São Paulo due to lung cancer and passed away at dawn on Sunday, May 23, 2021.
Paulo Mendes da Rocha will be remembered for the great formative role he had. His architectural creation debated life above all, raising questions and challenging ready ideas and conformity. He consolidated an influence short of language or aesthetics, formed mainly by the way of acting and thinking, in which each project was an opportunity for transformation. His ideas and designs overflowed the limits of the program, place and materiality, always bringing a new point of view to achieve revolutionary simplicity.
https://www.archdaily.com/962174/paulo-mendes-da-rocha-passes-away-at-92Equipe ArchDaily Brasil
The profession mourns the loss of a trailblazer. Robert Coles was the first African American chancellor of the AIA's College of Fellows, and a founding member the National Organization of Minority Architects https://t.co/eTCHv7S6AO
American architect Robert Traynham Coles, a founding member of the National Organization for Minority Architects (NOMA) has passed away at the age of 90 on Saturday, May 16, 2020. Considered one of the lead advocates for diversity in architecture, he was the first African American chancellor of the AIA's College of Fellows.
American architect, educator, critic, historian, curator and co-founder of The Architect’s Newspaper has passed away after a long battle with cancer in Manhattan at 72 years old.
Renowned architect, urbanist and writer, Michael Sorkin has passed away on the 26th of March, in Manhattan due to complications resulting from COVID-19. Principal and founder of Michael Sorkin Studios and president of the non-profit research group Terreform, Sorkin was famous for his writings for the Village Voice, the Nation, and many other publications.
Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti in 1975. Image via Wikipedia Commons
Vittorio Gregotti, Italian architect, co-responsible for the design of 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics stadium and the 1990 Football World Cup Marassi stadium has died of pneumonia on Sunday 15 March 2020, after catching the coronavirus. Gregotti was being hospitalized with his wife Mariana Mazza in Milan.
Dundee, Scotland, 2003 by Frank Gehry / Courtesy of Maggie's Centres. ImageThe third center was designed by Frank Gehry, a close friend of Maggie's. “Frank gave us so much publicity, and allowed us to raise the money,” Jencks says. Each center is self-financed through donations.
Renowned architecture theorist and historian, landscape designer and co-founder of Maggie's Cancer Care Centres, Charles Jencks died yesterday, as reported by RIBA Journal on Twitter. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 21, 1939, Jencks was 80 years old at the time he passed away.
Kevin Roche, the Irish-American architect and Pritzker laureate known whose modernist sensibility transformed America’s post-war cultural and corporate institutions, has died of natural causes in his home in Guilford, Connecticut. News of Roche’s passing was first posted to the website of his office, Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates late on 02 March. He was 96 years old.
Gunārs Birkerts, the prolific Latvian-American architect best known for designing the "Castle of Light"—the world's largest library in Riga, Latvia—has died aged 92. The National Library, which was first conceived in 1988 and officially opened in 2014, has become among the most significant, and controversial, contemporary public buildings in Latvia.
https://www.archdaily.com/877790/gunars-gunnars-birkerts-architect-of-the-worlds-largest-library-riga-latvia-dies-aged-92AD Editorial Team
Screenshot via Crane.tv. ImageAcconci Studio's Island in the Mur, Graz, Austria
American architect and artist Vito Acconci has died at the age of 77 as the result of a stroke. A visionary performance and installation artist in his early career, Acconci turned to architecture and furniture design in the 1980s, subscribing to the belief that to truly make an impact on society, one needed to be designing objects that were “part of the world.”
.jpg?1642168917 "La Muralla Roja / Ricardo Bofill. Image Courtesy of Ricardo Bofill")
.jpg?1642169030 "The Factory . Image Courtesy of Ricardo Bofill")
.jpg?1623359381 "Neviges Pilgrimage Church. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu")
.jpg?1623359479 "Neviges Pilgrimage Church. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu")
.jpg?1551613771 "Ezra Stoller for ESTO")
