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Last Friday, American designer Florence Knoll Bassett passed away at age 101. A pioneer of midcentury design, Bassett was the creative force behind the legendary furniture company Knoll, where she helped to change the landscape of the modern home and office. A pupil of Eliel Saarinen, Mies van der... View full entry
From VSBA Architects: Trailblazing architect, and 1991 Pritzker winner, Robert Venturi has passed away on Tuesday at the age of 93. He is survived by his wife and life-long business partner Denise Scott Brown. Their firm Venturi Scott Brown Associates, now VSBA Architects & Planners based in... View full entry
In the words of the late Dick Rittelmann (1938-2015), friend and collaborator, and cofounder of Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann: “The breadth and complexity of BCJ’s work over the years is a testimony to the skills of Jon Jackson as not only a great individual architect, but of a manager, mentor, motivator, and collaborator. Jon has matured from one who creates great architecture to one who creates the environment in which great architecture can occur.” — Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson announced today in a press release that retired principal Jon Jackson passed away last Friday, August 17. A Pittsburgh-area native and a highly respected figure in Western Pennsylvania and national design communities, Jackson and his work — which focused on... View full entry
Constance Adams, an architect who gave up designing skyscrapers to develop structures that would help travelers live with reasonable comfort on the International Space Station, Mars or the moon, died on Monday at her home in Houston. She was 53. — The New York Times
With architecture degrees from Harvard and Yale, Constance Adams worked—in the traditional sense of the profession—for César Pelli, Kenzo Tange, and German firm Josef Paul Kleihues, before applying her skills in various NASA design programs for space habitats (including the three-level... View full entry
“From Bauhaus to Our House,” Mr. Wolfe attacked modern architecture and what he saw as its determination to put dogma before buildings. Published in 1981, it met with the same derisive response from critics. “The problem, I think,” Paul Goldberger wrote in The Times Book Review, “is that Tom Wolfe has no eye.” — The New York Times
Tom Wolfe, an innovative journalist and novelist, died on Monday in Manhattan at the age of 88. Wolf lived in New York since joining The New York Herald Tribune as a reporter in 1962, and went on to influence what is known as New Journalism. Inciting hostile reactions to some of his work, Wolf... View full entry
The news of British architect Will Alsop's death over the weekend was met with an outpouring of sympathy from fellow architects and journalists around the web. A recipient of the RIBA's Stirling Prize for his Peckham Library building in 2000, an avid painter, and master of seemingly floating... View full entry
Los Angeles, Richard S. Weinstein liked to say, “is full of holes.” He meant it as a compliment — at least to a degree.
After working early in his career as an advisor on urban design to New York City Mayor John Lindsay, Weinstein, who died Feb. 24 in Santa Monica at 85, moved to Los Angeles in 1985 to become dean of the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA. After 10 years in that role, he spent another 13 as a professor in the department.
— Los Angeles Times
Christoper Hawthorne describes the supportive relationship Richard Weinstein had with another innovative L.A. architect at UCLA at the time, Thom Mayne, quoting him: “He [Weinstein] thought of architecture as a noble profession. Can you imagine?” View full entry
Mr. Cooper began his career in 1958 as overseer for architect Eero Saarinen in the construction of Washington Dulles International Airport. [...]
Mr. Cooper was best known for his work on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1982 and 1995, respectively.
— The Washington Post
Kent Cooper's architecture firm, Cooper-Lecky, became the architects of record for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. While Maya Lin's now iconic design for the memorial was chosen as the competition winner in 1981, Lin was an architecture student at the time and not a licensed... View full entry
Wilbert R. Hasbrouck, a pioneering Chicago preservation architect who breathed new life into buildings designed by some of the city’s renowned architects and co-owned a beloved architectural bookstore, died Saturday at a care facility in suburban Norridge.
A longtime Chicago resident, Hasbrouck was 86. The cause of death was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said his son Charles, a director at the Chicago architectural firm of bKL.
— chicagotribune.com
Over a 40 year career, Hasbrouck renovated buildings such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dana-Thomas House in Springfield, William Le Baron Jenney's Manhattan Building skyscraper, and Louis Sullivan's Peoples Savings Bank in Cedar Rapids, along with several of Chicago’s important 19th-century... View full entry
"His legacy will be admired for many years to come and his vision – to create a better everyday life for the many people – will continue to guide and inspire us," says Jesper Brodin, the CEO and president of the IKEA Group. — NPR
Over the weekend, the Swedish entrepreneur who created IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad (age 91), passed away quietly at his home in Sweden. The company confirmed Mr. Kamprad's death on Sunday, citing "short illness." The business magnate displayed a penchant for entrepreneurship from a young age, selling... View full entry
Following a long battle with terminal lung cancer, the beloved architect Neave Brown has passed away at the age of 88. Known for his modernist social housing, Brown's projects are considered to be some of most innovative and successful low-cost housing schemes of the late 20th century with many... View full entry
Architect Robert Frasca, FAIA, founding design partner of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects (ZGF) and an influential figure on Portland and Oregon's architectural scene for several decades, has died on January 3 at the age of 84. ZGF has released the following obituary: It is with great sadness that... View full entry
Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, who organized Frank Lloyd Wright’s massive archives and wrote or edited more than 50 books about the buildings, ideas and career of the legendary architect, died Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz., according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
“He is almost single-handedly the person who organized the archives,” said Barry Bergdoll [of MoMA]
— Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune architectural critic Blair Kamin pens an obituary for Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer. Born in 1930 in South Natick, Massachusetts, Pfeiffer studied as Frank Lloyd Wright's apprentice in 1949. He eventually went on to become the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's director of archives... View full entry
Gavin Stamp, the architectural historian, who has died aged 69, was “Piloti” who wrote the “Nooks and Corners” column in Private Eye magazine; a television presenter of great charm and humour; a conservationist who personally saved one of the finest Arts and Crafts buildings in London; a photographer, draughtsman and writer of prodigious talent. — telegraph.co.uk
The architecture community lost historian, writer and broadcaster Gavin Stamp on December 30 2017 due to prostate cancer. Stamp had an immense impact on British architecture and authored several important architectural history books. He was also a television series presenter, co-founder of... View full entry
Architect John Portman, often credited as the father of the massive hotel atrium, has passed away in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. No cause of death has been announced. His firm, John Portman & Associates, has released the following statement, along with a website celebrating his... View full entry
