Favorite Architect(s)

[gosalci]

Antonio Gaudi, i think that until today there is no architect that can be compared to him with the level of details used in his work

Santiago Calatrava, Renzo Piano and also Frank Ghery. these three architects have their unique style. there are also Asian architects among which i like Kisho Kurokawa.

[RLS_rls]

Dead? Burnham, Sullivan, Post, Root, Adler, Frank Lloyd Wright (notice how he needs the full name), Mansard, Wren, Guimard, Gaudi, McKim Mead & White (not that they all died togethor...), LeBaron Jenney (obviously, even if Home Insurance was kind of sloppy), Neimeyer, Tange, all the true modernists before him.

Alive...That's even harder. Cesar Pelli (a sucker of the times, but still eye-catching and quality driven), Arthur Erickson (so wrong, yet so right), Pei, Stern, Foster, Rogers, Piano, Calatrava, basically all the other ones that are super kewl!

I was trying to diversify that list but I got tired near the end, which would explain for the lack of...well diversity. There's alot though.

Edit: Jasoncw?!? So you ARE the one! You're the one from Simtropolis! I am a HUGE fan of your work. I post on that site as Khoin, recently I left a huge swath of comments on work. Really...really nice stuff. The Audobon Building is spectactular. Since I have the option to congratulate you from two sites...keep up the great work! Hope SSP provides inspiration!

[zilfondel]

Alive: Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano, Shigeru Ban

Dead: FLW, Buckminster Fuller, Corbu, Samuel Mockbee

And let's not forget Archigram! [Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton, Michael Webb and David Greene]

Nothing like some good 'ol 60's avant-garde to stir things up a bit.


Walking City, Ron Herron, Archigram, 1964 (unbuilt) - found on google


I also love Tatlin and the Russian Constructivists... very interesting early modernism/technologist


Tatlin's Tower, Vladimir Tatlin, 1920 (model - unbuilt) - photo courtesy of wikipedia

[Jeff_in_Dayton]

Dead modernists...probably Le Corbusier, followed by early James Stirling.

Dead pre-modernists. Borromini, Michelangelo (for the Campodiglio), Palladio.

recent Modern architects that are taking a different angle:

Interboro, Markus Miessen, and Deborah Berke.

Also always like Richard Meirs' work. For the decons, Zaha. I like her over Rem (although Rem is fun to read...good theorist). For the postmodernists Charles Moore (but he's dead?).

[Jeff_in_Dayton]

Good stuff on this thread. Good call on the Russian Constructivists. Of them probably Leonidov (sp?). Some of their planning, the dis-urbanists, anticipate suburbia. Instead of commie-blocks they propose commie-sprawl.

Another dead modernist from that early era the I find intriguing is Hannes Meyer. He was sort of in parallel with the Constructivists.

Archigram was a lot of fun. For more radical theoretical achicture of that era there are the Italians..Archizoom and Superstudio. I dont think this stuff really was appreciated for how it forsaw things. To stir things up on this side of the pond there is "Learning from Las Vegas" from Venturi.

[slide_rule]

too many great architects to name. then there's plenty of good vernacular/generic architecture as well. as with show-biz, many good architects are overlooked while the tori spellings become famous.

back to the favorite architects: glenn murcutt, charles correa, kenneth yeang, richard meier, shigeru ban, akira sakamoto, frei otto, ricardo legorreta, oscar niemeyer, etc... plus a whole bunch of people whose names i cannot recall.

as for the dead ones: erich mendelsohn, kenzo tange, felix candela. i won't bother going further back in history, but i've always been fascinated with islamic, indian, and east asian architecture.

[SapphireBlueEyes]

Dead: William Holabird and Martin Roche, with Coydon T. Purdy, architects of the firm Holabird & Roche, ARCHITECTS OF THE 'MARQUETTE BUILDING' ON DEARBORN, CHICAGO, IL; Daniel H. Burnham and J.W. Root, ARCHITECTS OF THE 'ROOKERY BUILDING' AT 209 SOUTH LaSalle

Alive: Santiago Calitrava [SPIRE], Ricardo Bofill [77 W. Wacker Drive or R.R. Donnelly], Jeanne Gang [AQUA], history making not only for its unique design, but it is also the first skyscraper built by a firm headed by a woman.

-SAPPHIREBLUEEYES-

[Peanuthead]

Dead: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Robert Adam, Berthold Lubetkin (My Favorite )


Glasgow School of Art, Old College of Edinburgh University, and Highpoint I Highate, London


Alive: Richard Murphy, Rab Bennets, Jan Kaplický (Future Systems), and others


Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, Brighton Library, and Selfridges of Birmingham

[Mystic Geometry]

Frank Lloyd Wright

[SpeedoPro]

i.m. pei
foster
pelli

[Swinefeld]

Chrstopher Wren. He practically rebuilt London after the fire of 1666. Amazing body of work.

Other faves; Furness, Sloan, Notman, Hales, Cret, Mies van der Rohe, Wright, Stern.

[Trumbull]

Wirt C. Rowland. I mean, anyone who make design is a god:





Pictures from Flickr

[Peter]

I didn't know the names of the architects until I looked them up, but Wirt C. Rowland for the Guardian building (as someone posted just above), Gregory Johnson for the Empire State Building, Philip Johnson and John Burgee for PPG Place and William Van Alen for the Chrysler Building. Those are my favorite buildings so my favorite architects I suppose as well, even though I only now learned who they were lol...

[thebestdillweed]

dead: Antoni Gaudi, Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, William Van Alen

alive:?

[ardecila]

Eero/Eliel Saarinen, Holabird & Roche, Ralph Johnson (Perkins + Will).

[Tex1899]

Lake/Flato

[Nunavuter]

In my home town, I'd have to say Edward Lennox.

http://www.fineart.utoronto.ca/canar...ct/lennox.html

He captured the Gothic/Romanesque aesthetic at the heart of this city without apology.

Mies, Gehry and Liebeskind also appeal to me. They have a smattering of stuff in town as well, so that's a bonus.

[SkyscraperMan]

I would definitely say Santiago Calatrava.

[SFUVancouver]

My favorite living architect is Bing Thom, of Bing Thom Architects out of Vancouver, Canada.

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.





Simon Fraser University - Surrey Campus - Surrey, British Columbia, Canada




The Pointe - Residential Tower - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada




Bing Thom and his firm, BTA, also specialize in urban design and master planning. BTA has developed downtown master plans for Fort Worth and Tulsa in the United States. A downtown master plan for Surrey, British Columbia is in progress. In China, BTA have developed city-scaled master plans for Yuxi and Dalian, and also developed the master site plan for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo.

bingthomarchitects.com

[ThisSideofSteinway]

McKim, Mead, and White are definitely at the top, with Cass Gilbert, William Van Alen, Cesar Pelli, and Robert A. M. Stern getting honorable mentions.