RIBA President, Chris Williamson pays tribute to 2019 Royal Gold Medal winner and pioneer of high-tech architecture, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw who passed away on 15 September at the age of 85.
RIBA President, Chris Williamson said:
“I am very sad to learn of the passing of Nicholas (Nick) Grimshaw, a true innovator who was globally respected as one of the UK’s finest and most influential architects, and whose outstanding contribution to the profession earned him a 2019 Royal Gold Medal.
During a career spanning five decades, Nick designed so many landmark projects, including the Eden Project in Cornwall and the International Terminal at London’s Waterloo Station which won RIBA Building of the Year Award (now Stirling Prize) in 1994. He is owed enormous credit for pioneering the high-tech architecture movement, along with his contemporaries, Sir Norman Foster and Richard Rogers.
Born in Hove in East Sussex, he studied at Edinburgh College of Art before graduating from London’s Architectural Association in 1965 after which he worked in partnership with celebrated architect Terry Farrell.
In 1980 he set up his own studio, Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, and nine years later won the RIBA National Award for his design of the Financial Times Printworks in east London.
His practice would evolve and grow — from Grimshaw Architects, and latterly Grimshaw — to become a global company of 650 employees, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Doha, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Sydney.
In 2002 he received a Knighthood for services to architecture.
Aside from his working practice, Nick devoted much of his time to giving back to the profession, both as chair of countless competitions and awards, and by lecturing around the world to the next generation of architects. His contribution to the Architectural Association, as its past president was immense, and as President of the Royal Academy (RA) his creation of a permanent display of architecture in the new extension of the Royal Academy (RA) at Burlington Gardens, has benefited painters, sculptors and printmakers, as well as architects.
Many people will have great memories of him, but I first met Nick when, as the Chair of the Leicester Poly Architecture Students Group, I invited him to deliver an evening lecture.
He arrived off the train from London with a green plastic briefcase which was de rigueur amongst some architects at the time. In it he had a Kodak carousel, a notebook and an apple pie for the journey home.
He didn’t charge a fee or expenses. He gave a wonderful honest and open talk to a packed auditorium of enthralled students and local practitioners. Nick was an inspiration to several generations of architects and will be sadly missed by many.
My thoughts are with his colleagues, his family and his friends.”
