Richard Rogers

Richard Rogers

Personal information

NameRichard Rogers

NationalityUnited Kingdom

Birth date23 July 1933 (1933-07-23) (age75)

Birth placeFlorence, Italy

Work

Practice nameRogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (formerly Richard Rogers Partnership)

Significant buildingsCentre Georges PompidouLloyd's BuildingMillennium DomeDebating chamber of the Welsh AssemblyEuropean Court of Human Rights

Significant projectsTowards an Urban Renaissance

Awards and prizesPritzker Prize (2007)Stirling Prize (2006)

European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg.

Aerial view of the Millennium Dome.

Lloyd's building London.

Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside, CH, FRIBA, FCSD, (born 23 July 1933) is a British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs. He was born in Florence in 1933 and attended the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, before graduating from Yale School of Architecture in 1962.[1]

Early careerAt Yale he met fellow student Jesse Mccartney, Norman Foster and on returning to England he set up architectural practice as Team 4 with Foster and their respective girlfriends, the sisters Georgie and Wendy Cheesman. They quickly earned a reputation for high-tech industrial design. In 1967 the practice split up, and Rogers joined Renzo Piano. An early commission was a house and studio for Humphrey Spender near Maldon, Essex, a glass cube framed with I-beams. His career leapt forward when he won the design competition for the Pompidou Centre on 13 July 1971 with Renzo Piano and Peter Rice. This building established Rogers's trademark of exposing most of the building's services (water, heating ducts, and stairs) on the exterior, leaving the internal spaces uncluttered. The building is now a much admired Paris landmark, but at the time critics were mixed, dubbing the "inside-out" style "Bowellism".

Later careerAfter working with Piano, Rogers established the Richard Rogers Partnership in 1976. This became Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in 2007. The firm maintains offices in London, Barcelona, Madrid, and Tokyo.

Rogers was one of the most vocal advocates of the Millennium Dome project and his reputation has suffered as a result. Though still regarded as one of the major international practices it is notable that since the Dome he has secured fewer landmark projects.

After several years of development, the ambitious Rogers Masterplan for the regeneration of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was rejected. Rogers has been active politically as a Labour life peer with the title Baron Rogers of Riverside in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. In 2000 he wrote the UK government's white paper, Towards an Urban Renaissance. Rogers is currently chair of the Greater London Authority panel for Architecture and Urbanism.

Rogers was appointed to design the replacement to the Central Library in the Eastside of Birmingham; however, his plan was rejected on grounds of cost. City Park Gate, the area adjacent to the land the library would have stood on, is now being designed by Ken Shuttleworth's MAKE Architects.

Rogers has been chosen as the architect of Tower 3 of the new World Trade Center in New York City, replacing the old World Trade Center, which had been destroyed in the September 11 attacks. His old classmate, contemporary and former practice partner Norman Foster is also designing a new WTC tower.

Projects Rogers' House Wimbledon (1967)[2] Centre Pompidou, Paris (197278)

Lloyd's building, London (197984)

European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg (1984)

Bordeaux Law Courts, Bordeaux (1998)

Millennium Dome, London (1999)

Ashford Designer Outlet, Ashford, Kent (2000)

88 Wood Street, London (1993-2001)

Chiswick Park Business Park, London (2002)

Barajas Airport Terminal 4, Madrid (2005)

Courts of Law, Antwerp, Belgium (2005)

Hesperia Tower, Barcelona (2005)

National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff (2005)

The Senedd, the new building for the National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff (2006)

Ching Fu Group Headquarters]], Kaohsiung (2005-2007)

Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Central Park Station (2008)

Heathrow Terminal 5, London (2008) Image Gallery of Heathrow Terminal 5 Maggie's Centre, London (2001-2008)

300 New Jersey Avenue Washington, DC (completion expected in 2Q 2009)

Las Arenas, Barcelona, remodeling of the bullring, turning it into a shopping mall (completion expected in 2009)

Oxley Woods, Milton Keynes; UK Government sponsored 'Design for Manufacture (DfM)' competition (completion expected late 2009)

175 Greenwich Street, New York (2006-)

360-London (2007-)

Leadenhall Building (completion expected in 2010)

One Hyde Park, London (completion expected in 2010)

ControversyIn February 2006, Lord Rogers hosted the inaugural meeting of the campaigning organisation Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine(APJP) in his London offices. At that time Lord Rogers had secured a commission for a $1.7 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre in Manhattan, the late Senator Javits had been an ardent supporter of Israel. However within weeks he had publicly dissociated himself from the group, "I unequivocally renounce Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine and have withdrawn my relationship with them."[7]. This statement followed pressure from strong pro-Israeli interests in New York[8], who threatened him with the loss of this prestige commission. Rogers at first said he was dissociating himself from APJP because of its published aims and "in view of the suggested boycott by some members," although APJP denied it was promoting a boycott. Rogers subsequently hardened his line, coming out with statements defending Israel's right to build its separation wall. He described the Israel-Palestine conflict as being between a "terrorist" state and a "democratic" one and said that he was "all for the democratic state".