Award-winning architect Antoine Predock, known for his work rooted in the style and philosophies of the American Southwest, has passed away at the age of 87.
Predock, along with his eponymous studio, was known for projects such as the La Luz housing complex in Albuquerque and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.
His designs were influenced by a connection to the body as well as earthen materials and, in particular, New Mexico.
His apartment complex La Luz, built in 1967, gained attention for its sensitivity to its desert site. The project incorporated localised materials, massing and forms to pay homage to New Mexico’s native pueblos buildings and villages.
Completed in 2014, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg embodied a similar connection to its site, although its “glass cloud” affixed to a stone base integrated the philosophy to a new scale.
The architect was born and raised in Missouri before attending the University of New Mexico, where he studied architecture.
Under mentor and professor Don Schlegel he was encouraged to further pursue his studies, later attending Columbia University and the American Academy in Rome.
He established his first studio, Antoine Predock Architect PC, in Albuquerque in 1967 and founded offices in California and Taipei, creating over 100 buildings and projects that spanned the globe.
Predock was the recipient of several awards, including the AIA Gold Medal in 2006 and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
He was also a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Design Futures Council and more.
“Architect and mythmaker, at once Daedalus the craftsman and Minotaur in his labyrinth, Predock wove the facts of building into labyrinths of experience,” wrote architecture professor and historian Christopher Mead in an essay remembering Predock.
“He brought together earth and sky, mountains and rivers, prairie plains and desert mesas, ancient cultures and modern technologies, into manmade landscapes that ground us in a place and locate us in the world.”
Predock was also an avid motorcyclist, skiier and diver.
“Architecture is a fascinating journey toward the unexpected,” Predock wrote in a statement. “It is a ride, a physical ride and an intellectual ride.”
The photos are courtesy of Antoine Predock Architect PC.
