Richard Rogers wins the 2019 AIA Gold Medal, and will be recognized at this year’s national conference in Las Vegas. Rogers is a Pritzker Prize-winning architect recognized for his work on the Centre Pompidou and the Lloyd’s of London headquarters. Rogers is recognized as one of the leading architects of the British high-tech movement. He stands out as one of the most innovative and distinctive architects of a generation.

After attending the Architectural Association in London, Rogers studied at Yale University, where he met architecture student Norman Foster. After graduating Yale, the two architects joined forces with Su Brumwell and Wendy Cheeseman to form Team 4 in 1963. Though their collaboration as Team 4 lasted just four years, it would prove to be a crucial formative stage in British architecture, as both Rogers and Foster went on to be the leading names of the British high-tech scene.

Rogers began another fruitful collaboration after Team 4; this time with Renzo Piano, whose big break came in 1971 when, working with architect Gianfranco Franchini and Peter Rice, an engineer from Arup, won the competition to design the Centre Pompidou. Rogers and Piano shocked many with their radical design, placing the building’s services in full view in a trademark technique that went on to be known as “bowellism.” He considers the work his team delivered through the Urban Task Force to be among his most significant achievements. The initiative brought together a range of people who were concerned with the physical environment, from academics, planners and politicians to developers and architects.

Since 1947, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) had awarded the AIA Gold Medal, which is conferred by the AIA Board of Directors. It is awarded to those architects for a significant body of work with influence on the theory and practice of architecture.

From the Factory Floor

New doors for the bar!

by Gerald Olesker, CEO, ADG Lighting