RIP Frank

This week the architecture world is paying tribute to Frank Gehry who died at the weekend at home in Santa Monica, aged 96. I am sure I am not the only architecture who thinks of the two Franks (the other of course being Frank Lloyd Wright) as the epitome of North American architecture. Frank Gehry  had been a hero to me ever since I chose architecture as a career. His freeform creativity was at the edges of imagination, but practical to build. His... Read More

ATH 1940-2015

Ath was adopted. His birth parents were 17 years old, so maybe that it why his mind remained perpetually young and inquiring. In November last year, a few of us architects of a certain age had our regular lunch in Wellington. At 12.30 Ath said he had to leave, in order to catch a flight to Dunedin at 2.30. ‘Thats fine’, we said, ‘you’ve plenty of time.’ Ath replied that he just had to pop into the hospital on the way to the airport,... Read More