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Millennium Dome architect Richard Rogers has died aged 88.
Lord Rogers, who also designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Lloyd’s of London building, “passed away quietly” on Saturday evening, Freud Communications’ Matthew Freud told the PA news agency.
American architecture critic Paul Goldberger called the news “heartbreaking”, adding on Twitter it was “another huge loss for architecture in 2021. A gracious man and a glorious talent. RIP”.
Lord Rogers was born in 1933 to an Anglo-Italian family in Florence, Italy and at a young age moved to England, where he later trained at the Architectural Association School of Architure in London before graduating with a master’s from Yale.
His designs, which also include the Senedd building in Cardiff and Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights, won critical acclaim with the Royal Gold Medal and the Pritzker Prize.
The jury when awarding him the Pritzker in 2017 praised him for having “revolutionised museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city”.
RIP Richard Rogers, whose wonderful buildings are testament to an amazing, inventive, charismatic man. Big loss. pic.twitter.com/7ZiogELPdt
— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@krishgm) December 19, 2021
He received the Freedom of the City of London at Guildhall Art Gallery in 2014 in recognition of his contribution to architecture and urbanism.
Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy early on Sunday paid tribute to Lord Rogers, whose firm designed the channel’s 124 Horseferry Road headquarters, as someone “whose wonderful buildings are testament to an amazing, inventive, charismatic man”.
The New York Times reported Lord Rogers is survived by his wife Lady Ruth – the co-founder of London’s River Cafe restaurant – sons Ab, Ben, Roo and Zad, his brother Peter and 13 grandchildren.
