Richard Rogers: 1933–2021

Abstract

(born 23 July 1933, died 18 December 2021) must be assured well into the future. Over the course of his career spanning around sixty years – from his earliest work to his retirement from the practice of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, since renamed RSHP – he won most of the major awards available to architects, including the RIBA’s Royal Gold Medal (1985) and the Pritzker Prize (2007) [1]. His firm twice won the Stirling Prize for the best building in a given year in the UK (2006 and 2009), a rare achievement. And his work has helped to shape major cities across the world including Paris, London, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, and Barcelona. In parallel to these conventional tokens of architectural success are his less appreciated achievements as a politician and public servant. Among these public roles, he was a member for the Labour Party of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British parliament (which granted him the title of Lord Rogers of Riverside) from 1996 until 2021; he chaired the Urban Task Force established by the Labour Government under Prime Minister Tony Blair to recommend how to reverse urban decline in Britain, which reported in 1999; and between 2000 and 2009 he advised the first two mayors of London on design. He was also closely involved with numerous social causes and initiatives.