Grimshaw’s eponymous practice announced the death of its founder yesterday
Tributes have flooded in for Sir Nicholas Grimshaw following the RIBA Gold Medal-winning architect’s death at the age of 85.
Grimshaw, the firm behind some of Britain’s most influential projects over the past four decades including the Eden Project and Waterloo International, announced the death of its founder yesterday.
RIBA president and WW+P co-founder Chris Williamson recounted how he had invited Grimshaw to give a presentation to the Leicester School of Architecture in 1975. “He was as inspirational then as he was when I last met him receiving his Royal Gold Medal. My thoughts are with his colleagues, his family and his friends,” Williamson said.
Hugh Pearman, architecture writer and chair of the Twentieth Century Society, described Grimshaw as “one of the most original and inventive architects of his generation, an inspiring and effective President of the Royal Academy, and a thoughtful and gentle fellow”.
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Chris Dyson, founder of Chris Dyson Architects, said Grimshaw was a “great architect and creative force” and an “inspiration to many people”, while RIBA board chair Jack Pringle described him as a “great man”.
Wilkinson Eyre director Edward Daines said Grimshaw’s death was “such sad news,” adding: “Quite simply a giant of the profession. My sincere condolences to his family, and to all those at the practice that bears his name.”
Kevin Singh, head of the Manchester School of Architecture, said: “Such sad news to hear of the passing of Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, a hero to me (alongside Richard Rogers) as an undergraduate student and I was obsessed with the idea of working at Grimshaw & Partners as it was, so much so that I bought a new set of rapidographs and filled them with blue ink for that Grimshaw look!”
Singh added: “Condolences to everyone who was lucky enough to know him and of course his family and friends. Rest in peace.”
Jerry Tate, founder and director of Tate + Co Architects, said: “Nick was both a superstar architect and a true gentleman, ambitious and generous at the same time”, adding: “He will be very missed.”
Tate also said the Grimshaw Foundation, an organisation set up to provide access to skills training to under-represented groups is “a real example of his leadership in terms of opening access to the creative professions”.
Pete Swift, chief executive and founder of Planit, said Grimshaw was “the engineers’ architect”. He added: “What a legacy he leaves and a business built on immovable foundations.”
Woods Bagot principal Neil Hill said Grimshaw’s projects, ideas and legacy “is and will remain extraordinary”.
“I was in awe of those Grimshaw models and drawings exhibited in RIBA’s Portland Place and experiencing the Architecture of Waterloo Station in the energy of London work life inspired me to do better in those formative years. Rest in Peace Sir Nicholas Grimshaw,” Hill said.
Alan Horn, director of development at Glasgow School of Art, said: “So very sorry to hear this news. My thoughts go to his family and to his partners and colleagues.”
Alan Morrisey, founder and director at Slab Design Union Architects, said: “The precision and technical excellence of Grimshaw’s architecture shaped my understanding of what made great buildings. The news of his passing is very sad as another high-tech hero leaves us, but what a legacy!”
Grimshaw’s eponymous practice, founded in 1980, was behind a string of celebrated projects regarded as leading examples of the British Hi-Tech style of the 1980s and 1990s.
The firm’s breakthrough project was the printworks for the Financial Times, known as East India Dock House, which was completed in 1988 and grade II*-listed in 2016.
In 1994 the Waterloo International platforms at Waterloo station in central London, built as the original terminus for Eurostar, won both the Mies van der Rohe Award and the RIBA Building of the Year Award, the predecessor to the Stirling Prize.
Grimshaw is perhaps best known for the Eden Project, a visitor attraction completed in 2000 consisting of a series of vast geodesic domes.
He was knighted for his services to architecture in 2002, served as the president of the Royal Academy from 2004 to 2011 and was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2019.
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