Foster and Partners
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Foster and Partners is a leading firm of architects in the United Kingdom. The practice is strongly associated with its founder, Norman Foster, now Lord Foster, and has constructed many high profile glass and steel, high-tech buildings around the world. In particular they are known for their design of airport buildings.
Established by Norman Foster as Foster Associates in 1967 shortly after he left Team 4, the company was renamed 'Foster and Partners' in the 1990s to more accurately reflect the influence of the other lead architects.
Senior partners
The practice is an umbrella for some one hundred architects and project specialists, the main office is laid out in an open plan egalitarian style with all architects working at a similar desk irrespective of seniority, However, as of 2006 the lead partners are:
- Norman Foster
- Spencer de Grey
- David Nelson
- Graham Phillips
- Stefan Behling
- Grant Booker
- Nigel Dancey
- Iain Godwin
- Brandon Haw
- Paul Kalkhoven
- Mouzhan Majidi
- Mark Sutcliffe
Another highly influential partner for most of the practice's history was Ken Shuttleworth who was the inspiration behind many of their most famous designs, including: 30 St Mary Axe, the Greater London Authority Building, Hong Kong International Airport and the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt.
Shuttleworth's somewhat shy and retiring character meant that he was more than happy to avoid the limelight and let the firm take full credit for his designs — and in truth these highly technical buildings require the input from a large team of individuals and no one person can take all the credit, However at the end of 2003, after nearly 30 years of work, Shuttleworth left Foster and Partners to establish his own practice, MAKE.
Selected projects
Major projects, by year of completion are:- Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK (1978)
- HSBC Tower (1986)
- Terminal building at Stansted Airport, UK (1991)
- Faculty of Law, Cambridge (1995)
- Metro of Bilbao, Spain (1995) — Line 2 (2004)
- American Air Museum, Imperial War Museum Duxford, UK (1997) — Stirling Prize
- Clyde Auditorium, part of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre complex, Glasgow, UK (1997)
- Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, Germany (1997)
- Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong (1998)
- Canary Wharf Underground Station, London, UK (1999)
- Reichstag redevelopment in Berlin (1999)
- Millennium Bridge in London (1999/2002)
- Redevelopment of the Great Court of the British Museum (2000)
- London City Hall (2002)
- 30 St Mary Axe, London — Swiss Re headquarters (2004) — Stirling Prize
- Millau Viaduct, the highest road bridge in the world (2004)
- The Sage Gateshead, UK (2004)
- MoorHouse, 117 London Wall, London (projected 2005)
- Wembley Stadium redevelopment (projected 2005)
- Beijing Airport — under construction
- New Supreme Court Building, Singapore (2005)
- Jameson House, Vancouver — (2007)
- Hearst Tower, New York City, New York (June 2006)
See also
External links
- [Practice web site]
- [Newspaper article] on Shuttleworth's influence.
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