Richard Rogers

Rogers was perhaps best known for his work on the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Lloyd's building and Millennium Dome, both in London, the Senedd building, in Cardiff, and the European Court of Human Rights building, in Strasbourg. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal, the Thomas Jefferson Medal, the RIBA Stirling Prize, the Minerva Medal, and the 2007 Pritzker Prize.

• Honorific Prefix — The Right Honourable • Name — The Lord Rogers of Riverside • Birth Name — Richard George Rogers • Born — 23 July 1933 • Birthplace — Florence, Tuscany, Italy • Died — 18 December 2021 • Place of death — London, England • Education — * Architectural Association • Yale School of Architecture • Practice — RSHP (2007–2020) • Significant Buildings — * Centre Georges Pompidou • Lloyd's building (Grade I) • Millennium Dome • European Court of Human Rights • Madrid–Barajas Airport terminal 4 • Heathrow Terminal 5 • Senedd, Cardiff • Significant Projects — * Towards an Urban Renaissance • Grand Paris • Awards — * RIBA Gold Medal (1985) • Knight Bachelor (1991) • Thomas Jefferson Medal (1999) • Praemium Imperiale (2000) • Stirling Prize (2006, 2009) • Minerva Medal (2007) • Pritzker Prize (2007) • HonFREng (2005) • Children — 5, including Roo

• Illustration — The Lloyd's Building in London at night Richard Rogers was born in Florence, Tuscany, in 1933 into an Anglo-Italian family. His father, William Nino Rogers (1906–1993), was Jewish, and was the cousin of Italian Jewish architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers. His Jewish ancestors moved from Sunderland to Venice in about 1800, later settling in Trieste, Milan and Florence. In October 1938, William Nino Rogers came back to England, having fled Fascist Italy and anti-Jewish laws under Mussolini. Upon moving to England, Richard Rogers went to St John's School, Leatherhead. Rogers did not excel academically, which made him believe that he was "stupid because he could not read or memorise his school work" and as a consequence, he said, he became "very depressed". He could not read until he was 11, and it was not until after he had his first child that Rogers realised he was dyslexic. After leaving St Johns School, he undertook a foundation course at Epsom School of Art (now the University for the Creative Arts) before going into National Service between 1951 and 1953. He then attended the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, where he gained the Architectural Association's Diploma (AA Dipl) from 1954 until 1959, subsequently graduating with a master's degree (M Arch) from the Yale School of Architecture in 1962 on a Fulbright Scholarship. While studying at Yale, Rogers met fellow architecture student Norman Foster and planning student Su Brumwell. After leaving Yale he joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York City. On returning to England in 1963, he, Norman Foster and Brumwell set up architectural practice as Team 4 with Wendy Cheesman (Brumwell later married Rogers, Cheesman married Foster). Rogers and Foster earned a reputation for what was later termed by the media high-tech architecture. By 1967, Team 4 had split up, but Rogers continued to collaborate with Su Rogers, along with John Young and Laurie Abbott. In early 1968 he was commissioned to design a house and studio for Humphrey Spender near Maldon, Essex, a glass cube framed with I-beams. He continued to develop his ideas of prefabrication and structural simplicity to design a Wimbledon house for his parents. This was based on ideas from his conceptual Zip-Up House. Rogers subsequently joined forces with Italian architect Renzo Piano, a partnership that was to prove fruitful. His career leapt forward when he, Piano and Gianfranco Franchini won the design competition for the Pompidou Centre in July 1971, alongside a team from Ove Arup that included Irish engineer Peter Rice.

After working with Piano, Rogers established the Richard Rogers Partnership along with Marco Goldschmied, Mike Davies, and John Young in 1977. This became Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in 2007. The firm maintains offices in London, Shanghai, and Sydney. Rogers devoted much of his later career to wider issues surrounding architecture, urbanism, sustainability, and the ways in which cities are used. One early illustration of his thinking was an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1986, entitled "London As It Could Be", which also featured the work of James Stirling and Rogers's former partner Norman Foster. This exhibition made public a series of proposals for transforming a large area of central London, subsequently dismissed as impractical by the city's authorities. • Illustration — The Pompidou Centre in Paris In 1995, he became the first architect to deliver the BBC's annual Reith Lectures. This series of five talks, titled Sustainable City, were later adapted into the book Cities for a Small Planet (Faber and Faber: London 1997). The BBC made these lectures available to the public for download in July 2011. In 1998, he set up the Urban Task Force at the invitation of the British government, to help identify causes of urban decline and establish a vision of safety, vitality, and beauty for Britain's cities. This work resulted in a white paper, Towards an Urban Renaissance, outlining recommendations for future city designers. Rogers also served for several years as chair of the Greater London Authority panel for Architecture and Urbanism. He was chair of the board of Trustees of The Architecture Foundation. From 2001 to 2008, he was chief advisor on architecture and urbanism to the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone. In 2008, he was asked to continue on in his role as an advisor by the then new mayor Boris Johnson. He stood down from the post in October 2009. Rogers also served as an advisor to two mayors of Barcelona on urban strategies. Amidst this extra-curricular activity, Rogers continued to create controversial and iconic works. Perhaps the most famous of these, the Millennium Dome, was designed by the Rogers practice in conjunction with engineering firm Buro Happold and completed in 1999. It was the subject of fierce political and public debate over the cost and contents of the exhibition it contained; the building itself cost £43 million. In May 2006, Rogers's practice was chosen as the architect of Tower 3 of the new World Trade Center in New York City, replacing the old World Trade Center which was destroyed in the September 11 attacks. Rogers resigned his directorship of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners on 30 June 2020. The Rogers name was removed from the practice by 2022 as was required by the founding constitution, however the practice was renamed RSHP in June 2022, retaining Rogers' initial.

• Creek Vean, Cornwall, UK (1963–1966) • Reliance Controls electronics factory, Swindon, UK (1967) • Jaffe House (also known as Skybreak House), Humphrey Spender's house, Radlett, Hertfordshire, UK (1965–1966) • Wates Housing, Coulsdon, Surrey, UK (1965) • Murray Mews, Camden, London, UK (1966)

• 22 Parkside (Dr. Nino and Dada Rogers's house), Wimbledon, London, UK (1967) • Zip-Up House (1967–69) • The Studio, Ulting, Maldon, Essex, UK (1968–1969)

• Universal Oil Products, Tadworth, UK (1969–1974) • B&B Italia headquarters, Como, Italy (1972–1973) • Pompidou Centre, Paris, France (1971–77) • IRCAM, Paris, France (1971–1977) • PA Consulting Group's Research Laboratory, Melbourn, UK (1976–1983)

• Illustration — Madrid-Barajas Airport terminal 4

• Illustration — London Heathrow Terminal 5 • Illustration — Maggie's Centre, London • Illustration — Central Park Station (R9), Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. • Illustration — Las Arenas, Barcelona • Illustration — One Hyde Park, London • Illustration — International Towers Sydney • Illustration — Parc1 Tower, Seoul

In February 2006, Rogers hosted the inaugural meeting of the campaigning organisation Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) in his London offices. At that time his practice had secured a number of projects in New York, including the redevelopment of the Silvercup Studios site, a masterplan for the East River Waterfront and a commission for a $1.7 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre in Manhattan. Rogers, however, publicly dissociated himself from the group within weeks, following an outcry from generally pro-Israel New York politicians, which threatened him with the loss of prestigious commissions including projects in New York and abroad. He announced his withdrawal with the statement, "I unequivocally renounce Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine and have withdrawn my relationship with them."

Rogers was married to Ruth Rogers, chef and owner of The River Café restaurant in west London. They had two sons together, Roo and Bo (deceased 2011). Rogers also had three sons, Ben, Zad and Ab, from his first marriage to Su Brumwell. He had fourteen grandchildren and a younger brother, Peter William Rogers, a property developer and co-founder of Stanhope. In 2015, he was named one of the "50 best-dressed British men" by GQ magazine. He died in London on 18 December 2021, at the age of 88.

Rogers is mentioned (along with fellow architect Philip Johnson) in the song "Thru These Architect's Eyes" on the album Outside (1995) by David Bowie. Rogers is mentioned in the song "Anti-Everything" by British band Mansun, from the album Six (1998).