2008 in architecture

The year 2008 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Events

• June 20 – The Architects (Recognition of European Qualifications etc and Saving and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2008 comes into force in the UK.
• July 8 – The first in Francesco da Mosto's television series Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage is broadcast.
• October 2 – The William L. Slayton House, designed by I. M. Pei, is listed in the US National Register of Historic Places.^[1]
• October - The inaugural World Architecture Festival is held in Barcelona.
• 23 Marina complex is a residential skyscraper currently under construction in Dubai. The tower is set to have 89 floors and will rise to 395 m (1,296 feet). When this supertall building is complete in 2008, it will bring back the title of the world's tallest residential tower back to Dubai, taking the title from the Q1 Tower in Gold Coast, Queensland. However, its reign as the world's tallest residential tower will not last for long, as Princess Tower, another building in the same city, is scheduled to take the title in 2009.

Buildings opened

Beijing National Stadium

• January 1 – China Central Television Headquarters building, by Rem Koolhaas and OMA, officially opens in Beijing
• January 12 – New Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station officially inaugurated.
• March 26 – Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport opens, designed by Foster + Partners.
• March 27 – London Heathrow Terminal 5 opens, by the Richard Rogers Partnership, now Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
• April 12 – New National Opera House opens in Oslo.
• April – Maggie's Centre in London, a drop-in cancer care centre designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, opens (Stirling Prize 2009).
• June – Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, designed by Daniel Libeskind, opened.
• June 25 – Bridge of Strings (Jerusalem Chords Bridge), designed by Santiago Calatrava, inaugurated.
• June 28 – Beijing National Stadium designed by Herzog & de Meuron (known as the "Bird's Nest"), opened for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
• August 1 – Beijing South Railway Station designed by Terry Farrell, opened.
• September 27 – California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, designed by Renzo Piano.

Curve

• November 11 – Curve (theatre) in Leicester, England, designed by Rafael Viñoly, is opened.
• November 20 – Peter B. Lewis Library at Princeton University, by Frank Gehry, officially dedicated.
• November 22 – Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, in Qatar, designed by I. M. Pei, is officially opened.^[2]

Buildings completed

• January 28 – Beijing National Aquatics Center, known as the "Water Cube", in readiness for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
• August 28 – Shanghai World Financial Center in Pudong, Shanghai, China, designed by William Pedersen.
• November – Transformation AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) renovation by Frank Gehry.
• date unknown
  • Mountain Dwellings, Copenhagen, Denmark, designed by Bjarke Ingels.
  • Linked Hybrid, a nine-tower high-rise housing project by Steven Holl Architects, in Beijing, China.
  • 459 West 18th Street, Manhattan, a high-rise condominium designed by Della Valle + Bernheimer.
  • Torre Caja Madrid (Caja Madrid Tower), Spain, designed by Foster and Partners.
  • Westside shopping and leisure complex, Bern, Switzerland, designed by Daniel Libeskind.

Awards

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal – Richard Meier
• AIA Gold Medal – Renzo Piano (Italy).
• Architecture Firm Award – KieranTimberlake Associates.
• Driehaus Architecture Prize – Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.
• Emporis Skyscraper Award – Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
• Grand Prix de l'urbanisme – David Mangin.
• Lawrence Israel Prize - AvroKO
• LEAF Award, Grand Prix – schmidt hammer lassen for Performers House
• Praemium Imperiale Architecture Award – Peter Zumthor.
• Pritzker Prize – Jean Nouvel.
• Rome Prize for architecture - Frederick B. Fisher
• RAIA Gold Medal – Richard Johnson.
• Royal Gold Medal – Edward Cullinan.
• Stirling Prize – Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios & Alison Brooks Architects & Maccreanor Lavington.
• Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture – Gro Harlem Brundtland.
• Twenty-five Year Award – The Atheneum.
• UIA Gold Medal – Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon.
• Vincent Scully Prize – Robert A. M. Stern.

Births

Deaths

• January 1 – Harald Deilmann, German architect (born 1920)
• January 30 – Fernando Higueras, Spanish architect (born 1930)
• March 5 – Nader Khalili, Iranian architect, writer, and humanitarian (born 1936)
• March 24 – Victor Christ-Janer, American modernist architect (born 1915)
• March 29 – Ralph Rapson, American architect (born 1914)
• March 31 – David Todd, American architect (born 1915)
• May 30 – Rodney Gordon, English architect (born 1933)
• June 15 – Walter Netsch, American architect (born 1920)
• July 6 – George Tibbits, Australian composer and architect (born 1933)
• September 18 – Abdur Rahman Hye, Pakistani architect (born 1919)
• November 14 – Sir Bernard Feilden, English conservation architect (born 1919)
• November 29 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect (born 1918)

References