Rafael Viñoly

Rafael Viñoly (born 1944) is a Uruguayan-born architect living in the United States.

Biography

He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to Román Viñoly Barreto, (a film and theater director) and Maria Beceiro (a mathematics teacher).

He grew up and was educated in Argentina. He attended the University of Buenos Aires, receiving a Diploma in Architecture in 1968 and a Master of Architecture from the School of Architecture and Urbanism in 1969.

In 1964, he formed the Estudio de Arquitectura with six associates. This practice would eventually become one of the largest architectural practices in South America, completing many significant commissions in a very short time.

In 1978 Viñoly and his family relocated to the United States. For a brief period he served as a guest lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, settling permanently in New York City in 1979.

He founded the firm Rafael Viñoly Architects PC in 1983. His first major project in New York was the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which was completed in 1988. In 1989, he won an international competition to design the Tokyo International Forum. Completed in 1996, many people consider this building to be the most important cultural complex in Japan. His firm's design was one of the finalists in the World Trade Center design competition.

During the course of his forty-plus year career, Viñoly has practiced in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. His firm has realized unprecedented growth over the past few years, expanding to include affiliate offices in London and Los Angeles as well as site offices around the world, including the newest in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Bahrain.

Rafael Viñoly is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and a member of the Japan Institute of Architects as well as the Sociedad Central de Arquitectos.

Honors and Awards

• Design Honor, Salvadori Center, 2007
• International Fellow, The Royal Institute of British Architects, 2006
• National Design Award Finalist, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, 2004
• Honorary Doctorate, University of Maryland, 1997
• Medal of Honor, American Institute of Architects, New York City Chapter, 1995
• National Academician, The National Academy, 1994

Design Philosophy

“Architecture is a dialogue with the forces of life. As a major form of social intervention, its essential responsibility is to elevate the public realm. In every project, I seek to maximize the opportunity for civic investment with a goal of forming iconic works that fulfill the needs of the client. For me, this makes architecture the most unique form of artistic endeavor.

My design philosophy is rooted in the development of architectural ideas that are powerful, distinctive, and relevant to the specifics of both program and context. This assures that each project receives a unique interpretation rather than a premeditated solution based on a specific architectural vocabulary. I also focus on the integration of structural systems that complement the design idea, ensuring the synthesis of engineering with architectural form.

My longstanding commitment to design excellence, practiced over 45 years, is particularly evident in the success of our firm’s many civic initiatives, which demonstrate our ability to creatively integrate buildings into contextual urban sites and to work within larger master plans. However, our global work spans nearly every architectural typology, each one delivered with equal passion and commitment to purpose.”

Buildings

Completed

• Lehman College Physical Education Facility, Bronx, New York, 1994
• Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan, 1996
• Bronx Housing Court, Bronx, New York, 1997
• Princeton University Stadium, Princeton, New Jersey, 1998
• Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, New York, 2000
• The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2001
• Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2002
• Brown University, Watson Institute for International Studies, Providence, Rhode Island, 2002
• Pennsylvania State University, Information Sciences and Technology Building, State College, Pennsylvania, 2003
• David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2003
• Princeton University, Carl Icahn Laboratory, Lewis Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton, New Jersey, 2004
• University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Chicago, Illinois, 2004
• Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Boston, Massachusetts, 2004
• National Institutes of Health, John Edward Porter Neurosciences Research Center, Bethesda, Maryland, 2004
• Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, New York, 2004
• Duke University, Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina, 2005
• Mahler 4 Office Tower, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2005
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia, 2006
• Wageningen University and Research Centre, Atlas Building, Wageningen, Netherlands, 2006
• Bard College, The Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 2007
• Bronx County Hall of Justice, Bronx, New York, 2007
• University of California Los Angeles, California NanoSystems Institute, Los Angeles, California, 2007
• Curve (theatre), Leicester [1], Leicester, England, 2008
• Fortabat Museum, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, 2008

In Progress

• Edificio Acqua, Punta del Este, Uruguay, 2008 [2]
• Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, 2008
• University of Pennsylvania Health System, Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2008
• Brooklyn Children's Museum, Brooklyn, New York, 2008 (expansion)
• firstsite:newsite Colchester Visual Arts Facility, Colchester, England, 2009
• New Terminal at Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay, 2009
• City College of New York School of Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape Architecture, New York, 2009
• University of California San Francisco Institute for Regeneration Medicine Building, San Francisco, California, 2010
• University of Oxford Mater Plan and Mathematics Institute, Oxford, England, 2010
• The Gateway, Al Raha Beach Development, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2010
• South Texas Research Facility, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, 2010
• 20 Fenchurch Street, City of London, England, 2011
• University of Chicago Medical Center New Hospital Pavilion, Chicago, Illinois, 2011
• University of Arizona Science Center, Tucson, Arizona, 2011
• 121st Police Precinct Stationhouse, Staten Island, New York
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, 2012 (expansion)
• Mina Zayed Waterfront Development, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2012
• Claremont McKenna College, Kravis Center, Claremont, California
• The New Stanford Hospital, Stanford, California, 2015
• Battersea Power Station, London, England, 2020

References

1. Hilary Lewis and Roman Viñoly, THINK NEW YORK A Ground Zero Diary ISBN 1920744746
2. Rafael Viñoly, The Making of Public Space: 1997 John Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture ISBN 1891197002

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rafael Viñoly

• Rafael Viñoly Architects PC
• Battersea Power Station