1959 in architecture

The year 1959 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Events

• Boardman Hall at Cornell University, designed by William Henry Miller and built in 1892, is demolished

Buildings and structures

Buildings opened

• May 3 – Birmingham Museum of Art (new building), Birmingham, Alabama, by Warren, Knight & Davis.
• October 21 – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Buildings completed

• Basilica of Candelaria, Tenerife, Canary Islands, designed by architect José Enrique Marrero Regalado.
• Case Study House #21: Bailey House and #22: Stahl House, by architect Pierre Koenig.
• Zigzag House, Sarasota, Florida, designed by architect Tollyn Twitchell.
• 6 Bacon's Lane, Highgate, London, designed by architect Leonard Manasseh for himself.
• Chase Tower, Detroit, Michigan, designed by Albert Kahn Associates.
• Kariba Dam completed between Zambia and Zimbabwe on the Zambezi River.
• The Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, Australia.
• Ten Great Buildings project completed in Beijing, China.
• Bracken House, the Financial Times headquarters in the City of London, designed by Sir Albert Richardson.
• , Brayford Pool, Lincoln, England, designed by Sam Scorer of Denis Clarke Hall, Scorer and Bright; engineer Dr K. Hajnal-Kónyi.
• Pride Cleaners, Chicago, designed by Gerald Siegwart.
• National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, designed by Le Corbusier.
• Finmere Church of England Primary School, England, designed by Mary and David Medd.

Awards

• AIA Gold Medal – Walter Gropius.
• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Births

• October 10 – Maya Lin, American designer and artist
• October 10 – Michael Maltzan, American architect
• Jacques Ferrier, French architect
• Lorcan O'Herlihy, Irish-born architect working in the United States

Deaths

• February 23 – Gordon Wilson, Australian-born New Zealand government architect (born 1900)
• April 9 – Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect (born 1867)

References