1977 in architecture

The year 1977 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Buildings and structures

Buildings

• January 1 – The Hilton Budapest hotel, designed by Béla Pintér, is opened.
• January 31 – The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, designed by Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini, is opened.
• February 28 – The 'Beehive', New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, designed by government architect Fergus Sheppard and W. M. Angus to a concept by Basil Spence, first stage officially opened.
• March – Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, designed by John C. Portman Jr., is inaugurated.
• April 19 – Yale Center for British Art gallery, designed by Louis Kahn (died 1974), opens to the public in New Haven, Connecticut, United States.
• Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, designed by Norman Foster.
• Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in Iran, designed by Kamran Diba, is inaugurated.
• to Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava, designed by , is completed.
• 30 Cannon Street in the City of London, England, designed by engineers Whinney, Son & Austen Hall with Ove Arup & Partners, is completed for Crédit Lyonnais.
• The Citigroup Center at 601 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, is completed; its structural engineer William LeMessurier subsequently discovers it is vulnerable to extreme wind conditions and clandestine retrospective strengthening is carried out.
• The Fernmeldeturm Nürnberg in Nürnberg, Germany is completed.
• The MLC Centre in Sydney, Australia is completed and opened.
• The Torre Espacial in Buenos Aires, Argentina is completed.
• The Silberturm in Frankfurt am Main, Germany is completed.
• The Shell Centre (Calgary) in Calgary, Alberta
• The Dome Tower, Calgary and Home Oil Tower, Calgary in Calgary
• The Harbour Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is completed.
• The Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan is completed.
• Penton Street flats in Islington, London, designed by John Melvin.
• Cube houses in the Netherlands, designed by Piet Blom, built in Helmond and designed for Rotterdam.
• The rose window of Lancing College Chapel in England, designed by Stephen Dykes Bower, is completed.

Awards

• AIA Gold Medal – Richard Neutra (posthumous)
• Architecture Firm Award – Sert Jackson and Associates
• Grand prix national de l'architecture – Paul Andreu; Roland Simounet
• RAIA Gold Medal – Ronald Gilling
• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Denys Lasdun
• Twenty-five Year Award – Christ Lutheran Church

Publications

• A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein.
• The Language of Postmodern Architecture by Charles Jencks.

Births

• December 21 – Michel Abboud, Lebanese-born architect

Deaths

• March 5 – Herman Munthe-Kaas, Norwegian functionalist architect (born 1890)
• August 25 – Károly Kós, Hungarian architect, writer, illustrator, ethnologist and politician (born 1883)
• December 23 – Raymond McGrath, Australian-born architect, illustrator and interior designer working in Ireland (born 1903)
• Genia Averbuch, Israeli architect (born 1909)

References