Once again STS has employed our unique formula to determine a hierarchy of the best architects ever to ply their elevated trade.

Taking the top names from ten other compilations, formulated by much more learned and architecturally proficient analysts than ourselves, we have awarded each name a points score based on their top ten rankings in each list.

The result is ten names who will need no introduction and will be very familiar to any student of architectonics!

Every one of these names is either still in the process of burnishing their credentials or has left a lasting legacy through their vision and accomplishments.

Doubtless, some people reading this blog will feel that their own favourite maestro should feature in the final compilation, and if this is so, we acknowledge that your nominee could well stake a claim.

However, we can only go by the general consensus on who aspires to the top table of the architectural pantheon, and we publish our findings accordingly.

No.1

Frank Lloyd Wright

(June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959)

Top of the table: Four times out of Ten

STS overall score: 82

His name is synonymous with everything that is iconic about the Architectural world.

His projects are parabolic, and his legend crossed over into popular culture when Simon & Garfunkel recorded a song about him in their 1970 Album Bridge Over Troubled Water.

The quintessential American architect, designer, writer, and educator, Frank Lloyd Wright was raised in rural Wisconsin.

A colourful character, his personal life was not without controversy.

Having studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin, he served his apprenticeship in Chicago, initially with Joseph Lyman Silsbee, and then with Louis Sullivan at Adler & Sullivan.

Going on to establish a successful practice of his own in Chicago in 1893, he gained increasing fame and fortune but struggled to maintain harmony at home.

Having left his first wife Catherine Tobin for Mamah Cheney in 1909, he endured the unimaginable horror of her being Murdered (along with her two children and four other people) at his Taliesin estate to the south of Green Spring, Wisconsin in 1914.

At the time of this horrific event, Wright was overseeing his project at the Midway Gardens in Chicago.

Subsequently, he married Miriam Noel, which resulted in a tempestuous relationship that lasted from 1923 to 1927 before marrying Olgivanna Lazović in 1928, a marriage that survived until his death.

A key player in the architectural movements of the 20th century, Wright was a great inspiration to his architectural fellows worldwide and was responsible for the development of hundreds of apprentices through his Taliesin Fellowship.

His belief in the necessity to harmonize design with humanity and the environment informed his remarkable style.

This philosophy, which he called organic architecture resulted in iconic structures such as Fallingwater, a creation that has been named "the best all-time work of American architecture".

He designed in excess of 1000 edifices over a remarkable 70 years of creativity, including unique and innovative churches, hotels, museums, offices, schools, and skyscrapers.

He pioneered a program that came to be recognized as the Prairie School movement of architecture. He also envisioned the concept of the Usonian home in Broadacre City, the embodiment of his ideal for urban planning in the United States.

The author of several books and numerous articles, he was an acclaimed lecturer throughout the United States and Europe.

Wright was distinguished in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time".

An assortment of his greatest works gained World Heritage Site status in 2019.

https://franklloydwright.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Frank_Lloyd_Wright_works

No.2

Frank Gehry

(Born: February 28th 1929)

Top of the table: Zero times out of Ten (he came second twice)

STS overall score: 56

Born in Toronto, Canada, Frank Gehry is universally recognised to be among the most influential and revered personalities in modern architecture.

As a teenager, he moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1947, the city he still calls home today.

He embarked on his career in an unconventional manner, attending a course on Architecture at Los Angeles College, initially on a whim!

Going on to graduate from the University of Southern California, he had an unsuccessful stint at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, followed by a year’s study in Paris, before returning to LA and establishing Gehry Associates.

Initially influenced by the European Modernist Style of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus, Gehry developed a keen interest in the LA Avant Garde art scene thriving around Venice Beach and Santa Monica areas, a fascination which proved pivotal in the creation of his own style and unique vision.

He had his initial breakthrough in the late 1970s when he renovated his own home, now known as the Gehry Residence.

This unconventional project gained widespread attention and propelled Gehry onto an upward trajectory that by the end of the 1980s saw him established as a key figure on the international architecture forum.

His reputation was cemented as a result of being awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989.

He is renowned for his Statement Style which confronts preconceived conceptions around aesthetics and form and has resulted in the building of some structures that are considered to be both contestably controversial whilst strikingly superlative!

Among these is the celebrated Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (completed in 1997), which is widely recognized as a defining building of the 20th Century!

The expression ‘Bilbao effect’ stemmed from the opening of this building and describes the socio-economic benefits that the city has subsequently enjoyed!

Another masterpiece is the iconic Dancing House in Prague, built in 1996.

https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/rtf-fresh-perspectives/a901-10-things-you-did-not-know-about-dancing-house-prague/

Image: https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/

It has been said that his works are “bold statements that have imposed a new aesthetic of architecture on the world”.

Still active at the ripe old age of 93, Gehry remarked in a recent interview:

“I take on projects when I feel comfortable with the client and relationship. I don’t take everything that comes our way. The project also has to be something I’m interested in………..projects I think have a good social impact. I take on commissions that have to do with art or music or philanthropy and that help to make the world a better place”. (Barbara Isenberg).

As an interesting side note, Gehry had this to say about Frank Lloyd Wright:

“I loved……….Frank Lloyd Wright. I didn’t like (his) politics, and so although I had three opportunities to meet him, I didn’t, and I regret it” (Barbara Isenberg).

No.3

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

(27th March 1886-17th August 1969)

Top of the table: Once out of 10

STS overall score: 55

Slipping into third place, one point adrift of Frank Gehry, Mies van der Rohe is the marmite architect of the United States (according to Dr Jackie Craven who writes)

“The United States has a love-hate relationship with Mies van der Rohe. Some say he stripped architecture of all humanity, creating cold, sterile, and unliveable environments. Others praise his work, saying he created architecture in its most pure form.”

https://www.thoughtco.com/mies-van-der-rohe-neo-miesian-177427

Born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies, in Aachen, Germany, he changed his name to coincide with the opening of his design studio in Berlin in 1912, Adopting his mother’s maiden name van der Rohe.

Starting out by working in the family stone carving company with his master mason father, he found employment as a draughtsman in the offices of some local architects in his teenage years.

In 1905, at the age of 19 Mies (as he became to be universally known) moved to Berlin and obtained a placement with the firm of architect and furniture designer Bruno Paul and industrial architect Peter Behrens.

Mies served in the forces during the first world war, building bridges and roads in the Balkans.

On his return to Berlin in 1918, he discovered that the fall of the German monarchy and the birth of the democratic Weimar Republic had helped to inspire a prodigious burst of new creativity among modernist artists and architects, and he enthusiastically embraced and involved himself in this movement.

As his career blossomed Mies assumed the office of director of the renowned Bauhaus School of Design in 1930 (the third, and last, after Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer).

This pioneering establishment, a champion of modernist art, design, and architecture fell foul of the Nazi’s vehement opposition to modernist ideology which resulted in its closure in 1933.

Emigrating to the United States in 1937, Mies accepted an post as director of architecture at a Chicago architectural school, the Armour Institute, an establishment that today is the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

He occupied this position from 1938 to 1958, and with his philosophy that less is more, Mies van der Rohe embarked on a program to design and build rational, minimalist skyscrapers, houses, and furniture.

He is credited, along with the Swiss Architect Le Corbusier and his Viennese counterpart Richard Nuetra with setting the standard for all modernist design and for importing European modernism to America.

Carrying his ideals of simplicity in design to new levels, Mies constructed such eminent edifices as the controversial glass-walled Farnsworth House near Chicago, and (in partnership Philip Johnson) what is considered to be America’s first glass skyscraper, the Seagram Building in New York City.

Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe (1946-1951)
Victor Grigas - Own work

His less is more mantra became one of the guiding principles for architects in the mid-20th Century, with the result that many of the world’s skyscraper have been built adopting this concept.

Mies created a style that was extreme in both its simplicity and clarity. His goal was to achieve a formula that balanced a minimal framework of structural order with the implied freedom of unobstructed free-flowing open space.

He named this approach "skin and bones" architecture.

At the age of 83, Mies van der Rohe died at Chicago’s Wesley Memorial Hospital, having done so much to transform the field of architectural output and bring what is now known as the International Style to the fore!

The Encyclopaedia Britannica summed up the extent of his influence as follows:

“Although Mies attracted a great number of disciples, his indirect influence was perhaps of even greater importance. He is the only modern architect who formulated a genuinely contemporary and universally applicable architectural canon, and office buildings all over the world echo his concepts”.

Among the more notable building designs by Mies include:

1928-29: Barcelona Pavilion
1950: The Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois
1951: Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago
1956: Crown Hall, Chicago
1958: Seagram Building, New York (with Philip Johnson)
1959-74: Federal Center, Chicago

No.4

Antoni Gaudi

(25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926)

Top of the table: 3 times out of ten.

STS overall score: 51

Firmly established in fourth place in the STS rankings, Antoni Gaudi was born in Reus (Tarragona) on the Mediterranean coast of Spain in 1852.

The son of a coppersmith, his humble origins and health issues (he suffered from a number of ailments including arthritis) did not stand in the way of his architectural aspirations and signs of his early promise secured a position where he could begin to learn his trade in earnest when he was 17.

Having undergone Architectural training at the Provincial School of Barcelona, he went on to work (following a delayed graduation due to non-combatant military service) with Josep Fontseré on the church of Montserrat and the Cascade in the Parque de la Ciudadela park in Barcelona.

His first major undertaking was La Casa Vicens and this project along with the construction of a villa in Comilla’s (Santander) in 1883, "El capricho" clearly demonstrated the influence of Moorish Architecture.

It was his becoming a protégé of Catalan architect Joan Martorell that proved to be the catalyst to a change of direction, one that led him to embark on what was to become his defining work!

He commenced his momentous endeavour, the Sagrada Familia Church, in 1883, and dedicated the next 43 years to it!

This unfinished monument is the most visited in Spain, drawing around 5 million visitors annually.

Since Gaudi’s death in 1926 after being hit by a trolly car (his remains are in the crypt) the work has continued on this masterpiece of modernism.

It was hoped that completion would be achieved in conjunction with his centenary in 2026, but it seems that the interruption cause by the COVID19 pandemic has scuppered the chances of this aspiration coming to fruition!

With 18 magnificent spires, this remarkable basilica surely ranks among the most famous landmarks in the world.

In conjunction with this monumental enterprise, he designed the Güell Park, and the Casa Batlló which among his many other works stand out as striking examples of his craft. He confined his work almost exclusively to the Barcelona area.

The intensifying of his Roman Catholic faith is said to have increasingly guided his architectural philosophy, and this is borne out by the many religious images that appear in his works.

His other globally recognised building is the Casa Mila (La Pedrera), another showcasing of his extraordinary imagination.

Combining the unusual with the beautiful, this unique house was completed in 1912.

UNESCO designated seven of his works as World Heritage Sites between 1984 and 2005.

His uniquely individualized work continues to attract admiration worldwide and remains a popular and illuminating study for aspiring architects.

A true colossus of the architectural world, Gaudi’s graduation ceremony was not auspicious. Achieving only average grades his school director was moved to comment “We have given this academic title either to a fool or a genius. Time will show.”

History has delivered its verdict and has proven that Gaudi was no fool!

The Unesco World Heritage Convention, works of Antoni Gaudi https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/320/gallery/ , is an enriching study!

No.5

Zaha Hadid

(31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016)

Top of the table: Once out of ten.

STS overall score: 38

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, the daughter of a high-ranking diplomat (he served as President of the National Democratic Party and, briefly, as Minister of Finance) in times when the city was regarded as cosmopolitan and liberal, Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid’s privileged childhood enabled her to enjoy the benefits of a first-class education and extensive world travel.

The latter was a major catalyst in defining her career of choice, which she once confirmed by commenting “When I was a child I travelled every summer with my parents, and my father made sure I went to every important building and museum in each city we visited. We’d go to new cities to learn about architecture, I think that’s what inspired my love of buildings.” Britannica

Having completed undergraduate studies in mathematics at the American University in Beirut, Hadid moved to London and enrolled at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1972, where she met (and later collaborated with) Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis.

Her quest to discover an alternative method to replace traditional architectural drawing led her to adopt painting as a design tool and abstraction as an investigative principle.

Influenced heavily by Suprematism and the Russian avant-garde, her goal was to "reinvestigate the aborted and untested experiments of Modernism [...] to unveil new fields of building." Serrazanetti, Francesca; Schubert, Matteo, eds. (2011). Zaha Hadid: Inspiration and Process in Architecture.

Described by the Guardian as “Queen of the Curve” her seminal works include the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics, the Broad Art Museum, Rome's MAXXI Museum, and the Guangzhou Opera House.

A number of projects she had designed were still under construction at the time of her death. These include the Daxing International Airport in Beijing, and the Al Wakrah Stadium in Qatar, which is to be used as a venue for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In 2004 she became the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, followed by the UK's most prestigious architectural award, the Stirling Prize, which was awarded to her in 2010 and 2011.

Made a Dame by Elizabeth II for services to architecture in 2012, she became the first woman to individually receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in February 2016, just prior to her tragic early death!

In 2008, Forbes ranked Zaha Hadid 69th on their list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" and she was named by Time as an influential thinker in the 2010 TIME 100 issue.

In September 2010 the New Statesman listed her at number 42 in its annual survey of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures” of that year.

On March 2016, at the age of 65, Zaha Hadid was being treated for Bronchitis in Miami when she suddenly died after suffering a severe heart attack.

This remarkable, multi-award-winning architect, artist, and fashion designer left a lasting legacy and the torch of her "famously extravagant" ethos is carried forward by her practice, one of the world’s most inventive studios, Zaha Hadid Architects!

Michael Kimmelman in his New York Times obituary wrote: “(her) soaring structures left a mark on skylines and imaginations around the world and in the process reshaped architecture for the modern age”.

https://www.zaha-hadid.com/

No.6

Eero Saarinen

(August 20th 1910 –September 1st 1961)

Top of the table: None (Came second once)

STS overall score: 32

Lauded as “The Architect Who Saw the Future” this man, who would challenge the accepted norms of American Architecture and bring in a whole new philosophy of exploration and experimentation to the field, was a driven character who endured a troubled relationship with his father and, as an after effect, was resented by his children for many years after his death for what they saw as his “emotional abandonment”!

Eero Saarinen was born in Kirkkonummi, Finland to Eliel and Loja Saarinen (née Louise Gesellius).

Eliel was an eminent Finnish Architect in his own right, while Loja was a famous weaver and sculptor.

The family moved to the United States in 1923, when Eero was 13.

Here Eliel continued his career, becoming a lecturer at the University of Michigan, and being commissioned to design a school complex which would later become Cranbrook Academy of Art, a facility he then went on to assume the presidency of.

Following her in her husband’s footsteps, Loja also found employment here and became the head of the Department of Weaving and Textile Design.

It was not surprising therefore that Eero would commence his learning at the Academy.

In a change of direction in 1929 however, Eero enrolled at the Academie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris training as a sculptor.

Returning to the United States in 1931, he attended Yale University, studying architecture.

On receiving a fellowship from this August Institution, Eero spent time from 1934 to 1935 broadening his knowledge and experience by traveling around Europe, before returning to America via Finland where he spent time in Helsinki working with Architect Jarl Eklun.

In 1936 he gained employment at the Flint Institute of Research and Planning in Flint, Michigan where he was tasked with conducting research on urban planning before joining his father's architectural firm in Bloomfield Hills in 1938.

Eero’s style was initially heavily influenced by Eliel and his adherence to the austere functionalism of the International Style, and father/son collaboration helped to implant this philosophy in American Architecture.

Eliel Saarinen and his son, Eero Saarinen, ca. 1941
Image: Cranbrook Archives. Courtesy of ADFF.

In his fathers’ latter years, however, Eero developed his own more artistic expression, skillfully utilizing standard materials to realise strikingly avant-garde effects, which are commonly referred to as neo-futurist.

In 1939 he married sculptor Lillian Swann, a union that produced two children, Eric and Susan.

Following a divorce in 1953, Eero went on to marry Aline Bernstein Loucheim, an art critic the following year and they had a son called Eames.

Among his more widely acclaimed works, the David S. Ingalls Rink at Yale, the TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport, and the Washington Dulles International Airport all showcase his distinctive talents, but it is his iconic St. Louis Gateway Arch that most sums up a fraught relationship with his father that translated over into his bond (or lack of) with own children.

The friction is summed up in the following account, a story based around the design of this most recognizable of American monuments.

(Eliel) …competed against his son to design the St. Louis Arch. When a telegram came to the office where both men worked, announcing that “E. Saarinen” had won the competition, everyone assumed the elder man was the victor. A three-day celebration ended when it was revealed that it was Eero, not Eliel, who had actually won the competition.

According to (Eero’s son) Eric, while many assumed that the father would be proud of his son’s accomplishments, Eliel was quietly bitter and resentful about his son’s success. With this family history, perhaps it’s not that shocking that Eero had so little time for his own children.

Eero was nothing if not completely dedicated to his chosen vocation. A workaholic, he once walked into an empty office at 8am demanding, “Where is everybody?” only to be informed that it was Christmas Day!

Known for his outwardly relaxed and informal manner Eero was, underneath the surface, absolutely addicted to Architecture, leaving room for little else in his life.

He died during an operation to remove a brain tumour, aged 51 in his home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, leaving many unfinished projects for his associates Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo to complete.

No.7

Phillip Johnson

(July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005)

Top of the table: None (Came 4th a couple of times)

STS overall score: 25

Born in Cleveland, Ohio to wealthy parents, (his father was the first legal counsel for Alcoa) Philip Cortelyou Johnson was to become a controversial figure who’s early enthusiasm for far-right politics earned him a reputation he spent many later years of his life seeking to shed.

Best known in his professional sphere for modern and postmodern architecture, Johnson was the brains behind such classics as the polemic Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, (a possible citation of a pogrom-ruined village as the inspiration for that building’s design has troubled more than a few commentators) the postmodern 550 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, (otherwise known as the AT&T Building); the Sculpture Garden of the Museum of Modern Art; the Chicago skyscraper 190 South La Salle Street; and the Pre-Columbian Pavilion at Dumbarton Oaks.

The AT&T Building, 550 Madison Avenue
Image: Wikimedia Commons

He was hugely influential, and his works "were widely considered among the architectural masterpieces of the 20th century." -to quote his obituary in the New York Times.

As Ian Vilner remarked in his Philip Johnson: A Visual Biography. “His legacy does not only lie in his bricks and mortar….contributions to the American landscape, but also in the way that (he), in his capacity as curator, client and socialite served as “both a maker of architecture and a maker of architects”,

**The Glass House**
**Image: Fast Company**

That this man finally managed to transcend the ignominies of his youthful indiscretions (he enthusiastically embraced a number of causes that would be viewed as totally abhorrent today) is testament to the greatness of his gift and the transformative effect it had.

For a man who once gave glowing reviews to Mein Kampf and made several visits to Nazi Germany (where on attending a rally to hear Hitler speak he expressed himself spellbound!), a man who was enthralled as an eyewitness of the invasion of Poland, and was investigated by the FBI, be described as a one who “more than any of his contemporaries….was able to influence the scope and direction of the American built environment” shows the extent of his emancipation.

Depending on your viewpoint, he either redeemed himself totally or a shadow still hangs over his name.

Either way, one can only take at face value his heartfelt words when he said of his much criticized past (it was) “the stupidest thing I ever did ... [which] I never can atone for".

Johnson was the very first recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1979, at the age of 73, the judges describing him as a producer of “consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the environment"

It was, however, in the years succeeding this accolade that Johnson burnished the bulk of his legacy, with a near total revamp of style, and becoming through his ever-widening patronage of, and influence over, the Global Architectural orbit the “midwife to the postmodern movement.” In the words of Volner.

Johnson died of natural causes, in New Canaan, Connecticut at the ripe old age of 98.

He is remembered as a venerated, if eristic character, who had been a pivotal driving force in the transformation of architecture into a form of high art!

No.8

Le Courbusier

Top of the table: None (His highest ranking was third)

STS overall score: 24

Slotting in at 8th, just one point adrift of Phillip Johnson, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and a key proponent of what is now regarded as modern architecture.

His career spanned five vivacious decades, and he worked on projects right across the globe, including works in Europe, Japan, India, and North and South America.

A founding member of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) Le Corbusier dedicated his energies to the providing of improved living conditions for the inhabitants of crowded cities and was a driving force in the development of urban planning.

He was born in La Chaux-de-Fond, In the Swiss Jura region, by then established as the world centre of precision watchmaking.

Leaving his primary school at the age of 13, Le Corbusier attended the École des Arts Décoratifs at La Chaux-de-Fonds in order to learn his father’s trade, the enamelling and engraving of watch faces. It was here he met the person he was later to describe as his only teacher, Charles L’Eplattenier, who taught him art history, drawing, and the naturalist aesthetics of Art Nouveau.

It was under L’Eplattenier’s tutelage that Le Corbusier, having completed three years of study, embarked on his first foray into Architecture, working on local projects.

His mentor then encouraged him to broaden his horizons, advising him to travel abroad and learn by exploring the architectural styles prevalent in other lands.

His voyages of discovery, spanning from 1907 to 1911, through Italy, Greece and the Balkan Peninsula provided inspiration and taught him valuable skills.

Returned to settle in Paris at the age of 30, Le Corbusier made the acquaintance of painter and designer Amédée Ozenfant, who wielded a strong influence over him and completed his ideological inculcation through an introduction to Purism.

It was a series of articles written for the L’Esprit Nouveau in collaboration with L’Eplattenier that was the catalyst for Charles-Édouard Jeanneret to change his name. Writing under the pseudonym of Le Corbusier, after a maternal forbear, the name stuck, and he became known by this sobriquet thereafter.

In 1926 Le Corbusier published his “five points of architecture,” “Les cinq points de l'architecture moderne” setting them out in the L’Esprit Nouveau, and in 1929 he built the Villa Savoye, which is a perfect exemplification of these principles.

The five points can be summed up thus:

1) Lift the building over Pilotis (supporting columns).

a. The walls should be freed of their structural function and the ground should be left clear to allow for vehicle movement or for the continuation of what nature already has on the surface for instance.

2) Free designing of the ground plan.

a. The floorplan of a building should be free of any structural constraints to enable partitioning to be planned unhinderedly, in any configuration.

3) The Free Facade.

a. The façade should be separate from any structural members. This approach makes it possible to build the walls in any design and out of any material.

4) The Horizontal Window.

a. The façade can be cut along its entire length (as there are no load-bearing considerations), to enable the installation of a window strip that distributes lighting evenly throughout the interior and increases the sense of space.

5) The Roof Garden.

a. The building should replace the space it disturbed on the ground by the development of a “garden in the sky”!

The overall effect of this revolutionary modular design system being put into practice was to allow an infinite number of planning combinations within the project.

This radical Architectural Manifesto has proved hugely influential and can be seen incorporated in the works of many other distinguished designers throughout the world.

This controversial colossus did not, however, escape some notoriety throughout his long and distinguished career.

He collected criticism for a perceived indifference to long standing cultural sites and equality in some of his ideas and developments and he allegedly had connections with the abhorrent ideologies of fascism, antisemitism, and eugenics.

He also drew disapprobation for his willingness to work with the Vichy Government in France during WW2, and for accepting an invitation to lecture in Rome from Benito Mussolini.

A prolific, if sometimes eristical scribe, who’s numerous publications would become required reading matter for aspiring architects, he is the author of such eminent works as Urbanisme (1925; The City of Tomorrow, 1929), Quand les cathédrales étaient blanches (1937; When the Cathedrals Were White, 1947), La Charte d’Athènes (1943), Propos d’urbanisme (1946), Les Trois Établissements humains (1945), and Le Modular I (1948; The Modular, 1954).

A list of his most famous works includes:

Unité d’habitation Marseille, France. Curutchet House, La Plata, Argentina Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France and the Chandigarh Capitol Complex, located in the city of Chandigarh, India.

https://www.dezeen.com/2014/09/15/le-corbusier-unite-d-habitation-cite-radieuse-marseille-brutalist-architecture/

Le Corbusier died suddenly, on August 27, 1965, whilst swimming at Cap Martin, France.

Now widely and retrospectively regarded as the most important architect of the 20th century, this man who believed order was the root of Modernism and coined the phrase “A house is a machine for living in.” inspired and influenced some of the world’s most powerful figures, leaving an indelible mark on architecture that can be observed in almost any city across the globe!

UNESCO designated seventeen Le Corbusier projects as World Heritage Sites on 17 July 2016. The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement.

No.9

Richard Rogers

(23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021)

Top of the table: None (His highest ranking was sixth)

STS overall score: 23

Image: François Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

Just a point behind Le Corbusier, Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside was an Italian born British Architect.

This radically innovative son of the Florence, Italy (born in an apartment with a view of the Duomo!) is highly esteemed for his modernist and functionalist designs in high-tech architecture.

The son of Nino Rogers, a Doctor (whose own father had emigrated to Italy to practice Dentistry) and his Wife Dada (a native of Trieste) and the daughter of an Architect, Rogers attributes the development of his Architectural style to his Italian roots.

The family having moved to Britain in 1939 to escape the rise of fascism, Rogers endured an initially miserable school life, which improved as he discovered a knack for sporting activities, developing a talent as a Boxer.

Having completed National Service between 1951 and 1953, he moved on to take a foundation course at the Epsom School of Art (now the University for the Creative Arts)

Commencing his professional studies at the Architectural Association in London.

It was while here that he met his first wife Su Brumwell (they married in 1960) and then crossed the Atlantic together in 1962 to enable Rogers to attend Yale University, where he graduated with a master’s degree in Architecture, on a Fullbright Scholarship.

Whilst studying here he met Norman Foster and was a student of Paul Rudolph.

On graduating, Rogers went to San Francisco and enjoyed a brief but useful position in the offices of the corporate firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Back in the UK again, Rogers, Brumwell, and Foster reconvened, along with Foster’s wife Wendy Cheesman, and set up a new practice named Team 4.

Their first commission was to design Creek Vean https://www.themodernhouse.com/journal/the-classics-creek-vean-pillwood-house/ which was to be the Cornish home of Brumwell’s Parents.

The quartet was not destined to last, however, and Rogers and his wife parted ways with their erstwhile partners, Rogers going on to form the Richard Rogers Partnership.

This practice later becoming Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners he remained a senior partner until June 2020.

He was perhaps best known for his work on the Pompidou Centre in Paris (in collaboration with Renzo Piano), 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.

The Pompidou Centre in Paris
Image-The Guardian

He is said to have changed the face of urban Britain more than any other architect of the late 20th century.

It was not so much his landmark projects that caused this impact, but more his sway over public policy, which saw a paradigm shift in the view of inner city living.

Ushering in an era of regeneration in for formerly blighted neighbourhoods, these areas of seemingly begrimed despondency were transformed into smart and modern living spaces, with canal side apartments and café lined courtyards!

He summed up his passionate desire to drive change in this sphere when he said.

“Everyone has the right to walk from one end of the city to the other in secure and beautiful spaces. Everybody has the right to go by public transport. Everybody has the right to an unhampered view down their street, not full of railings, signs, and rubbish.”

He was the recipient of many accolades and honours throughout his distinguished career, including a the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1985, a Knighthood in 1991, a Life Peerage in 1996, the Praemium Imperiale in 2000, the Stirling Prize in 2006 and 2009, the Pritzker Prize in 2007, and was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2008.

In 1995 he became the first architect to deliver the annual BBC Reith Lectures, a series of radio talks; which were subsequently published as Cities for a Small Planet in 1997.

Becoming the much-loved father of four sons and thirteen grandchildren, He married his second wife Ruth Rogers (nee Elias), the chef and owner of the River Cafe, in 1973.

They established a household that was to become a lively social hub and were amiable hosts of many a party or charitable event, much enjoyed at their sumptuous Georgian home on Royal Avenue in Chelsea, by their large circle of friends and acquaintances.

Following a period of Illness, Rogers passed away at home in London at the age of 88 leaving a remarkable and lasting legacy.

No.10

Norman Foster

(Born: June 1st 1935)

Top of the table: None (His highest ranking was fourth)

STS overall score: 18

Alternate titles: Lord Norman Foster of Thames Bank, Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank

Norman Foster is 87 years old.

AND

He is qualified and active as a pilot of both Jets and Helicopters!

He enjoys riding racing bicycles!

He is an enthusiastic petrolhead! (He has assembled a collection of the rarest automobiles ever made-including the Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic-production run: four!)

He has recently completed his twenty eighth cross country skiing marathon!

He has residences in (and is constantly moving between) the UK, Switzerland, Spain, and the United States!

Oh, and he’s also a world-famous Architect who has worked in every continent in the world except for Antarctica!

A man who retains a razor-sharp intellect, his Practice Foster + Partners https://www.fosterandpartners.com/ is the largest in the UK.

He created, and is President of, the Norman Foster Foundation, the Madrid based global body whose aims are to 'promote interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations of architects, designers, and urbanists to anticipate the future'. https://normanfosterfoundation.org/

This remarkably energetic and eminently capable octogenarian was born in Manchester, England, an only child of hardworking parents who toiled for long hours to keep bread on the table.

As a youngster growing up obsessed with Automobiles and Aircraft (he signed up for the Royal Air Force at 18) Foster spent his early years in the Manchester suburb of Levenshulme, overcoming his humble origins to win a place at the local grammar school.

After completing National Service with the RAF between 1953-55, he then embarked on a job as an assistant in the contracts department of a local architecture firm John Bearshaw and Partners, before being promoted to the drawing department.

Subsequently earning a place at the University of Manchester, School of Architecture and City Planning, Foster funded his studies through a variety of part-time occupations that included the roles of nightclub bouncer and ice cream salesman.

Having spent five years completing his training, He then went on to study at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

In 1963 he entered a partnership, named Team4, with his wife Wendy, and Richard and Su Rogers.

Moving on to establish his own firm Foster Associates (later Foster + Partners) in 1967 Foster initially explored the concept of a technologically advanced “shed,”-a structure enveloped by a lightweight shell.

His work is synonymous with high-tech architecture, and his signature works are predominantly sleek and modern and feature lots of steel and glass!

Among his most recognisable creations are the Swiss Re HQ (later 30 St Mary Axe) AKA The Gherkin (2004), the rebuilt Reichstag in Berlin (1999), the British Museum’s Great Court (2000) and-with Michel Virlogeux-The Millau Viaduct in Southern France, the tallest bridge in the world at 336.4 metres!

He has received almost 500 awards and citations throughout his celebrated career, including the Pritzker Prize (1999) and the Praemium Imperiale (2002) and the Aga Khan award in 2007.

A man who once described his own personal work ethic as “Never being satisfied” this passionate, driven and hyperactive individual is often referred to as the “Hero of High-Tech” for his ultramodern designs and sleek new structures.

Foster was knighted in 1990 and he was granted a life peerage in 1999.

So that’s it. The STS Premier League of the TOP TEN Architects!

Doubtless there will be some of you who would have liked to have seen other names included in this elevated convocation.

Rest assured that many other architectural stalwarts were investigated, and some only missed out on featuring in the final rankings by a hairsbreadth.

The names include, but are not limited to:

Carl Abbott, Sir David Adjaye, William Van Alen, Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Luis Barragan, Gordon Bunshaft, Daniel Burnham, Santiago Calatrava, Buckminster Fuller, Jeanne Gang, Michael Graves, Walter Gropius, James Hoban, Imhetop, Arata Isozaki, Rem Koolhas, Daniel Libeskind, Michelangelo, Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Nouvel, I M Pei, Cesar Pelli, Renzo Piano, Paul Rudolph, Mosh Safdie, Carlo Scarpa, Mimar Sinan, Louis Skidmore, Louis Henry Sullivan, Sir Christopher Wren, Tom Wright, Jorn Utzon, Rafael Vinoly, and Peter Zumthor.

All in all, 45 architects made the final cut before the top ten were selected!

A wide variety of ideologies and talents, they are all people who have made their mark in the Architectural Spectrum.

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