Will Alsop, UK Architect with Exuberant Style, Dies at 70
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EUROPE SUBSCRIBE LOG IN Will Alsop, UK Architect With Exuberant Style, Dies at 70 By The Associated Press May 13, 2018 LONDON — British architect Will Alsop, whose exuberant buildings enliven cities on both sides of the Atlantic, has died, his company said Sunday. He was 70. Marcos Rosello, a co-founder with Alsop of the London-based architecture practice aLL Design, said Alsop died Saturday after a short illness. Born in Northampton in central England in 1947, Alsop studied at the Architectural Association in London. He cited 20th-century modernists Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe and 18th-century British neo-Classicist John Soane among his influences. But Alsop's work had a playful style all its own. "Architects are the only profession that actually deal in joy and delight — all the others deal in doom and gloom," Alsop told The Observer newspaper in 2007. Alsop's buildings include the green, copper-clad Peckham Library in London, which won the Stirling Prize for architecture; London's futuristic North Greenwich Underground station; and the Sharp Centre at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, a black-and-white box poised rakishly on multicolored stilts. Alsop also completed several residential projects, other transit stations and a striking government building in Marseille, France that is nicknamed the Big Blue. You have 4 free articles remaining. Subscribe to The Times The finances of his various practices were sometimes precarious, and many of Alsop's more ambitious schemes were never realized — including plans to transform post-industrial Barnsley in northern England into a modernist version of a Tuscan hill town. Detractors likened The Public, an Alsop-designed arts center in the central England town of West Bromwich, to a big black cow. It came to be seen as an expensive white elephant and closed after five years in 2013, to be converted into a college. His practice, aLL Design, has offices in London; Doha, Qatar; and Chongqing, China, where Alsop had several ambitious projects in the works. Rosello said Alsop's design ethos was "essentially to 'make life better.'" "It is a comfort to know that due to the nature of Will's work and character, he will continue to inspire and bring great joy," he said. Alsop is survived by his wife Sheila, a daughter and two sons. Trending on NYTimes Go to Home Page » Opinion: The American Opinion: A Grotesque Spectacle Hallucinogenic Drugs as Opinion: Maybe We Donʼt NEWS OPINION RenaissanceARTS Is Already LIVING MORE SUBSCRIBE in Jerusalem Therapy? I Tried It Deserve John McCain Home Page Today's Opinion HappeningToday's Arts Automobiles Tools & Services Home Delivery World Op-Ed Columnists Art & Design Crossword N.Y.C. Events Guide Digital Subscriptions U.S. Editorials Books Food Multimedia Crossword Politics Contributing Writers Dance Education Photography New York Op-Ed Contributors Movies Fashion & Style Video Email Newsletters What do we use cookies for? Business Letters Music Health NYT Store Corporate Subscriptions Tech We use cookies and similarSunday technologies Review to recognize yourTelevision repeat visits and preferencesJobs, as well as to measure the Times Journeys Education RAaCteCEPT Scienceeffectiveness of campaignsTaking and N analyzote e traffic. To learnThea moreter about cookies, includingM howagazine to disable them, view ourManage My Account Cookie Policy. By using the site, you consent to the use of cookies unless you have disabled them. Mobile Applications Sports Video: Opinion Video: Arts Real Estate Replica Edition Obituaries T Magazine Today's Paper Travel Corrections Weddings © 2018 The New York Times Company Contact Us Work with us Advertise Your Ad Choices Privacy Terms of Service Terms of Sale Site Map Help Subscriptions.