Architect Antoine Predock, known for his work rooted in the style and philosophies of the American Southwest, has passed away at the age of 87. He was known for projects such as the La Luz housing complex in Albuquerque and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.
His designs often utilized local earthen and natural materials.
His apartment complex La Luz, built in 1967, pays homage to New Mexico’s native pueblos buildings and villages.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, completed in 2014, embodies a similar connection to its site with its “glass cloud” affixed to a stone base.
Predock was born and raised in Missouri before attending the University of New Mexico, where he studied architecture. He later attended Columbia University and the American Academy in Rome.
With offices in Albuquerque, California and Taipei, he created over 100 buildings and projects that spanned the globe.
“Architect and mythmaker, at once Daedalus the craftsman and Minotaur in his labyrinth, Predock wove the facts of building into labyrinths of experience,” wrote architecture professor and historian Christopher Mead in an essay remembering Predock. “He brought together earth and sky, mountains and rivers, prairie plains and desert mesas, ancient cultures and modern technologies, into manmade landscapes that ground us in a place and locate us in the world.”
“Architecture is a fascinating journey toward the unexpected,” Predock wrote in a statement. “It is a ride, a physical ride and an intellectual ride.” Predock was also an avid motorcyclist, skier and diver.
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Can you imagine if Antione’s eutopia had been realized?