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Description

This work is a gathering of essays in tribute to the life and achievements of a remarkable Irish- born structural engineer Peter Rice (1935-1992), 'perhaps the most influential of the 20th century'. His work and inventions underpinned the great buildings of his day, from the Sydney Opera House to the Beaubourg (Centre Pompidou), the Mecca Conference Centre, the Lord's Mound Stand in London, Stanstead Airport, the Menil Museum in Houston, La Defense in Paris, the Lille TGV Station, the Seville Pavilion of the Future, the Gourgoubes Full-Moon Theatre. Working in tandem with architects Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, and Zaha Hadid, and the artist Frank Stella, he consciously placed himself in the tradition of the great 19th-century engineers, Telford, Stephenson, Brunel father and son, and Eiffel. A director of Ove Arup in London and a partner in Paris-based RFR, he was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal for Architecture in 1992. He summarized his vision and legacy in a keynote, posthumously published book An Engineer Imagines, written in the knowledge of an inoperable brain tumor from which he died aged 58.This monograph will be the focus of upcoming exhibitions in Dublin (Farmleigh), Paris, London and Milan, in 2012 and 2013.

Contents

Introduction by Jennifer Gretschus of Ove Arup Richard Roger essay: In conversation with Jonathan Glancy Ian Ritchie essay: Peter Rice as I knew him Andy Sedgwick essay: Peter Rice, engineer of light Renzo Piano essay Sophie le Bourva essay Kevin Barry essay; An Engineer imagined Sean O Laoire essay Zaha Hadid essay Martin Francis essay Philip O'Kane essay Select List of Rice Projects (about 30 items) , plus images invited from Arup and RFR