Wikipedia / Antoine Predock
Wikipedia / Antoine Predock
Antoine Samuel Predock ( ; June 24, 1936 – March 2, 2024) was an American architect based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was the principal of Antoine Predock Architect PC, the studio he founded in 1967.
Predock first gained national attention with the La Luz community in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first national design competition he won was held by the Nelson Fine Arts Center at Arizona State University. Predock's work includes the Turtle Creek House, built in 1993 for bird enthusiasts along a prehistoric trail in Texas, the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, and a new ballpark for the San Diego Padres, Petco Park. He also worked on international sites such as the National Palace Museum Southern Branch in Southern Taiwan and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Predock said his design was highly influenced by his connection to New Mexico.
Early life
Antoine Samuel Predock was born in Lebanon, Missouri, on June 24, 1936. He considered himself an Albuquerque native, though he did not move there until college. Predock credits his mother, who had majored in liberal arts in college, for his artistic inclination, and his father, an engineer, for his technical interests.
Predock first attended the University of Missouri in Columbia School of Engineering, then the University of New Mexico, where he studied engineering, emulating his father. Although he was a successful and academically inclined student, Predock found little fulfillment in his studies in engineering. Upon completing a technical drawing course taught by Don Schlegel, an architecture professor at UNM, Predock began to reevaluate his career choices. After a short hiatus from academic life, he returned to UNM at age 21 to study architecture. Schlegel acted as an advisor to Predock throughout the latter's time in the UNM architecture program. Eventually, Schlegel told Predock that he had taken advantage of all that UNM had to offer and encouraged him to apply elsewhere. Predock did, and was accepted to Columbia University, where he obtained his B.A. in architecture.
Career
Predock established his first office in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1967. Other offices were established in California and Taipei.
Predock and his firm planned, developed, and collaborated on over 100 buildings and projects. They were featured in over 60 exhibitions, 250 books, and over 1,000 publications. He also held various teaching positions at at least 14 universities, in the United States and elsewhere.
Personal life and death
Predock's first marriage, to Jennifer Masley, ended in divorce. He married his second wife, Constance DeJong, in 2004. Predock was the father of two sons.
Predock died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at his home in Albuquerque on March 2, 2024, at the age of 87.
Awards and honors
International Fellow, Royal Institute of British Architects (2015)
Fellow, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (2014)
Senior Fellow, Design Futures Council (2010)
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Lifetime Achievement Award (2007)
AIA Gold Medal (2006)
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Minnesota (2001)
New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts (1989)
Fellow, American Academy in Rome (1985)
William Kinne Fellows Traveling Prize, Columbia University (1962-63)
Projects
1970 – La Luz Community, New Mexico
1979 – Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico
1982 – Rio Grande Nature Center, New Mexico
1989 – Nelson Fine Arts Center, Arizona State University, Arizona
1990 – Las Vegas Central Library + Children’s Museum, Nevada
1991 – Mandell Weiss Forum, University of California, San Diego
1991 – Venice Beach House, California
1992 – Classroom + Laboratory Building, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona), demolished in 2022
1992 – Hotel Santa Fe at Euro Disney, France
1993 – Turtle Creek House, Texas
1994 – Mesa Public Library, Los Alamos, New Mexico
1994 – Social Sciences + Humanities Building, University of California, Davis
1994 – Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, California
1995 – Museum of Science & Industry, Tampa, Florida
1995 – Ventana Vista School, Arizona
1996 – Center for Integrated Systems, Stanford University, California
1996 – Center for Musical Arts, University of California, Santa Cruz
1997 – Arizona Science Center, Arizona
1997 – Center for Nanoscale Science + Technology, Rice University, Texas
1997 – Dance Studio, University of California, San Diego
1997 – Spencer Theater, New Mexico
2000 – McNamara Alumni Center, University of Minnesota
2000 – Tang Teaching Museum – Skidmore College, New York
2003 – Tacoma Art Museum, Washington
2004 – Austin City Hall, Texas
2004 – Flint RiverQuarium, Georgia
2004 – Performing Arts + Learning Center, Pima Community College, Arizona
2004 – Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres
2004 – National Palace Museum Southern Branch, Taiwan (withdrawn in 2008)
2006 – Discovery Canyon Campus, Colorado
2006 – Highlands Pond House, Colorado
2006 – Recreation Facility, Ohio State University, Ohio
2007 – George Pearl Hall, School of Architecture, University of New Mexico
2007 – Indian Community School, Franklin, Wisconsin
2007 – Doudna Fine Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University
2008 – Trinity River Audubon Center, Dallas, Texas
2008 – Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, Colorado College
2014 – Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg, Manitoba
In Progress – Inn at The French Laundry, California
References
Antoniades, Anthony C. "Antoine Predock: A Case of Synthetic Inclusivity", L'arquitettura, March 1988, pp.178–198
External links
Interview with Antoine Prerock on Grand Opening of Petco Park, 2005
Illustrated page on the Nelson Fine Arts Center in Tempe Arizona
Predock's Architecture School, by Susan Smith, ArchitectureWeek No. 408, 2008.1210, pD1-1.