Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank

Norman Foster, Baron Foster Of Thames Bank

Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM Kt. (born 1 June 1935) is a British architect whose company maintains an international design practice, Foster + Partners.

Foster was raised in Manchester in a working-class family and was intrigued by design and engineering from a young age. His years observing Mancunian architecture subsequently influenced his works, and was inspired to pursue a career in architecture after a treasurer clerk noticed his sketches and interest in Manchester's buildings while he worked at Manchester Town Hall.

Foster gained an internship at a local architect's office before submitting a portfolio and winning a place at the University of Manchester School of Architecture. He subsequently won a scholarship to study at the Yale School of Architecture in the United States of America.

Foster returned to the United Kingdom in 1963 and set up a practice, Team 4 which became Foster + Partners. His breakthrough building was arguably the Willis Building in Ipswich in 1975 and he has since designed landmark structures such as Wembley Stadium and 30 St Mary Axe. He is one of Britain's most prolific architects of his generation. In 1999 he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. In 2009 Foster was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award in the Arts category. In 1994 he received the AIA Gold Medal.

Read more about Norman Foster, Baron Foster Of Thames Bank:  Recognition, Personal Life, Selected Projects

Famous quotes containing the words norman, baron, foster, thames and/or bank:

    I’d horsewhip you if I had a horse.
    S.J. Perelman, U.S. screenwriter, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho Marx, Horsefeathers, a wisecrack made to his son Frank (Zeppo Marx)

    My lusts they do me leave,
    My fancies all be fled,
    And tract of time begins to weave
    Grey hairs upon my head.
    Thomas Vaux, 2d Baron Vaux Of Harrowden (1510–1566)

    It is too late in the century for women who have received the benefits of co-education in schools and colleges, and who bear their full share in the world’s work, not to care who make the laws, who expound and who administer them.
    —J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)

    The wind’s on the wold
    And the night is a-cold,
    And Thames runs chill
    ‘Twixt mead and hill.
    But kind and dear
    Is the old house here
    And my heart is warm
    Midst winter’s harm.
    William Morris (1834–1896)

    When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.
    Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 2:3.