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Antoine Predock
Antoine Predock.jpg
Predock in 2005
Born
Antoine Samuel Predock

(1936-06-24)June 24, 1936
Died March 2, 2024(2024-03-02) (aged 87)
Alma mater Columbia University
Occupation Architect
Spouse(s)
  • Jennifer Masley
    (divorced)
  • Constance DeJong
    (m. 2004)
Children 2
Awards Rome Prize (1985), AIA Gold Medal (2006), National Design Award (2007)
Buildings Petco Park
Design Angular, brutalist-type building designs

Antoine Samuel Predock ( PREE-dok; 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, the 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

  • 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)

Notable projects

National Palace
National Palace Museum Southern Branch, Taiwan (model)
2008-0511-McNamaraAlumniCenter-001
McNamara Alumni Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Antoine Predock para niños

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