(1951-2003)

Tony Fitzpatrick helped to design and build several emblematic buildings of the past twenty years. A prominent member of the mythical engineering firm founded by Ove Arup, he was born in London in 1951 and died in a cycling accident in California, where he lived after being appointed chairman of the Americas division of the firm. Fitzpatrick joined Arup in 1972, right after finishing his studies in Leeds University; and received a Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2002 for his contribution to contemporary architecture. The Hong Kong skyscraper and Shanghai Bank, by Norman Foster, was the work he cherished the most, but he also calculated the 420 meters in height of the Tour Sans Fin, by Jean Nouvel, which was never built, and collaborated with Renzo Piano in the London Bridge Tower and with Richard Rogers in terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport. One of his last challenges was to control the vibration of the Millennium Bridge in London – designed by Foster –, as uncomfortable for pedestrians as for the impeccable reputation of the firm to which he devoted his life.