Antoine Predock, a visionary architect and a 1985 Rome Prize Fellow renowned for his bold and imaginative designs that took the geographical and cultural meanings of a proposed building site into consideration, died on March 2, 2024. He was 87 years old and lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Born in Missouri in 1936, Predock studied engineering at the University of New Mexico and then architecture at Columbia University. After graduation he traveled to Spain, Portugal, and elsewhere in Europe on a two-year fellowship, starting in 1962, and began filling sketchbooks.
“In 1985, more key drawings emerged during his time as a fellow at the American Academy in Rome,” wrote Sarah Amelar. “With just a few fluid lines in India ink (and sometimes flashes of overlaid color), he would capture the essence of structures from antiquity, including the Parthenon, as well as landscapes, churches, cityscapes, and monuments.” Another colleague once remarked about his year in Rome, “He left here Tony and came back Antoine.”
Predock established a firm in 1967 that once extended to Los Angeles and Tapei, though his base remained steadfast in New Mexico, where “the high desert … taught him how to be an architect,” his colleague Paul Fehlau said. An early-career townhouse complex in La Luz with exposed adobe walls and desert earth tones blended well with the landscape. Later came a commission for the Nelson Fine Arts Center at Arizona State University—the same year in which he was in Rome—that opened four years later. That set off a series of academic commissions, including plans for three University of California campuses and Skidmore College’s Tang Teaching Museum. In 2008 he completed a new School of Architecture for the University of New Mexico.
From the iconic Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg and the awe-inspiring National Palace Museum Southern Branch in Taiwan, to a large thematic pueblo-style hotel complex near Euro Disney in France and the San Diego Padres baseball stadium, Predock’s portfolio stands as a testament to his unwavering commitment to pushing the envelope of architectural expression.
Predock received numerous accolades and honors, including the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2006, the highest honor bestowed upon an individual by the AIA. A year later he won a lifetime achievement award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
Predock is survived by his wife, the artist Constance DeJong; his sons Hadrian Predock, an architect and artist, and Jason Predock, a lighting designer for films; and three grandchildren.