Farewell to David Childs, WTC Architect
- architect who designed One World Trade Center, an iconic part of the New york City skyline, died Wednesday, March 26, in Pelham, New York.
- His wife, Annie, told the New York Times the cause of death was complications related to Lewy body dementia.
- One World Trade Center, built on the site of the Twin Towers destroyed in the Sept.
David Childs, Architect of One World Trade Center, Dies at 83
David Magie Childs, the U.S. architect who designed One World Trade Center, an iconic part of the New york City skyline, died Wednesday, March 26, in Pelham, New York. He was 83.
His wife, Annie, told the New York Times
the cause of death was complications related to Lewy body dementia. Childs, a Manhattan resident, was in Pelham to be closer to two of their children.
One World Trade Center, built on the site of the Twin Towers destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is a signature achievement. The skyscraper, characterized by its tapered form adn translucent, prismatic glass panels, stands adjacent to the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan.
Beyond One World Trade Center, Childs and his colleagues at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) designed numerous transformative buildings in New York and other U.S. cities since the 1980s. Childs was an emeritus president at SOM.
Childs’ projects in Washington, D.C., include the 1976 Urban Plan of the Washington Mall and the Constitution Gardens, the headquarters for National Geographic and U.S. News & World Report, Four Seasons hotels, and the expansion of the main terminal at Washington-Dulles International Airport.
His New York City projects include Worldwide plaza, the New York Mercantile exchange, the JFK International Arrivals Building, the headquarters of Bear Stearns (now JP Morgan), the South riverside urban plan, the Lever House restructuring, and the Time Warner headquarters in Columbus circle.
Other notable U.S. projects include Stamford’s Swiss Bank Center in Connecticut, the Deerfield Academy mathematics, science, and technology building in Massachusetts, and Charleston’s courthouse in West Virginia.
Internationally, Childs designed the new Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada; Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel; Canary Wharf’s West Ferry Circus in London; the United States Embassy in Ottawa, Canada; and Tokyo Midtown in Japan.
Born april 1, 1941, in Princeton, New Jersey, Childs studied architecture at Yale University. He joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1971 in Washington, D.C., after working on the Pennsylvania Avenue Commission under Nathaniel Owings and Daniel P. Moynihan. He moved to New York in 1984, becoming a senior design partner.
Childs also served as president of the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts in Washington. He served on the boards of the American Academy in Rome and the national Housing Partnership Foundation. He held positions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Building Museum, and the Architectural League, and was a member of the American Institute of architects.