Leon Krier, influential urbanist and architect, dies in Spain
Leon Krier, a giant in architecture and urbanism and one of the intellectual founders of the New Urbanism movement, died at 79 on Tuesday, June 17, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
“The work of the New Urbanist movement is grounded in the understandings of architecture, urbanism, modernity, and community that Léon contributed to this world,” explains Mallory Baches, president of CNU. “We are indebted to his intellectual courage, and we remain champions of both the beauty and the rationality he saw to be so desperately needed in the built environment.”
Krier was the inaugural awardee of the Athena Medal from CNU in 2006, given to those who influenced CNU’s founders, and he won the Driehaus Prize in architecture in 2003. He was the master planner of major new urbanist projects, Poundbury in Dorchester, England (with Prince Charles, now King Charles, as the developer), and Cayala in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He designed notable buildings like the Krier House in Seaside, Florida, and the Village Hall in Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida.
Krier’s writings and polemical drawings changed the way urbanists viewed the city. He was influential through his academic work in the US. That includes visiting professor appointments at Princeton, Yale, Virginia, Cornell, and Notre Dame from 1976 to 2016, Wikipedia says. Krier, based in Luxembourg, was the younger brother of the late Rob Krier, noted architect and urbanist.
