Collection by Alec Appelbaum
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw
"One of the good things about doing decent public design in a prominent place is that people look at it and say: Why can’t we have that everywhere?”
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw’s design dignifies anyone caught in the anonymous whoosh of urban travel. The British architect’s designs for train hubs, airports, and bus shelters—–with their generous apertures and lightweight materials—–refresh public life where iPods and chain stores dull it. One recent Friday afternoon, Sir Nicholas talked to us from London about making transit stations soothing, greening cities in unlikely quarters, and respecting the impact of a graceful garbage can.
An efficiency-suggesting bus shelter in New York, designed in 2006. Photo by Matt Greenslade.
The undulating roof of Southern Cross Station in Melbourne, Australia, sets it apart from the rest of the city. Photo by John Gollings.
Zurich Airport, 2004, which Grimshaw managed to double in size without increasing energy usage. Photo by Edmund Sumner/VIEW.
The Rolls Royce headquarters in West Sussex, UK, finished in 2003, is a transport facility of a different, albeit more refined, stripe. Photo by Edmund Sumner/VIEW.
Walk Housing in London, 1988. Photo by Jo Reid/John Peck.
Grimshaw's glowing newsstand, 2006, in New York. Photo by Matt Greenslade.
Utopian at least in appearance, Grimshaw's Eden Project is Cornwall, UK, from 2001, owes a debt to Bucky Fuller. Photo by Peter Cook/VIEW.
The Museo del Acero Horno 3, designed in 2007 in Monterrey, Mexico. Image courtesy Paul Rivera.
The interior of the Eden Project. Photo by Peter Cook/VIEW.
The Waterloo International Terminal, 1993, in London. Image courtesy Jo Reid/John Peck.
The interior of Southern Cross Station, 2005, in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Shannon McGrath.