Rafael Viñoly, the extraordinary Uruguay-born architect whose function-driven, context-inspired buildings made their marks on six continents, died unexpectedly of an aneurysm in New York on March 2. He was 78 years old, according to Yahoo.

Viñoly’s most recognizable recent projects include international skyscrapers like 432 Park Avenue in New York and 20 Fenchurch Street in London. He is also known for cultural buildings with an artistic flair including the Cleveland Museum of Art expansion; the Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo, Uruguay; and the Tokyo International Forum, as well as complex research facilities designed on complicated sites like the Rockefeller University River campus, which spans a section of New York’s FDR Drive.

Born in Montevideo in 1944 to film and theater director Román Viñoly Barreto and mathematics teacher Maria Beceiro, Viñoly began his professional career in architecture while he was still attending the University of Buenos Aires. In 1964, two years before he earned his diploma in architecture, he founded Estudio de Arquitectura Manteola-Petchersky-Sánchez Gómez-Santos-Solsona-Viñoly (then known as MSGSSV, now MSGSSS) with six associates. He was 20. In 1969, when Viñoly received his Master of Architecture from the University’s Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, he and his collaborative firm had already completed the Headquarters for the Bank of Buenos Aires. They would go on to design several large commercial and housing projects across Argentina together, the latter of which often featured block towers interconnected by skybridges and always integrated public spaces, which were crucial to the way Viñoly conceived of architecture.

Source: Azerbaijan State News Agency