Nicholas Grimshaw

The AA is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Nicholas Grimshaw, an internationally renowned architect. Grimshaw studied at the AA between 1959–65 and received a Diploma with Honours. Following this, he immediately started his own practice and won several awards for his buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1980, Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners was founded, and the practice received over 100 awards for architectural and civic design projects including the Waterloo International Terminal in London (1994), the Eden Project in Cornwall (2001) and the Elizabeth Line in London (2022). A long-standing member of the AA, Grimshaw also served on the AA Council between 1992–2003 and as President throughout 1999–2001.

As an architect, Grimshaw received numerous accolades, in 1993 he was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his work on Britain's pavilion at the 1992 Seville Expo, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, he received the prestigious designation PPRA when he was elected President of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2004, serving until 2011, and was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal in 2019.

A pioneering architect of environmental design and engineering, Grimshaw encouraged the companies involved in the Eden Project to donate towards an Eden Scholarship to support an AA Sustainable Environmental Design student; a scholarship that ran for several years in the early 2000s. The AA remains grateful for the significant impact Grimshaw made on the school, the architectural profession and the built environment.

The AA would also like to share the film, Legacy, made by Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, which can be viewed here.