Lebbeus Woods (1940-2012)

One week after the completion of the Light Pavilion in Chengdu, China (his first permanent construction), Lebbeus Woods died in his sleep at the age of 72. Steven Holl, who designed the large housing project where the installation sits, described it as "a brilliant and engaging architecture" by somebody who "had very passionate beliefs and a deep philosophical commitment to architecture."

Woods was educated in engineering and architecture, worked in the office of Eero Saarinen, and was hired by a number of architects to delineate their designs. The latter work helped to pay for his visionary architecture for which he is most well-known. Since the late 1980s Woods taught at Cooper Union, even as his health was failing and he got around in a wheelchair. His most recent undertakings were a well-received blog and, as he described it in his goodbye post in August, a book "having to do with how World War II shaped the architecture of the later 20th century."