It is with sadness that we report the death of John Macarthur who passed away suddenly in London. John was a Principal/ Director of Arup who was based in their Hong Kong office, before retiring four years ago. He was troubled by ill health during his latter years although he still practiced engineering on a regular consultancy basis. John was a structural engineer who was passionate about tall buildings. He moved to Hong Kong in 1975 while working on the 66 story Hopewell Center that was the tallest building in Asia for 10 years. John later became a leader of the Arup Hong Kong office, and helped to steer its growth and development for over 20 years. He worked on many tall towers in Hong Kong and South East Asia and he led the design on the 374m Central Plaza that was the tallest concrete building in the world when it was completed. He was involved in many other tall building projects including Citibank, Nina Towers, International Finance Center and the Cheung Kong Center.
He was a firm supporter of the Council and published papers and presented at our conferences. He was influential in the development of super high strength concretes in Hong Kong. He took his responsibilities as Registered Structural Engineer very seriously (PE) and he helped develop procedures for checking and supervising foundation construction. He remains well regarded for his hard work and for his commitment to excellence in design. We send our deepest sympathies to his wife Vera, their child Nicola.