Tall & Urban News

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is saddened to hear about the passing of Ricardo Scofidio, Founder and Architect of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS +R), on 6 March 2025. Scofidio contributed to architecture and urban design with his innovative visions and spirit, transforming cultural and public spaces worldwide, and stood as a pillar for challenging the status quo in architectural thinking.

Born in New York City in 1935, Scofidio was an educator at Cooper Union, where he met his long-time collaborator and future partner, Elizabeth Diller. Together, in 1979 they founded a practice, now called DS+R, establishing themselves as inventive designers, blending conceptual art and technology with architecture and redefining the boundaries of spatial practice. His work was not just about buildings but about reimagining how spaces interact with people. Scofidio’s approach often challenged traditional architectural norms, and his creative ideas led to honors such as the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant in 1999, the first ever awarded to architects, and the National Design Award from the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt.

Scofidio, alongside Diller and the firm, achieved international acclaim with projects such as the High Line, a visionary transformation of an elevated railway into a linear urban park, and The Shed, a dynamic cultural venue in New York City. Contributing to the skyline, Scofidio was also a designer for the 278.6-meter 15 Hudson Yards, a sculptural residential building that integrates seamlessly into its urban environment adjacent to The Shed.

In 2022, the firm won the CTBUH Best Tall Building Worldwide Award for The David Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago, a 10-story building exemplary in its design and technical features in structure and sustainability.  The building is a series of stacked and rotated “neighborhoods,” oriented toward the university’s campus in Hyde Park and the city of Chicago to the north, with large cantilevers using a minimal amount of concrete. Another educational facility, the 14-story Vagelos Education Center at Columbia University was the recipient of the CTBUH 2024 Innovation Award for its use of voided post-tensioned slabs, a technology that minimizes the quantity of concrete, post-tensioning, and rebar in construction to dramatically reduce embodied carbon in construction. 

Cultural urban projects like The Broad in Los Angeles and the Lincoln Center redevelopment in New York City further elevated spaces within those cities.  Another notable project includes the reimagining of Milan's existing Pirellino (aka Pirelli Tower) and the immediate area. Scofidio and his firm teamed with Stefano Boeri Architetti in this currently unrealized project, which is a visionary concept proposing to renovate a 25-story 1960s office tower and construct an adjacent plant-covered skyscraper, with an attractive greenery-filled bridge connecting the two buildings. His many collaborations extended his ideas on how people experience private and public spaces and Scofidio was a thoughtful voice on urbanism and cultural discourse. 

A memorial service honoring Ricardo Scofidio's life and career will be announced in the following weeks. Learn more at DS+R.