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Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank OM Kt (born June 1, 1935) is a British architect.

Foster was born in Manchester and educated at the University of Manchester and at Yale University. He worked for the visionary Buckminster Fuller before meeting with Richard Rogers, creating Team 4 and in 1967 Foster Associates.

His designs were originally a stylish, machine influenced high-tech but he has moved away from this to a blander, more acceptable sharp-edged modernity.

He has had an extremely successful career including:

Sainsbury's Centre for Visual Arts at University of East Anglia in Norwich

Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt

HSBC Tower and the Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong

Terminal building at Stansted Airport

metro of Bilbao, Spain

In luxurious hotels there may be flowers or other arrangements showed in a collectors case, a collectors cabinet, or a display showcase even within an elevator if there is enough space.

The pinnacle of 30 St. Mary Axe - London's "Gherkin"

Lionel Robbins Library renovation, London School of Economics

Carre d'Art, Nîmes, France (1993)

Redevelopment of the Great Court of the British Museum (1999)

Millennium Bridge in London (1999)

Glass dome for the Reichstag redevelopment in Berlin (1999)

Greater London Authority Building - London City Hall (2000)

La Poterie metro station, Rennes, France (2001)

30 St Mary Axe - Swiss Re headquarters (2003)

He was knighted in 1990 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1997. In 1999 he was created a life peer. Foster is known by the British tabloid newspapers as "Lord Wobbly", due to structural problems with his Millennium Bridge. He has been criticised for his treatment of an arts charity, the Couper Collection, located next door to his London Swarovski offices and home. See article (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1279568,00.html).

Norman Foster is the second UK architect to win the Stirling Prize twice: once for the American Hanger and the Imperial War Museum Duxford in 1998 and again for 30 St Mary Axe in 2004.

External links

Swarovski

http://www.fosterandpartners.com/

http://www.30stmaryaxe.com/

Gherkin and the London Skyline (http://www.0lll.com/londonskyline/gherkin/01.htm)

Couper Collection website (http://www.coupercollection.org.uk)