To the Honor of Hugh Stubbins, 1912-2006

I wanted to post something to the honor of Hugh Stubbins, mostly known as the lead architect of the Citigroup Center on 53rd and Lex/3rd in Manhattan.
He passed away one day ago, yesterday Wednesday, 5 July, 2006. Stubbins was an architect of international reputation, whose most important commissions include the Congress Hall in Berlin, the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, and the Landmark Tower in Yokohama, the tallest building in Japan.
He had received his masters degree in architecture from Harvard in 1935 and opened his own office in Boston thereafter.
He was also a top level athlete and a candidate for the olympic games in 1936, but he couldn't participate because of an injury on the Achilles tendon.











The Citigroup has also been under threat of possible terrorist attacks. I remember coming home from work one day and there weren't only some cop cars to the side of the building. It was an image of war: 3 small tanks and dozens of special police agents wearing bullet-proof wests, helmets and heavy machine guns. The threat on the Citigroup building had been officially published in the newspapers that day and the city had made every effort to show off the provided security. That was a bit weird living only one block away from that site.