The discipline of architecture has lost one of its most profound figures today—Zaha Hadid has passed away from a heart attack at the age of 65. The Baghdad-born architect, who worked with Rem Koolhaas before beginning her own practice in 1979, was a leader in conceptual, neo-futuristic building design. In 2004, Hadid became the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and in 2012 she was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her accomplishments in the field of architecture; but her work extended well beyond buildings. She collaborated with fashion brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton, created designs for the Serpentine Gallery and Georg Jensen, and even once designed the stage sets for the Pet Shop Boys world tour in 1999. However, a number of the residential and commercial projects she imagined never came to fruition because they were deemed too difficult or too expensive from an engineering perspective, like her proposal for the main stadium at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
She leaves behind a truly unrivaled legacy, especially for women in the classically male-dominated discipline of architecture. She also leaves behind a new New York building to look forward to later this year: the High Line condos at 520 West 28th Street. As we bid adieu to Hadid, below is a look back at some of her most revered work, the buildings left as monuments to her brilliant vision.
