Arup, Sir Ove Nyquist

Arup, Sir Ove Nyquist (1895–1988). Born to Danish parents in Newcastle upon Tyne, Arup founded the engineering and consultancy firm of Arup & Arup in 1938. He worked with Tecton in London on such projects as Highpoint (1936–8), the Penguin Pool at London Zoo (1939), and Finsbury Health Centre (1938–9), and was among the first in England to design load-bearing concrete walls using slip-form shuttering (moulds for concrete that can be moved and reused as work progresses). In 1949 he founded Ove Arup & Partners, and in 1963, with Philip Dowson, Ronald Hobbs, and others, he formed Arup Associates, a multi-professional firm notable for its elegant approach to design problems. From the beginning of his career Arup was a Modernist, and was a founding-member of MARS. He worked with the Smithsons on the School at Hunstanton, Norfolk (1949, and 1952–4), with Utzon on the Sydney Opera House (1956–74), with Piano and Rogers on the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1971–7), with Foster on the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong, and with Grimshaw on the Eurostar Rail Terminal, Waterloo, London, but his own command of elegance in structure and design can best be seen in his Kingsgate footbridge over the River Wear at Durham (1963). The firm has also been responsible for the development at Finsbury Avenue, London (1984), the latter part of the huge Broadgate development, Liverpool Street (1984–8 and 1988–91). Arup was involved (1977–80) as a consultant to Rogers for the Lloyd's Headquarters Building, City of London. Other projects included works at Munich airport (with Murphy/Jahn), the Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham (with Hopkins), Osaka International Convention Centre (with Kurokawa), the Millennium Bridge, London (with Foster), and many other projects.

Bibliography

Brawne (1983);
Dobney (ed.) (1994);
Dunster (ed.) (1997);
Kalman (1994);
Hawkes & and W. Forster (2002);
Morreau (ed.) (1995);
P. Rice (1994);
D. Sommer et al. (1994);
see also Arup Journal (various years)