Hugh Stubbins Jr., 94; Architect of Icons
Hugh Stubbins Jr., 94, an architect whose Citigroup Center in Manhattan, with its sharply angled roof, is a major icon on the New York skyline, died July 5 at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass. He had pneumonia.</br></br>Mr. Stubbins also designed such noted buildings as Boston's Federal Reserve Bank; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.; and Congress Hall, now known as House of World Cultures, in Berlin.</br></br>The 59-story Citigroup (formerly Citicorp) Center, dedicated in 1977, broke with the "glass box" form of modern skyscrapers with its roof, piercing the sky at a 45-degree angle.</br></br>It appears to sit on four huge columns -- not at the corners, but in the middle of each side of the building. Tucked in one corner is a church, also designed by Mr. Stubbins, that replaces one that was torn down to build the complex.</br></br>"By any standard the architect, Hugh Stubbins & Associates of Cambridge, Mass., has created one of New York's significant buildings," the New York Times wrote.