Renowned Vancouver architect Bing Thom has died at the age of 75.
Thom suffered a brain aneurism while on a recent trip in Hong Kong and passed away in that city on the afternoon of October 4th, according to a statement by his firm.
Born in Hong Kong and immigrating to Canada as a child, Thom received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of British Columbia and his Master of Architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley. His career began in the offices of Fumihiko Maki and Arthur Erickson before he started his own firm, Bing Thom Architects (BTA), in 1982.
His firm’s commissions cover the globe, from the Expo’ 92 Canada Pavilion in Seville, Spain, to Arena Stage Theater in Washington DC, Tarrant County College Trinity River East Campus in Fort Worth, Texas, to the current Xiqu Centre Opera House at the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, the University of Chicago Center in Hong Kong, the Binhai Cultural District of Tianjin, the Shijiazhuang Performing Arts Center, and Shenyang Kerry Centre in central Shenyang.
Some of BTA’s well known projects include the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia, Central City Surrey, Sunset Community Centre, Surrey City Centre Library, the Guildford Aquatic Centre, and currently Simon Fraser University’s Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering Building and First Baptist Church Redevelopment.
In recent years, BTA expanded the leadership of the firm to include principals Venelin Kokalov and Michael Heeney in Vancouver, managing director Francis Yan in Asia, and a team of experienced directors. Kokalov will now take on the role of principal-in-charge.
“I have been truly blessed to have been able to collaborate with Bing over the last two decades. Under his mentorship, I grew not just as a designer but also, through his example, as a leader. Bing has made my transition to principal-in-charge feasible and I am committed to carrying Bing’s dreams and vision into the future,” says Kokalov.
