Based on their deep connections with New Mexico, Antoine Predock and his wife, Constance DeJong, have donated the American Architect's archives to the University of New Mexico. 

The UNM School of Architecture + Planning  will create the Predock Center for Design and Research in Predock’s former residence and professional center downtown, which include design studio, workshop and gallery spaces.

Image courtesy of Abduzeedo

According to the University of Mexico, "Antoine Predock’s passion for architecture was kindled at The University of New Mexico more than six decades ago. Although his firm has headquarters in Taiwan, California and New Mexico, his roots have remained in Albuquerque." 

They stated that initially the Center will be the master studio for graduating senior architecture students.

"Deciding how to use the entire space to best honor Predock’s legacy and the legacy of the school will be a work in progress," said the SA+P Dean Geraldine Forbes Isais.

Neither Predock nor his wife, sculptor and UNM professor Constance DeJong, are native New Mexicans, but they are long time residents.

"Everything I learned here taught me how to pay attention to what I call site specificity. New Mexico taught me how to be an architect," Predock said.

His projects on the UNM campus include the Cornell parking structure, the original UNM School of Law building, and George Pearl Hall which houses the SA+P. 

Predock also designed the Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts in Ruidoso, the first phase of the West Side’s La Luz homes and the Rio Grande Nature Center. He established his own studio in 1967.

Among other distinctions, Antoine Predock has been awarded the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal and the Smithsonian Design Museum Cooper-Hewitt Lifetime Achievement Award, and for more than six decades he has designed museums, residences, hotels, offices, art and entertainment centers, sports, educational and research facilities around the world.

Predock designed the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR). The building was opened in September 2014 as the first new national museum established in Canada since 1967. 

"Antoine Predock borrowed images from the Canadian landscape: mountains, clouds, Prairie grass, ice and snow. Complex geometry and human rights symbolism grace every component, weaving light through darkness. The four stone Roots represent all humans as children of the earth," detailed the CMHR in a fact sheet.

Image courtesy of Antoine Predock 

Predock also designed the Luxe Lake Gateway and Art Center (2014), located in Chengdu, China, with the purpose of becoming a community center to the new city where visitors could enjoy art, theatre, and dining. 

The inspiration came from the Chinese culture, the Sichuan’s landscape, and the site’s agricultural history as well as the demands of a new city, detailed the Architect's website. 

All images courtesy of the University of New Mexico unless otherwise stated

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