Gyo Obata, world-renowned American architect and founder of Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK), whose career spanned seven decades and whose designs are some of the most well- known structures in the world, died on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, in St. Louis, MO. He was 99.
Born in 1923 in San Francisco, Mr. Obata was the son of painter, Chiura Obata, and floral designer and ikebana artist, Haruko Obata. Mr. Obata graduated from Washington University in 1945. He received a scholarship to attend graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, a suburb of Detroit where he received his master’s degree in 1946.
Upon graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and sent to Adak, Alaska to design bridges. After returning home from the military in 1947, Mr. Obata started working at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) in Chicago.
Next, he joined Hellmuth, Yamasaki, and Leinweber in 1951 in Detroit. In 1955, with the vision to create sustainable and optimal environments for people through art and science, George Hellmuth, George Kassabaum, and Mr. Obata decided to open their own firm in St. Louis, known as HOK, now one of the largest architecture and engineering firms in the world.
Initially their work focused in the area of education. Mr. Obata, one of the world’s leading architects, has designed hundreds of structures that have shaped and improved diverse communities and allowed a broad swathe of people to fulfill their dreams.
Some of the most notable include the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the Washington D.C. Mall; Camden Yards, Baltimore; Bristol Myers Squibb Headquarters; U.S. Olympic Fieldhouse in Lake Placid; Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, which is larger than the Island of Manhattan. Under his leadership, Mr. Obata helped to grow HOK from a one-office firm into an international, architectural powerhouse with 32 offices worldwide.
He served as Chairman of the Board and Chief of Design from 1981 to 1993, Co-Chairman and Corporate Design Director from 1994 to 2004, and Founding Partner from 2004 until his retirement in 2012.
He continued to serve as a design consultant to HOK until 2018. In addition to his wife, Mary Judge, he is survived by his children Kiku Obata, Nori Obata (Esteban Prieto), Gen Obata (Rebecca Stith), their mother, Majel Obata, Max Obata (fiancée, Emma Fisher), six grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren. His wife, Courtney Bean Obata, mother of Max Obata, preceded Mr. Obata in death.
Donations can be made to Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University, Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Planned Parenthood. A remembrance service will be held on May 14, 2022, at 1:00pm at The Abbey Church at Saint Louis Priory School, 500 S Mason Rd, Creve Coeur, MO 63141.
