It might seem that Bjarke Ingels has been everywhere since founding his firm, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) 15 years ago. In addition to recent projects like a reimagining of Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées in Paris and the new LEGO House in Denmark, the starchitect (a 2009 RECORD Vanguard) joined start-up giant WeWork as chief architect two years ago—a position that he no longer holds. Asked for comment on reports of Ingels’ departure, BIG shared WeWork’s statement with RECORD: "Following the company’s reorganization and new leadership at the end of last year, Bjarke Ingels stepped back into a consulting role on key projects."

Ingels told RECORD about the chief architect position in a May 2018 interview. “The overall idea is really to focus on buildings for now,” he said, “then take it to campuses and neighborhoods, then entire cities.” When he joined WeWork, the Danish architect was compensated with equity rather than a salary. Since then, the coworking company has had its fair share of fumbles. Questionable management tactics by Adam Neumann came to light last fall after a failed initial public offering; the CEO then stepped down from his role and WeWork’s valuation quickly plummeted. The company escaped bankruptcy by accepting a $9.5 billion bailout from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank in October 2019, then reportedly laid off some 2,400 employees in late November.