Ellen van Loon, a partner at OMA who joined the firm in 1998 following a period at Foster + Partners, has stepped down after 26 years. Based out of OMA’s Rotterdam office, van Loon, who was a presenter at RECORD’s 2021 Innovation Conference, led award-winning building projects including Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal (2005), recipient of a 2007 RIBA European Award, and the Dutch Embassy in Berlin (2003), winner of the European Union Mies van der Rohe Award in 2005. She also made significant contributions to De Rotterdam, a mixed-use complex that ranks as one of the largest buildings in the Netherlands, and was the chief architect on the ultra-flexible arts center Aviva Studios, the new home for the UK’s biennial Manchester International Festival, that opened last year.

Noting that van Loon has retired from the OMA partnership, a brief statement from the firm indicated that van Loon, the longtime sole female partner, “wishes to enter a new phase in her life in which she will have more time to herself. It goes without saying that we deeply regret her decision. Ellen has been a trusted colleague and powerful force within our firm for decades.” Managing partner David Gianotten adds: “Since its inception, the OMA partnership has constantly been in movement. As with partnerships in other professions, people leave and people join. We are certain that new partners will join in due course; this obviously includes female partners, too.”