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This year marked the loss of Frank Gehry, who, like Frank Lloyd Wright before him, transcended the architectural profession to achieve pop-culture fame and become a household name—The Simpsons cameo and all—through his bold, uncompromising oeuvre.

Frank Gehry. Photo © Melissa Majchrzak

While Gehry was the quintessential Los Angeles architect, New York experienced a similar loss with the death of Robert A.M. Stern, the Brooklyn-born former Yale School of Architecture dean who literally wrote the books on architecture in the Big Apple. In addition to Stern, two other formidable New York architects, David Childs and Ricardo Scofidio, died this year. Both played outsized roles in shaping the built environment of the city, through emblematic skyscrapers and transformative public space projects, respectively. London also said goodbye to two of its own with the deaths of friends and former partners-in-practice Nicholas Grimshaw and Terry Farrell, who died just two weeks apart in September. Controversial New Urbanist Léon Krier, visionary Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu, and another towering figure from California, Chuck Davis, are among the others who died in 2025.

Below are tributes published by RECORD, both in print and online, remembering those we lost this year. They are presented in chronological order of their passing beginning in January, with links to each individual tribute.

Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV, 88
Patron of architecture and historic preservation

Harry Wolf, 89
Architect

M. Paul Friedberg, 93
Landscape architect

Ricardo Scofidio. Photo by Geordie Wood, courtesy DS+R

Ricardo Scofidio, 89
Architect

Thomas F. Moser, 90
Furniture designer

Pierluigi Nicolin, 83
Architect

David Childs. Photo courtesy SOM

David Childs, 83
Architect

Robert Campbell, 88
Architecture critic, RECORD contributor

Joel Shapiro, 83
Artist

Léon Krier. Photo by rggv, Wikimedia Commons

Léon Krier, 79
Architect, urban planner

Chuck Davis, 90
Architect

Louis Naidorf, 96
Architect

Nicholas Grimshaw, 85
Architect

Kongjuan Yu. Photo © Turenscape

Kongjian Yu, 62
Landscape architect

Terry Farrell, 87
Architect

Robert A.M. Stern pictured in the 1980s. Photo courtesy Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Robert A.M. Stern, 86
Architect

Frank Gehry, 96
Architect

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