David Childs, the star architect who helped shape New York City’s skyline and designed 1 World Trade Center, has died at 83.
The cause was Lewy body dementia, his wife told The New York Times.
Childs’ impact on New York was transformative, designing some of the city’s most notable structures across decades. He was known for his modernist style and the towering glass skyscrapers he built as a partner and chairman of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, often abbreviated to SOM.
Childs started at SOM in 1971 and went on to design several iconic city buildings in the 1980s. But he was best known for his work on 1 World Trade Center, the site colloquially known as the Freedom Tower, meant to replace the Twin Towers after their destruction on Sept. 11, 2001.
His work on 1 WTC, now considered the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, was contentious. A design by Daniel Libeskind was originally selected for the space, before Libeskind was replaced as the main designer. Initial plans from Childs were stymied by concerns about the building’s resilience to future terrorist attacks, according to contemporaneous reporting from the Times. But the tapering structure was opened in 2014.
“The rebuilding of the World Trade Center was a labor of love for thousands of people, and no single individual was more responsible for its success than David,” Larry Silverstein, founder and chairman of Silverstein Properties, the real estate firm overseeing the project, said in a statement. “He pushed from the earliest days for the creation of a master plan and the participation of a wide range of architectural voices.”
Childs’ other major projects included 7 World Trade Center, which was completed in 2006. He was also involved in early plans for the Penn Station expansion, now called Moynihan Train Hall.
Among his other New York work is 35 Hudson Yards, the 72-story hotel and residential tower that is part of the city’s redevelopment of the Far West Side. The building was completed in 2019. He also designed 383 Madison Ave., completed in 2001, and 1540 Broadway, completed in 1990.
“David’s contribution to the firm was extensive and profound, and we will always be grateful to David for his leadership, his impact and his friendship,” SOM said in a statement.
