Sigrid Lorenzen Rupp

Sigrid Lorenzen Rupp (1943 – May 27, 2004) was a German-American architect. She ran a private practice, SLR Architects, in Palo Alto, California, from 1976 to 1998, and specialized in designing facilities for tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Early life and education Rupp was born in Bremerhaven, Germany, on January 3, 1943, and migrated to Oakland, California, with her family at the age of 10. She became interested in architecture as a child during the German reconstruction boom after World War II and went on to study architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1966; she received her California Architecture License in 1971. Upon graduation Rupp worked for several architectural firms, including Van Bourg/Nakamura Associates of San Francisco, D'Amico Associates of Mill Valley, Hawley & Peterson of Mountain Valley and Spencer Associates of Palo Alto. She specialized in technical and industrial facilities and provided designs for many early tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Amdahl Corporation, Apple Computer, Claris, IBM, Raychem, Sun Microsystems and Tandem Computers. Her design of a testing facility for Apple won an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award.

Personal life Rupp traveled extensively throughout her career and during her retirement focused on painting watercolors of landscapes around the Bay Area of San Francisco. She kept numerous travel journals where she recorded written observations, photographs, sketches, and watercolors. Her paintings were include in juried exhibitions organized by the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto. Of her life and career, Rupp said, "I'd like to be remembered for dissenting when everyone else thought it easier to go with the grain even when the grain was wrong. I'd like to be remembered for being a competent architect who did competent work, a competent painter who did competent painting and someone who told good stories. I've enjoyed almost everything I [did], but nothing is enough and time (life) is too short."

Rupp was diagnosed with gastric cancer in November 2003 and died on May 27, 2004. She was married to Steven Rupp.