Wojciech Lesnikowski

Wojciech Grzegorz Leśnikowski (May 9, 1938 – April 17, 2014), was a Polish-American architect, writer and educator. He oversaw and participated in the design and construction of numerous large-scale architectural projects around the world.

Career Wojciech G. Leśnikowski passed the maturity exam in 1955, in the I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Mikołaja Kopernika in Bielsko-Biała. Leśnikowski received his Masters of Architecture and Urban Planning from the Tadeusz Kościuszko Kraków University of Technology, School of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1961. He worked in Kraków, Poland, for a few years, then in 1964 he left for Paris for an internship with the famed architect Le Corbusier. He worked for Pierre Vago and Jean Renaudie, as well as Le Corbusier, while in Paris. He began teaching at the L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1967. He went to America in 1969, worked as an architect in Chicago and continued to teach at numerous prestigious institutions. He was a chief architect at HNTB, Loebl Schlossman & Hackl, and HOK Corporation. He served as the lead designer of a hospital and a skyscraper – the iconic red CNA Center.

He became a distinguished professor at The University of Kansas in 1988. In 1990, he became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. In 2013 he became the eighth person to receive a Laurel of Kraków of the 21st century. He has created numerous architectural projects such as housing estates, public buildings, airports, hospitals and skyscrapers in Poland, France, the United States, New Zealand, China, Japan and Italy.

Teaching 1967–69: L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts 1969–72: Yale University 1972–78: Cornell University 1975–79: University of Pennsylvania 1981–88: University of Illinois Chicago 1981―88: University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee 1989–2014: University of Kansas – Distinguished Don Hatch Professor

Writing 1982: Romanticism and Rationalism in Architecture 1990: The New French Architecture 1993: Many Faces of German Modernism 1994: Modernism in Czechoslovakian, Hungarian and Polish Architecture 1919–39 1994: Architecture of Germany between Two World Wars Numerous articles published in the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Poland

Awards 1977: Fulbright International Award 1981, 1983, 1989: Graham Foundation Grant 1989: Fulbright Grant 1990: Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic 1991–1992: National endowment for Humanities Grant 1992: German Academy of Science Grant 2013: Kraków Laurel Award

Architectural philosophy Teaching and research interests

Architectural design: large-scale buildings, current high-tech, future technologies, experimental architecture Architectural history theories Aesthetics of modern architecture Architecture as industrial art Corporate practice in contemporary architecture

Areas of expertise His parents survived the war, but many of his family members did not. Wojciech married a fellow architect and educator Rebecca James in 1987. On July 22, 1995, he became a single parent to his two young daughters, when his wife died in a horse-riding accident in Poland. He later married Julie Lesnikowski, owner of Jordan Ross Designs in Lawrence, Kansas.

Death He died on April 17, 2014, from brain cancer.

Works

Airport, Kraków Airport, Warsaw Airport, Warsaw Cathedral, Warsaw Government Center, Taiwan Hospital, Chicago Library, Osaka, Japan Museum of Aviation, Kraków Office Complex, Taiwan Office Building, Chicago Office Building, Chicago Opera House, St. Louis Skyscraper, Hong Kong Skyscraper, New York Technology Center, Shanghai, China Skyscraper, Warsaw, Poland Terminal for Modlin Airport, Poland Terminal for KC Airport, Missouri Terminal for Katowice Airport, Poland Concert Hall for Kansas City, Missouri Terminal for Kraków Airport, Poland Terminal for Kansas City Airport, Missouri New Crystalline Generic Terminal