30 St Mary Axe, one of London's most popular new buildings, towers above its neighbours.

Foster and Partners is a leading firm of architects in the United Kingdom. The practice is strongly associated with its founder, Lord Foster, and has constructed many high profile glass and steel, high-tech buildings around the world. In particular they are known for their design of airport buildings.

Established by Norman Foster as Foster Associates in 1967 shortly after he left Team 4, the company was renamed 'Foster and Partners' in the 1990s to more accurately reflect the influence of the other lead architects.

Major projects

London City Hall at night

The Millau Viaduct, completed in 2004, is the highest road bridge in the world.

MoorHouse, 117 London Wall, London

Some of the more major projects, by year of completion are:

• Sainsbury's Centre for Visual Arts at University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK (1978)
• HSBC Tower (1986)
• Terminal building at Stansted Airport, UK (1991)
• metro of Bilbao, Spain (1995) - Line 2 (2004)
• American Air Museum, Imperial War Museum Duxford, UK (1997) - Stirling Prize
• Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow, UK (1997)
• Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, Germany (1997)
• Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong (1998)
• Canary Wharf Underground Station, London, UK (1999)
• Glass dome for the Reichstag redevelopment in Berlin (1999)
• Millennium Bridge in London (1999/2002)
• Redevelopment of the Great Court of the British Museum (2000)
• London City Hall (2002)
• 30 St Mary Axe, London - Swiss Re headquarters (2004) - Stirling Prize
• Millau Viaduct, the highest road bridge in the world (2004)
• The Sage Gateshead, UK (2004)
• MoorHouse, 117 London Wall, London (projected 2005)
• Wembley Stadium redevelopment (projected 2005)
• Beijing Airport - in construction

Senior partners

The practice is an umbrella for some one hundred architects and project specialists. The main office is laid out in an open plan egalitarian style with all architects working at a similar desk irrespective of seniority. However, as of 2004 the lead partners are;

• Norman Foster
• Spencer de Grey
• David Nelson
• Graham Phillips

Another highly influential partner for most of the practice's history was Ken Shuttleworth who was the inspiration behind many of their most famous designs, including: 30 St Mary Axe, the Greater London Authority Building, Hong Kong International Airport and the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt.

Shuttleworth's somewhat shy and retiring character meant that he was more than happy to avoid the limelight and let the firm take full credit for his designs - and in truth these highly technical buildings require the input from a large team of individuals and no one person can take all the credit. However at the end of 2003, after nearly 30 years of work, Shuttleworth left the practice establish his own practice, MAKE.

See also

• Norman Foster
• Ken Shuttleworth and MAKE
• Richard Rogers

External links

• Practice web site (http://www.fosterandpartners.com)
• Newspaper article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,879565,00.html) on Shuttleworth's influence.