Postmodern demigods. A multi-hyphenate actress-preservationist. Avant-garde directors. Pulitzer Prize–winning architecture critics. Famous patrons. Urban planning luminaries. An Archigram cofounder. Radical landscape architects.
These are just a few brief descriptors of the visionary architects, artists, educators, designers, and writers who passed away in 2025. See the names of the individuals listed below, and click to read more about their life and impact.
David Lynch, 78
Film maker, painter
Dennis Crompton, 89
Archigram cofounder, London educator
Robert A. M. Stern, 86
Postmodern architect, Yale School of Architecture dean
Léon Krier, 79
Traditional architect, new urbanist
Frank Gehry, 96
Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV, 88
Founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network
Nicholas Grimshaw, 85
Grimshaw Architects founder
Donald Shoup, 86
Educator, planner
Yrjö Kukkapuro, 91
Finnish postmodernist designer and interior architect
Diane Keaton, 79
Actress, preservationist, and patron saint of Los Angeles architecture
Simone Swan, 96
Legendary adobe advocate and architectural patron
M. Paul Friedberg, 93
Landscape architect and public housing champion
Alain Peauroi, 46
Landscape architect, TERREMOTO cofounder
David Childs, 83
SOM firm leader
Elizabeth Felicella, 58
Architectural photographer, artist, writer, political activist
Ricardo Scofidio, 89
Diller Scofidio + Renfro cofounder, architect of the High Line
Robert Campbell, 88
The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic
Hans Noë, 96
“Hiding master” sculptor, architect; Holocaust survivor; Tony Smith, Barnett Newman, and Mies van der Rohe protégé
Chuck Davis, 90
EHDD founding partner
Robert Wilson, 83
Avant-garde theater director
Christophe de Menil
Collector, designer, and art patron
Pilar Viladas, 70
Architecture editor
Helmut Swiczinsky, 81
Coop Himmelb(l)au cofounder, Deconstructivism pioneer
Michael Benedikt, 78
UT Austin professor
Hiroshi Hara
Architect, author
Kongjian Yu, 62
Chinese landscape architect
Erik Verboon, 46
Director and cofounder of Walter P Moore New York City office
John Morgan, 52
British graphic designer
Olle Lundberg, 71
San Francisco architect
Lars Lerup, 85
Architect, author, theorist, educator, and dean