Résumé

By the 1980s, Antoine Predock developed a national and international reputation but, in his early years of practice during the 1960s and 1970s, his work was thought of as being a kind of Southwest Regional Modern variant. (See "Regionalism: the Southwest--Antoine Predock and Bennie M. Gonzalez," Progressive Architecture, v. 55, n. 3, 03/1974 p. 60-77 and "Even small banks can express a regional vernacular," Architectural Record, v. 160, n. 4, 09/1976, p. 119-126.) Being a "regionalist" was not a dismissive term suggesting the parochial nature of his work, but rather it was a world view embedded in the specifics of a beloved place, in Predock's case the land, wildlife and culture of NM. He was an aware and sophisticated practitioner who practiced what Kenneth Frampton called "critical regionalism."

After the md-1980s and into the 1990s, Predock became a well-known designer outside the Southwest region, designing the Mandell Weiss Forum at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), finished in 1991, Classroom and Laboratory Building at the California State Polytechnic University in Pomana, done by 1992, and the Center for Integrated Systems (CIS) Building at Stanford University, completed in 1996. This Stanford commission was obtained during the tenure of Campus Architect David J. Neuman, who was attracting "starchitects" to design buildings across the campus. Predock designed several other high-profile commissions on the West Coast, including several University of California system buildings, Petco Park in Downtown San Diego and the Tacoma Art Museum #2 in Tacoma, WA.

New York Times writer Fred A. Bernstein wrote of Predock's regionally-inflected work in the architect's obituary: "Mr. Predock’s early buildings were extensions of the desert. In a 1994 monograph, “Antoine Predock: Architect,” he wrote of the temptation, when facing a vast, forbidding landscape, to build something familiar, like a bank with a classical facade. “Another option, one that I have chosen, is to make buildings that suggest an analogous landscape,” he wrote. His later buildings, some far from Albuquerque, used materials and finishes appropriate to their locations. But they maintained the geological, almost primordial look that characterized Mr. Predock’s best work." (See Fred A. Bernstein, New York Times.com, "Antoine Predock, Architect Who Channeled the Southwest, Dies at 87," published 03/05/2024, accessed 03/27/2024.)

Principal, Antoince Predock, Architect, Albuquerque, NM, 1967- . By 2024, his firm was known as "Antoine Predock Architect PC."

Relocation

The architect Antoine Samuel Predock was born and raised in MO. He relocated to Albuquerque, NM, during his years as an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico. While he gained acclaim for his work around the world, Predock's main inspiration came from the landforms of desert. His immersion in the geography and culture of NM led him to say later in life that he was an "Albuquerque native."

Predock died of "idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis," scarring of the lungs caused by an unknown trigger, at his Albuquerque residence.

Spouse

Predock married twice. While at Columbia University, he wed a dancer for the Metropolitan Opera’s ballet company, Jennifer Masley. Like the landscape architect Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009), whose work was strongly influenced by his wife, the dancer and choreographr, Anna Halprin (1920-2021), Masley had an influence on Predock's creative process: Predock's New York Times.com obituary of 2024 stated: "They married, and Mr. Predock returned to Albuquerque with her. There, the couple jointly taught a workshop for architects and dancers on the power of improvisation." (See Fred A. Bernstein, New York Times.com, "Antoine Predock, Architect Who Channeled the Southwest, Dies at 87," published 03/05/2024, accessed 03/27/2024.) Despite their fruitful creative connection, the couple later divorced.

His second wife was the sculptor, Constance DeJong, whom he married in 2004.

Children

He had two sons Jason Predock and Hadrian Predock.