Innovative Architect Ricardo Scofidio Dies at 89

By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP

Ricardo Scofidio. Photo credit: DS+R.

Ricardo ‘Ric’ Scofidio was born in NYC in 1935 and attended the Cooper Union School of Architecture and the Columbia University for an architecture degree. He then started teaching architecture at Cooper Union in 1965 while maintaining an architectural office practice. In the tumultuous 1970s, his life changed dramatically when he divorced his wife and sought to remake his practice with a new partner, Elizabeth Diller. They married in 1989. Founding Diller + Scofidio in a gritty Village studio loft across the street from Cooper Union and above the Village Voice offices in 1979, they designed as they taught, to question the orthodoxy of standard architecture.

Scofidio was a friend to the Village and to the West side of Manhattan, treating the special character here with care. The now-called Diller Scofidio + Renfro projects on the Manhattan west side exemplify the innovative approach these architects take to their work. They are responsible for the High Line Park from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street, The Shed and a condo tower at Hudson Yards, the revitalization of Lincoln Center outdoor spaces, and 2019 Museum of Modern Art addition on 53rd Street. Other recent west side projects are the new business school building for Columbia University and the Vangelos Education Center for medicine on 171st Street.

The firm has grown to employ 100 people in their west side Lehigh-Starrett building offices, with projects in various parts of the world, including Moscow. Charles Renfro became a partner in 2004 and Benjamin Gilmartin was partnered in 2015. The firm and its partners have won many awards and international recognition. An article in the NY Times March 8, 2025 by Fred A. Bernstein quotes Robert Hammond, co-founder of the High Line Foundation, saying, “Ric would say ‘My job is to save the High Line from architecture.’ It was all about revealing and removing.”

At the Hudson Yards end of their High Line Park project, The Shed performance space and condo tower are examples of Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s architectural design and Ric Scofidio’s influence. Note the unique set of wheels that allows “The Shed” canopy to move back and forth on its tracks. Credit: Brian J. Pape, AIA.

I have had the privilege of meeting Scofidio and Diller at various architectural programs, and was struck by their humility and warmth. For them, the work is a team effort, and Scofidio was not as interested in being the spokesman as he was in being the problem solver. They fed off one another’s ideas, even opposition, to arrive at a final solution. They were each brilliant with a sense of humor that made the teamwork last and thrive.

Ric Scofidio’s ideas and principals have influenced many current and future architects, and his memory will live on. Ric Scofidio passed away Mach 6, 2025.