Design and analysis
29 Jul 03
Death of Tony Fitzpatrick
Tony Fitzpatrick, the structural engineer who led the project to solve the 'wobble' of London's Millennium Bridge, has died in a road accident.
Although Fitzpatrick, who was group board director of Arup, and chairman of Arup's Americas division, worked on the design of buildings for most of his career, he became famous in the bridge industry as the lead engineer on the redesign of the Millennium Bridge.
He graduated from Leeds University in 1972, and joined Arup as a structural engineer, and so began an illustrious career working with many of the world's most famous architects including Sir Norman Foster and Ken Shuttleworth, Lord Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel and Renzo Piano.
In a recent interview, Fitzpatrick, when asked what his favourite project was replied, "I have two, the Hongkong Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong and the Millennium Bridge in London. Both were fantastic learning experiences where I felt I made a real difference, and that is really important to me. These projects justified my decision to become an engineer, that my contribution to the environment has made the world a little better."
