Jon Jerde (1940-2015)

Jerde, born in Illinois but a California resident since 1952, started his eponymous firm in 1977 with an emphasis on "placemaking" for malls and other commercial spaces. One of his first commissions, the Horton Plaza shopping center in San Diego, established many of the traits that would carry through to many projects in the ensuing decades, namely open-air circulation, winding routes, and an unself-conscious use of color. In addition to a lifetime of mall placemaking, the project led to his appointment as "design czar" for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and as architect for Universal Studio's CityWalk.

Jerde's ability to create places that attracted and entertained large numbers of people made him popular with clients in California but also elsewhere. In Las Vegas he worked with Steve Wynn on a number of casinos. Japan is home to the Canal City Hakata and other large malls. And Jerde designed projects recently for China, where his brand of large-scale placemaking seems a natural fit.