1969 in architecture

Events

• January 8 – At the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden building is begun, with ground-breaking by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and the Secretary S. Dillon Ripley.

  Buildings and structures

Buildings opened

• March 7 – The John Hancock Center in Chicago, Illinois, by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
• June – Houses for Visiting Mathematicians, University of Warwick, Coventry, England, designed by Bill Howell of Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis.
• September 18 – Dresden TV tower begins radio transmission in Dresden, Germany.
• October 3 – Fernsehturm Berlin in East Berlin, Germany.
• St. John's Beacon in Liverpool, England.

  Buildings completed

• Knights of Columbus Building, designed by Roche-Dinkeloo
• One New York Plaza, Manhattan, New York City, designed by William Lescaze & Associates and Kahn & Jacobs
• Bank One Plaza, Chicago, Illinois
• 555 California Street, San Francisco, California, the tallest building west of the Mississippi from 1969–1972
• Sultan Yahya Petra Bridge, Kelantan, Malaysia
• Toronto-Dominion Centre is partially completed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Hilton Hotel, Paradise, Nevada, designed by architect Martin Stern, Jr.
• Ullasund Bridge, Norway
• Wyndham Court, Southampton, England
• Span Developments houses at New Ash Green, Kent, England, designed by Eric Lyons
• Benjamin's Mount, Perry House or Teesdale, Westwood Road, Windlesham, Surrey, England, designed by Ernő Goldfinger
• Taivallahti Church, Helsinki, Finland, designed by Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen in 1960

  Awards

• AIA Gold Medal – William Wilson Wurster.
• Architecture Firm Award – Jones & Emmons.
• RAIA Gold Medal – Robin Boyd.
• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Jack Antonio Coia.
• Twenty-five Year Award – Rockefeller Center

  Births

• February 28 – Sadie Morgan, English architect and designer
• date unknown – Sami Rintala, Finnish architect and artist

  Deaths

• February 11 – Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps, Nevada-based architect
• May 23 – Owen Williams, English structural engineer
• July 5 – Walter Gropius, German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School
• August 8 – Welton Becket, Los Angeles architect
• August 17 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect and last director of the Bauhaus
• August 19 – Sir Percy Thomas, Cardiff-based architect
• November 7 – Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Italian architect, writer and educator
• December 15 – Ruth Rivera Marín, Mexican architect