Carlos Ott is a Uruguayan architect who resides in Canada and many other countries. He became famous when he won his first prize in 1983 for the construction of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, which was inaugurated on July 14, 1989. He has offices in Toronto, Quebec, Shanghai, Dubai and Montevideo.
From 1972 to 1974, he worked as an architect for Baldwin & Cheshire Architects in Brunswick, Georgia, and for ARQUECO in San Jose, Costa Rica. In 1975, he moved to Canada where he was associate architect until 1979 at Moffat, Moffat Kinoshita & Associates Architects in Toronto. From 1979 to 1983, he joined Cadillac Fairview Corporation as architect responsible for commercial and multi-purpose projects in Canada. From 1983 to 1993, he joined NORR Partnership Ltd, the largest Canadian firm, located in Toronto as partner heading the Design and Architecture Division. Under his direction important projects in Canada and the United Arab Emirates were designed and built, such as: the Federal Court Building, Simcoe Place, Mixed Use Complex and Residential/Commercial Development for HE Sheik Tahnoon in Dubai, Union National Bank, National Bank of Dubai and Union National Bank. In 1983, Ott won the international design competition for the Opera de la Bastille in Paris, France, to commemorate the 200 year anniversary of the French Revolution on July 14, 1989. Ott was selected from 744 participants as one of the three finalists and then hand-picked by French President François Mitterrand as the winner of this prestigious project. In order to carry out the supervision of this project, he moved to Paris and formed a team, which in turn gave him international recognition and opened doors to many countries. His next accomplishments followed by winning the competition for an extremely advanced hospital in Weimar, Germany and several competitions in the United Arab Emirates such as: the Sheikh Zayed Road Development Project, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi Headquarters, Etisalat Telecom & Administration Building, Majid Al Futtaim Project, Baniyas Road Development, Offices for the Al-Futtaim Group, the New Dubai Creek Hilton Hotel. In 1993, Carlos Ott won several other competitions in Europe such as the Salle des Spectacles in Mont-de-Marsan, France and the Thomson Headquarters Building, Offices and Laboratories in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 1992 he returned to Uruguay to open an office which would complement his others around the world. From this new addition to his consortium, he completed projects such as: the International Airport of Laguna del Sauce ; the International Airport of Ushuaia-Malvinas Argentinas ; the Punta Shopping Centre ; Telecommunications Tower, the new headquarters for the state-owned telecommunications company ANTEL ; the Libertad Plaza Building ; the International Airport Lago Argentino ; among others.
China
In 1997, he was invited to participate in the competition for the Jiang Su Opera House in Nanjing, China where he obtained first prize. As a result, he was invited into another series of very important competitions such as the Beijing Opera House, the Commercial and Residential GW Plaza, and won the contract for the National Grand Theater of Hangzhou, China from yet another international competition. He won after Dong Guan Yulan Theatre, the Wenzhou National Theatre and the Henan Art Centre. In front of the Hangzhou Grand Theatre was selected to build the Hangzhou International Conference Center including a 5 stars hotel of more than 400 rooms.
Current Projects
Ott continues to travel the world and is currently working on projects in USA, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Singapore, China, United Arab Emirates, India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Philippines and Uruguay.
Awards
The unique style of his architecture is recognized in many countries through prestigious awards such as: Arts et Lettres and the Legion d´Honneur, awarded in 1986 and 1988 respectively, by François Mitterrand, the President of France, the Faculty of Architecture in Uruguay awarded him with the Gold Medal in 1990, the University of Washington with the Distinguished Alumni Award 1997, and the Museo de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires with the Vitruvio Award, also in 1997.
