Gyo Obata
Founding Partner,
Hellmuth, Obata, & Kassabaum - HOK
Laureate 2006
Gyo Obata has creativity in his genes.His dad was a famous artist and his mom was a talented floral designer. When Gyo was six years old, he left hishome in San Francisco to spend a year at his grandmother’s house in Japan. There,he learned about Japanese architecture, a building style that closely imitates the forms of nature. This experience convinced him that he wanted to become an accomplished architect. Gyo moved to St. Louis in 1942 to attend the Washington University School of Architecture. He later studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan with master architect Eliel Saarinen, the father of the man who designed the St. Louis Arch. In 1955, Gyo joined George Hellmuth and George Kassabaum to form HOK. The firm now ranks as the largest architectural firm in the world, with more than 1,900 employees in 24 offices on four continents. Gyo has designed airports, museums, hospitals, universities, courthouses, office buildings, laboratories and churches throughout the world. In the St. Louis region, he has designed the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse, Lambert St. Louis International Airport, Missouri History Museum Expansion in Forest Park, Living World at the St. Louis Zoo, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville campus, and Saint Louis Galleria shopping center. Gyo designs buildings from the inside-out. Before developing concepts, he studies who is going to occupy the structure and how they’re going to use and move throughout the building. He strives to enhance the quality of life of the people who will live, work, or have fun in a building. He has a deep respect for nature and seeks opportunities to incorporate it into his projects.
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