Alumnus Robert Turner Receives the 2014 University Distinguished Achievement Award
Architecture Alumnus Robert Turner will receive Virginia Tech’s University Distinguished Achievement Award at the 2014 University Commencement Ceremony. The award recognizes nationally distinguished achievements in any field of enduring significance to society.
After graduating from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1972, Turner began his career as an assistant to the noted architectural photographer Ezra Stoller. He later joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), one of the world’s largest architectural firms. He was elected a design partner at SOM in 1984, and he established and directed the firm’s London office. His projects at SOM included the Arab International Bank and World Trade Center in Cairo; the Lucky Goldstar Headquarters in Seoul, South Korea; the master plan for the Canary Wharf Development in London; the European headquarters for Texaco in London; the Sun Life Insurance Headquarters in Bristol, England; and the Utopia Pavilion, part of the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition, in Lisbon, Portugal.
Turner’s generous support of Virginia Tech includes establishing the biennial Fontainebleau Scholarship that sends a selected Architecture + Design student to the Fontainebleau Summer Academy, held at the 16th century Chateau Fontainebleau, a UNESCO world heritage site located a short distance southeast of Paris.
Canary Wharf, London