As part of Queen Elizabeth II’s 2017 New Year’s Honours List, the United Kingdom’s Cabinet Office announced that 50-year-old British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye, Hon. FAIA, will be knighted by the Queen for his service to the field of architecture. The celebrated architect established his London-based firm Adjaye Associates in 2000, and has since gone on to complete numerous commercial, cultural, and residential projects locally, as well as in the United States and Norway.
Adjaye’s most recent projects include being part of the team that designed the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.; winning the competition to design the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art; being named the master plan architect for San Francisco’s Shipyard redevelopment, and being shortlisted for the United Kingdom’s National Holocaust Memorial.
Courtesy Alan Karchmer
“I am truly honored and humbled to receive a knighthood by Her Majesty the Queen for my contribution to architecture,” said Adjaye in his firm’s press release. “I see this not as a personal celebration, but as a celebration of the vast potential—and responsibility—for architecture to affect positive social change. That we as architects have to bring something positive to the world. I am proud to continue to work in service of this mission as a global cultural ambassador for the UK.”
Adjaye will be honored with knighthood at an investiture ceremony later this year.
