September 4: Italian architect Aldo Rossi died on this date in 1997

Italian architect, designer and urban theorist Aldo Rossi died on Sept. 4, 1997, at age 66. Winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architectural Prize in 1990, he was perhaps most influential during the 1970s and '80s. The Pritzker prize citation said:

"Each of Rossi's designs, whether an office complex, hotel, cemetery, a floating theatre, an exquisite coffee pot, or even toys, captures the essence of purpose.

"Rossi has been able to follow the lessons of classical architecture without copying them; his buildings carry echoes from the past in their use of forms that have a universal, haunting quality. His work is at once bold and ordinary, original without being novel, refreshingly simple in appearance but extremely complex in content and meaning. In a period of diverse styles and influences, Aldo Rossi has eschewed the fashionable and popular to create an architecture singularly his own."

Many of his products are still sold worldwide.

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To learn more about Aldo Rossi, visit:

Famous Architects: Aldo Rossi

Pritzker jury citation

Aldo Rossi Foundation (Italian)

Alessi products by Aldo Rossi

Flickr photos that mention Aldo Rossi