Peter Steiger, 1928–2023
Note: this is an English translation of an obituary for Peter Steiger that appeared in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 11 August 2023, written in German by Adi Kälin and sent to me by Steiger’s widow, Esther Schoellkopf.
The architect Peter Steiger created buildings at CERN and became an eco-pioneer — now the Zurich native has died at the age of 94. He had famous parents — and managed to step out of their shadows.
It is not easy for anyone who has such famous ancestors as Peter Steiger to find his own way.
His grandfather, Carl Steiger, was a well-known aviation pioneer who undertook the first glider flight in Switzerland in 1891. His mother, Flora Steiger-Crawford, was the first woman graduate in architecture at the ETH and a sculptor. And finally his father, Rudolf Steiger, was a pioneer of modern building in Switzerland. The Haefeli Moser Steiger office was one of the most important architectural offices of the 20th century.
Peter Steiger was born in 1928 in the midst of this architectural avant-garde. As a 10-year-old he stumbled across the Kongresshaus construction site and at home used building blocks to simulate the demolition of the previous building, the so-called Trocadéro.
At the time, he had no idea that in later years he would deal very intensively with the Zurich Kongresshaus twice more: for the first time in the 1980s, when he developed plans for an extension, but lost the contract and had to watch how careless the general contractor that finally implemented the project was in dealing with the old building structure. For the second time, before the 2008 vote, he helped prevent the structure from being demolished altogether.
“I doubted my own abilities for a long time”
As a 19-year-old, Peter Steiger was already working in the architectural association for the Zurich Cantonal Hospital and in the office of Haefeli Moser Steiger. He was particularly impressed by Max Ernst Haefeli, who discussed construction details with him on a daily basis. Only later, Peter Steiger wrote, did he realize “what a well-founded design and building construction training” he had received from Haefeli.
He did not go through any formal professional training. It only became an issue when he was to become a professor of design and building construction at TU Darmstadt in 1973. Can a professor become a professor without a professional qualification? In fact, it finally worked: the merits that Steiger could already show at that time convinced those responsible in Darmstadt.
Peter Steiger learned from the best and doubted his own abilities for a long time: “I knew very early on that I didn’t have nearly the talent to be able to join this star gallery,” he wrote in his 2009 autobiography. At the age of 21, he heard a lecture by Frank Lloyd Wright in Zurich, which impressed him so much that he became a fellow at Taliesen, the world-renowned architect’s studio in Arizona.
As a talented musician, Steiger occasionally had to play Beethoven’s Spring Sonata on the violin for the master. Wright’s influence was later evident in the work of Steiger — most clearly in the Villa Nebel in Erlenbach.
After a few years as an independent architect, Steiger founded an office in 1956 together with his father. The two were commissioned to create the buildings of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva; Peter Steiger’s responsibilities included, among other things, all of the buildings connected with the particle accelerators.
Work for the Göhner company
This major project was followed by other research and laboratory buildings, such as one for IBM in Rüschlikon. The Sonnhalde housing estate in Adlikon, with over 800 apartments, was built for the Göhner company at the end of the 1960s. Steiger had to fall back on Göhner’s ready-made elements, but was able to expand the range with a few elements of his own.
In addition to his work as an architect, from the late 1950s on, Steiger increasingly dealt with local and regional planning. Among other things, he was part of the Zurich working group for urban development (ZAS), an association of young architects who dealt with the structural development of Zurich. They were particularly successful in the transport sector, where they helped prevent the monstrous linking of freeways directly at Zurich main station. In the 1960s, Steiger was a lecturer in a postgraduate course for planners at the ETH.
The year 1973 was a turning point in many respects. On the one hand, Peter Steiger now devoted himself more to his teaching activities in Darmstadt. On the other hand, he began to deal intensively with questions of how to deal with sustainability.
He became an eco-pioneer at a time when energy-conscious building was still a foreign concept for most of his colleagues. Among other things, Steiger dealt with the use of solar energy and developed ideas for large district heating networks. He used this experience when building new settlements and as a surveyor and expert for ecological building.
Peter Steiger managed to step out of the shadow of his famous parents and go his own way. He died on July 29 at the age of 94.
Personal Postscript
Peter Steiger was a close, lifelong friend of Richard Bender (1930–2022), my writing partner for 50 years. I first met Peter when he taught at U.C. Berkeley in the 1970s. In the mid-1990s, RB and I consulted with Intep AG, a firm in Zurich and Munich that Peter helped found. He arranged for me to advise Hannover Expo 2000 on its “green” theme. RB and I met up with Peter and Esther Schoellkopf in Tokyo in 1997, when our visits there overlapped. In 1998, I attended their memorable wedding party on the lake in Zurich. They visited Berkeley and we had a dinner for them attended by the Benders and Richard Fernau, who had worked with Peter in Zurich.
Peter’s autobiography is a big tome, befitting a big man who did a lot across his long life. Among my memories of him is a dinner at their apartment overlooking the lake, where I noted their music stands, as they were both orchestra-level musicians. There’s a cultural aspect to his life that could be added to this account. Also missing is the Messestadt, which recast the old Munich airport as a mixed-use district and a proof statement of the large-scale “integrated planning” he pioneered to achieve sustainability at scale.
While Frank Lloyd Wright is mentioned, I don’t see Peter’s memorable anecdote about borrowing Wright’s car while at Taliesen, leaving it in an arroyo that flooded, and then being tasked with restoring it — “let off lightly” because Wright liked his music.* Also missing is the time Peter was kidnapped in Manila but managed to befriend his kidnappers, party with them, and get dropped off at his hotel without further incident. I’m sure there are hundred of such anecdotes, but these are two I remember.
*: Esther Schoellkopf wrote to me that it was his own car that Peter left in an arroyo: “He wouldn’t have dared borrow Wright’s.” In the telling. though, it was Wright’s car. It made for a better story.
