Occupation Architect Spouse(s) Steven Rupp | Practice SLR Architects Name Sigrid Rupp | |
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Born 1943 Bremerhaven, Germany Died May 27, 2004 (aged 60–61) Alma mater University of California, Berkeley | ||
Sigrid Lorenzen Rupp (1943 – May 27, 2004) was a German-American architect. She ran a private practice, SLR Architects, in Palo Alto, California, from 1976 to 1998, and specialized in designing facilities for tech companies in Silicon Valley.
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Early life and education
Rupp was born in Bremerhaven in 1943 and migrated to Oakland, California with her family at the age of 10. She became interested in architecture as a child during the German reconstruction boom after World War II and went on to study architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1966.
Career
After receiving her Bachelor of Architecture, Rupp worked for various firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. She became a licensed architect in California in 1971 and established her own practice, SLR Architects, in 1976. She specialized in technical and industrial facilities and provided designs for many early tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Amdahl Corporation, Apple Computer, Claris, IBM, Raychem, Sun Microsystems and Tandem Computers. Her design of a testing facility for Apple won an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award. She designed Stanford University's Storey House and Press Building, and also completed projects for AT&T, Pac Bell, Pan Am, San Jose State University and United Airlines. SLR Architects, which was based in East Palo Alto, California, closed in 1998 when Rupp retired.
Rupp was an advocate of women's rights and was a member of the Organization of Women Architects, the Union Internationale des Femmes Architectes and the AIA. In 1998, her work was included in the collection held by the International Archive of Women in Architecture. She said that she started campaigning for women's issues "simply because I did not want there to be any [women's issues]. It seemed that the time for gender differences should be long over." She was the chairperson of the City of Palo Alto Architectural Review Board, director of the AIA Santa Clara chapter, and director of California Women in Environmental Design.
Personal life
Rupp was diagnosed with gastric cancer in November 2003 and died on May 27, 2004. She was married to Steven Rupp.