Gábor Ács (born 21 December 1926) is a Hungarian-born architect who was active primarily between 1953 and 1990. He worked early in his career with the noted architect

I. M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

, and was the chief architect for the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

international real estate developer

Società Generale Immobiliare Società Generale Immobiliare (SGI; ) was once the largest real estate and construction company in Italy. It was founded in Turin in 1862, then relocated to Rome in 1870 with the unification of Italy. The company bought some of the pastoral land a ...

(for whom he helped to successfully build the

Watergate complex The Watergate complex is a group of six buildings in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. The complex includes a development of Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment residences. It also includes a hotel and an o ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Personal information

Gábor Ács was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Kingdom of Hungary (1920-44), on 21 December 1926. He enrolled at the Faculty of Architecture-Engineering at the University of Technology of Budapest, graduating in 1948. When the military forces of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

occupied Hungary after World War II, his father took his family to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, where they settled in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Ács enrolled at the

Politecnico di Milano The Polytechnic University of Milan (, abbreviated as PoliMi) is a university in Milan, Italy. It is the largest technical university in the country, with about 40,000 enrolled students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate, and higher ...

, graduating in 1953 with a degree in architecture. Ács currently lives in Rome with his wife, Armelle.

Professional career

After obtaining his degree in architecture, Ács, in 1956, traveled to the United States and became a practicing architect. He joined I.M. Pei's firm in 1956, working as the design architect for the

Kips Bay Plaza Kips Bay Towers is a 1,118-unit, two-building condominium complex in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York. The complex was designed by architects I.M. Pei and S. J. Kessler, with the involvement of James Ingo Freed, i ...

and Washington Square East. He became ''partner'' in "I. M. Pei and Partners." working with Henry N. Cobb. In 1963, he came back Italy and established an office on the

Piazza Navona Piazza Navona () is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the 1st century AD Stadium of Domitian and follows the form of the open space of the stadium in an elongated oval. The ancient Romans went there to watch the '' a ...

in Rome, where he has developed projects in more than 15 nations around the world. He became the chief architect for the Italian real estate developer

(SGI). In May 1962, he and

Luigi Moretti Luigi Walter Moretti (2 January 1907 – 14 July 1973) was an Italian architect. Active especially in Italy from the 1930s, he designed buildings such as the Watergate Complex in Washington DC, The Academy of Fencing, and ''Il Girasole'' ("The ...

successfully defended the

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, in August of that year. It revol ...

complex's design in a special three-hour meeting with the members of the

United States Commission of Fine Arts The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States, and was established in 1910. The CFA has review (but not approval) authority over the "design and aesthetics" of all construction wit ...

: SGI's chief architect, Gabor Acs, with professor Luigi Moretti of the University of Rome flew to New York City to defend their designs. In the end, SGI was allowed to build 25 percent of the complex to 13 stories. Moretti, who had designed the

Montreal Stock Exchange The Montreal Exchange (MX; ), formerly the Montreal Stock Exchange (MSE), is a derivatives exchange, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that trades futures contracts and options on equities, indices, currencies, ETFs, energy and interest rates. ...

and Rome's Olympic Village for the

1960 Olympic Games The 1960 Olympics may refer to: *The 1960 Winter Olympics, which were held in Squaw Valley, United States *The 1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 19 ...

, served as a consulting architect. Read more: Watergate: The name that branded more than a building , Washington Business Journal His many projects and commissions include: :*The Port Royal residential tower (1963) in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

:*The Victoria Place business center (1964) in Montreal (with Luigi Moretti and

Pier Luigi Nervi Pier Luigi Nervi (21 June 1891 – 9 January 1979) was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and was known wo ...

:*The

Pan Am Building The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Designed in ...

(1966) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

:*Residential towers (1967) in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

:*The

French Red Cross The French Red Cross (), or the CRF, is the national Red Cross Society in France founded in 1864 and originally known as the ''Société française de secours aux blessés militaires'' (SSBM). Recognized as a public utility since 1945, the Frenc ...

headquarters (1968) on the Rue de Berry, Paris :*The Sperlinga Villa residential building (1969) in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, Italy :*The Mirabeau hotel and residential tower in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

:*The headquarters of

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

(1979) in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

:*A three-tower office complex and pedestrian plaza (1980) in the

Fiera District in Bologna, Italy The Fiera di Bologna is the business district of the city of Bologna, in central Italy. The area includes a trade exhibition centre and several office towers occupied by the regional government of Emilia-Romagna and various private companies. H ...

(with Kenzo Tange)Henshūbu, S.D. ''Tange Kenzō.'' Tokyo: Kajima Shuppankai, 1988, p. 84. :*The National Center for Civil Defense in Rome

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acs, Gabor 1926 births Living people Architects from Budapest Hungarian emigrants to Italy Modernist architects Polytechnic University of Milan alumni