Nigel Dancey studied architecture at Oxford Polytechnic and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Washington DC, graduating in 1989 with a first class honours degree. He joined Foster + Partners in 1990, becoming involved in numerous competitions including Jiushi Tower, Shanghai. His early built projects include Yaraicho; a pair of office buildings in Tokyo, Japan and projects for Samsung Motors in Seoul, Korea. He was subsequently project architect for the Joslyn Art Museum addition in Omaha, Nebraska – Foster + Partners’ first building in the United States.
He was promoted to associate in 1993 and to project director the following year. He was the partner in charge, from inception through to completion in 2004, of the award winning McLaren Technology Centre Headquarters in Woking, Surrey. He became senior partner and Group 6 leader in 2004, and has since been responsible for a large team of architects, now some 160-strong. His experience spans a wide range of projects across North America, Canada, Europe and the Middle East – from education buildings to towers, urban masterplans to hotels, resorts and cultural buildings.
Education and research buildings include the Robert Gordon University Faculty of Management in Aberdeen, Stanford University’s Center for Clinical Sciences and the award-winning Clark Center, and the Faculty of Pharmacy for the University of Toronto. Closer to home, he has overseen the design of a secondary school - Langley Academy - due to open later this year, and he is currently responsible for the Yale University School of Management project.
His present responsibilities include headquarters buildings for EnCana in Calgary and Caja Madrid in Madrid, mixed-use towers in Vancouver and Istanbul, and several hotels and resorts including the Silken Group’s Aldwych Hotel in London, the Harmon hotel for MGM in Las Vegas, the Vista Palace in Monaco and sustainable resorts for Oberoi and Banyan Tree in Mauritius. He also worked on the recently completed Palace of Peace and the Entertainment Centre, both in Kazakhstan. New projects in Spain include the City of Justice in Madrid, Getafe Air Musem and Motor City.
He has lately led his team on a number of competition winning schemes that are now being realised. These include the SC Johnson Tribute Building in Wisconsin, Seattle Civic Centre, the Huadu Hotel competition in China and Al Faisaliah II, a new mixed-use tower in Riyadh. He was also involved in the New York Public Library competition earlier this year and the Monaco masterplan competition.
He has been awarded an Honorary Senior Fellowship by the Design Futures Council and became an executive director of the practice and a member of design board in 2007, to which he brings to bear a particular expertise in the social agenda, concentrating on a broad cross-section of the practice’s work.