After the breakup of the earlier Team 4 practice, Norman Foster established a new studio in London in 1967. The firm (originally called Foster Associates) became an important base for an approach that combined architecture, engineering, and industrial-style detailing.
The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts opened in 1978 in Norwich, UK, as one of the practice’s first major public buildings. Its flexible, “all-in-one” interior helped demonstrate a high-tech design idea: a clear structural shell that can adapt to changing needs over time.
In 1979, Foster’s team won the international competition to design the new HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong. The commission pushed the practice into large-scale global work and set up a building focused on structure, prefabrication, and a major public plaza at street level.
HSBC’s Main Building in Central, Hong Kong, was completed on 1985-11-18. Its exposed structural frame and modular construction were meant to create large, open office floors and allow services (like elevators and ducts) to be maintained and updated more easily.
Commerzbank Tower opened in 1997 and became a landmark for tall-building design in Europe. It is known for its sky gardens and for promoting natural ventilation in an office skyscraper—an early sign of how the firm linked signature form with environmental performance goals.
Hong Kong’s new airport at Chek Lap Kok opened in July 1998, replacing the constrained Kai Tak Airport. Foster’s airport design helped show how the practice applied the same “systems thinking” from buildings to major transportation infrastructure.
Germany’s Reichstag building reopened on 1999-04-19 after a major renovation that added a new glass dome above the parliamentary chamber. The design made the public’s path visually “above” elected officials, and it used daylighting strategies to reduce energy demand.
On 2002-05-16, the completed City Hall building was handed over to the Greater London Authority (GLA). Designed to support public access and transparency, it placed key civic spaces—like the assembly chamber—within an expressive, energy-conscious form on the Thames.
30 St Mary Axe was completed in 2003 and opened on 2004-04-28 in the City of London. Its distinctive aerodynamic shape and ventilation concept helped popularize the idea of an “environmental” office tower, making it one of the firm’s best-known urban icons.
The Millau Viaduct was officially inaugurated on 2004-12-14, completing a key motorway link and reducing severe traffic congestion through the Tarn Gorge area. The project showed the practice’s signature collaboration between architect and engineer, aiming for a structure that is both minimal and highly legible at landscape scale.
Hearst Tower officially opened on 2006-10-09, rising from a preserved 1920s base building in Manhattan. The project became a widely cited example of integrating a new high-rise with a historic structure, and it was promoted as an early LEED Gold commercial tower in New York City.
On 2017-02-22, Apple announced that employees would begin moving into Apple Park in April 2017, with the transition taking more than six months. Designed in collaboration with Foster + Partners, the campus became a high-profile example of a corporate headquarters planned around large-scale open space and energy-efficiency goals.
Norman Foster / Foster + Partners: Signature Projects (1967–2017)