Fernando Vazquez — architect designed Levi’s Stadium
Fernando Vazquez, an architect who shaped the new 49ers stadium and the expansion of UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium, died on April 17 in Santa Monica of stomach cancer. He was 59.
Energetic and engaging, Mr. Vazquez embraced the bold communal aspect of sports facilities, whether it was the deft spaceship-like press box hovering above Memorial Stadium’s classical concrete walls, or the wide steps leading up to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, a feature likened by the designer to the hillside of a Roman amphitheater.
“He was very much an artist — really a sculptor and painter who morphed into being an architect,” said Bob Milano Jr., who was Cal’s assistant athletic director for capital projects during the modernization and expansion of Memorial Stadium, which reopened in 2012.
Projects this complex are not lone endeavors. Mr. Vazquez was a design director for HNTB, which worked with the architecture firm Studios at Memorial Stadium and Magnusson Klemencic Associates at Levi’s Plaza. But his engagement was far deeper than the rarefied detachment to which some architects succumb, where they view the initial concept as more important than the real-life result.
“He was familiar with the details throughout the project,” said Jack Hill, the 49ers’ project executive during the $1.2 billion effort. “He didn’t just wave his arms and leave.”
Milano recalled an incident during a late stage in the construction of Memorial Stadium: The press box and its skeletal steel frame was in place atop the stony arches that date to 1923, but they wore a primer coat of dull gray rather than the silvery paint marked out in the design and that we now see. Mr. Vazquez had flown up from HNTB’s Los Angeles office and then headed to the construction site via taxi, across the Bay Bridge.
“He ran up to me from the taxi shouting “Bob, Bob, we should keep it gray! It looks great from the bridge!,” Milano said. “I told him ‘Fernando, we can’t change it now!’ ”
Mr. Vazquez was born in Uruguay and studied architecture in Argenti- na before moving to California, where he earned a master’s degree in Architecture at UCLA. In addition to his post at HNTB he had his own firm, Fernando Vazquez Architect, which won awards for its work on such small projects as Planned Parenthood offices in Los Angeles and a youth center in Echo Park.
He is survived by his wife, Analia Dichiara, and his children Felix, Jasmine and Justo.