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MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | KAROL, LouisBorn: 1928 07 30Died: 2021 07 19 ArchitectSACA:Reg No: 1632 Year registered: 1952 | |||
BArch (CT), ARIBA. Karol was born in the small hamlet of Pikeliai, Lithuania, to an Orthodox Jewish family, and remained an Orthodox Jew his entire life. His father and grandfather were craftsmen who worked primarily for the Prussian noblemen living in the Baltic states. Karol arrived in Cape Town on October 31, 1936, as an 8-year-old to join his father, a house painter, just before the passage of the Anti-Aliens Act which barred Jewish immigrants from Western Europe as anti-semitism was on the rise. Louis started school aged 8, speaking no English but within 18 months he had risen to the top of his class. His family lived in Muizenberg. He attended Cape Town High School. After matriculating he entered Cape Town School of Architecture in 1946, graduating with a first class pass in 1951. On graduating he immediately opened practice (1952) styled LOUIS KAROL ASSOCIATES.He helped found the Journal of the the Institute of SA Architects, ArchitectureSA and served as chairman of its editorial board. He also regularly served as external examiner to various local schools of architecture. As his practice grew, Karol surrounded himself with talented individuals, creating Cape Town’s first multi-disciplinary corporate practice. His passion for architectural education and the development of his staff, led to an in-house training and bursary programme for underprivileged students that has been in existence since 1981. Through these endeavours his firm became recognised for its diversity. His practice has been the recipient of several Institute awards, as well as the international FIABC Prix d’Excellence for Victoria Wharf at the V&A Waterfront (built on the same spot where he first arrived in South Africa). Louis KAROL was the Sophia Gray Laureate in 2002. Upon his retirement, the practice evolved into Peerutin Karol Architects. [UIA Issue 8, 1985, Eitan Karol cited in IOL obituary, (see link below)]. He was the recipient of a lifetime award from the South African Professional Services Association conferred in Johannesburg in November 2014. The citation reads: ''Few architects in Cape Town command as much respect, and among some of his competitors, unease, as Louis Karol. Along with his commercial acumen and force of personality, he has had the wisdom to cultivate a stable of formidable designers, who are supported by an extremely efficient office. His projects are usually large, commercially successful and visually strong, sometimes stunning'' Roy Birkby wrote in 1998. Karol arrived in South Africa as an eight-year-old immigrant in 1936 and established his practice immediately upon graduating with distinction from the University of Cape Town in 1952. He joined the Institute of Architects in the same year and has gone on to become a defining figure in the South African architectural profession. He is the founder of ArchitectureSA and has served as chairman of its editorial board. His practice has been the recipient of no less than seven Institute awards, as well as the international FIABC Prix d’Excellence for Victoria Wharf at the V&A Waterfront, built on the same spot where he first arrived in South Africa. For over six decades, Karol has worked with a passion for quality, and for delivering long-term commercial sustainability and architectural craftsmanship within a genre typified by disposability. He is equally passionate about the architectural education and development of his staff, with an in-house training and bursary programme for underprivileged students that has been in existence since 1981. Although his firm’s commissions have spanned several cities and countries, its most substantial body of work has been in Cape Town, where buildings designed by him have helped to shape the developing city’s skyline and streets. His practice has been fiercely committed to the Cape Town city centre, where there remains barely a block that has not been touched by the practice in some way. Karol’s oeuvre, such as the Golden Acre (1976) and Victoria Wharf (1992 – 2009) have sought to re-integrate a city torn apart by apartheid and transport planning. [Extracted from the South African Jewish Report published 2014 11 26, accessed 2025 06 30 11:00 UTC+2).Read the article Famed Cape Town architect Louis Karol dies at 93 on IOL. References Entries in books by KAROL
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