Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, who designed hundreds of projects including skyscrapers 432 Park Avenue and the Walkie Talkie, has passed away aged 78.

Viñoly passed away yesterday in New York City, according to an announcement made by Elisa Carrió, an Argentine politician and friend of Viñoly's.

His studio was responsible for designing numerous large-scale buildings across the globe including the super-skinny 432 Park Avenue skyscraper in New York.

In the UK he designed 20 Fenchurch Street in London, which is widely known as the Walkie Talkie due to its shape, along with the masterplan for Battersea Power Station and the Firstsite visual arts centre in Colchester.

In 1989, Viñoly designed Tokyo International Forum, which featured a 60-meter-high curtain wall.

"Personally, his role and impact in the architecture field was very powerful," Uruguayan-American architect Amir Kripper told Dezeen

"He paved the way for architects coming to the US from South America and getting major projects and recognition."

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, he studied at the University of Buenos Aires before co-founding his first studio Estudio de Arquitectura Manteola-Petchersky-Sánchez Gómez-Santos-Solsona-Viñoly in 1964. The studio would go on to be one of the largest in South America.

In 1978 he relocated to America and established his studio Rafael Viñoly Architects shortly after, which now has offices in the US, UK, UAE and Argentina. 

While still in South America, Viñoly was responsible for a number of large-scale public projects in Buenos Aires including the city's Chamber of Deputies, the bridge-filled Rioja Housing Project, and Argentina Televisora Color, a headquarters for the Argentinian colour television industry that the architect described as a defining project in his career in a 2008 interview.

He was responsible for a number of other projects in New York City including the Bronx County Hall of Justice, and also designed structures in Massachusets, Pennslyvania, Texas, and Illinois.

In 2009, the architect designed the New Terminal at Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo, which marked a return to his country of birth that was followed by the circular Laguna Garzón Bridge in the country in 2015.

Viñoly was a fellow at the American Institute of Architects, an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a member of the Japan Institute of Architects.

The main image is by Jane Gitschier via Wikimedia Commons.