By Douglas Carew
Leading Cape Town architect Ivor Prinsloo, the visionary behind the V&A Waterfront, died after falling during a hike in the Gifberg mountain range near Van Rynsdorp in the Western Cape.
Prinsloo, 66, was the former head of the University of Cape Town's school of architecture and planning and a partner in leading firm GAPP Architects.
Wayne Smith of Metro Rescue said Prinsloo had been walking with a group of eight people, on a steep path on the farm Rusoord, when he slipped and knocked his head on a rock.
"Someone in the group had to run for 45 minutes to call for help and we sent out the SkyMed helicopter but he was already dead," Smith said.
Prinsloo, a University of the Witwatersrand graduate, was appointed director of UCT's school of architecture in 1974 at the age of 39 while still completing his PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 1987 he was named an honourary member of the American Institute of Architecture and in 1991 was invited to lecture on the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront project before an international seminar in Venice.
Prinsloo was then a partner in Gallagher Prinsloo Associates, architectural co-ordinators and urban designers for the Waterfront project.
He firmly believed in Cape Town's need to re-establish its link with the sea, as it had lost much from being cut off by the foreshore reclamation and freeways. He was recently appointed to head the Integrated Planning and Environment group examining the viability of the freeway completion proposal.
As far back as 1975, Prinsloo called for changes to the city centre, especially the foreshore and the introduction of a canal. A walk down to the foreshore illustrates that Prinsloo's call has finally been heard.