Ove Arup

Ove Arup was born in England in 1895 to Danish parents. He graduated in 1922 and his career was greatly influenced by Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus movement. In 1946 he founded Arup and Partners, a structural and civil engineering consulting firm. This evolved in 1963 into Arup and Associates in order to incorporate the role of architects into the firm on an equal basis. It was a multi-disciplinary company providing engineering, architectural, and other services for the built environment.

Arup first came to the world’s attention with the structural design of the Sydney Opera House, followed by their work on the Centre Pompidou in Paris. An Irish Engineer, Peter Rice (1935 - 1992) working with Arup’s played a major role in the design of these structures.

Arup provided engineering design services for both of the West-Link Bridges, having been appointed by Dublin County Council to carry out the design on a single bridge back in 1984. The twin bridges carry the M50 Motorway over the River Liffey above the Strawberry Beds, with the first bridge opening in 1990 and the second bridge in 2003. Arup is widely recognised as a world leader in delivering design and consulting engineering services, as well as numerous other architectural and professional skills.

Arup has a long history of major transportation projects dating back to their first project in Ireland in 1946, the structural design of Busaras. Today Arup provides a full range of multidisciplinary engineering services with over 300 staff in Ireland and is part of the Arup Partnerships Worldwide with over 11,000 staff.

Ove Arup died in 1988.