Mark Sutcliffe

Senior Partner

Mark Sutcliffe leads Foster + Partners’ Management Group. His interest is in the management and coordination of large teams on challenging projects. He joined Team Four in 1963, working on the Reliance Controls Electronics Factory, having been taught by Norman Foster at the Regent Street Polytechnic. After completing his studies, he joined Albert Kahn Associates in Detroit, followed by the Greater London Council and the London Borough of Camden, where he worked on residential and educational projects.

He joined Foster Associates in 1969 as project architect for IBM’s Pilot Head Office at Portsmouth. He was made an Associate in 1971, leading the team on the award-winning Willis Faber & Dumas building in Ipswich. From 1976, as a freelance architect, he carried out project management for projects such as Willis Faber’s London offices and IBM Birmingham. He subsequently spent a year as a senior associate at a large commercial firm. Rejoining Foster Associates in 1983, he became a Director with responsibility for the BBC Radio Centre and IBM’s London Computing Centre, which he saw through to detailed design. He also worked on Stansted Airport. From 1987, he spent a period in private practice and undertook value engineering studies for IBM.

In 1992 he rejoined the practice to lead the team for the Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, overseeing the project until its completion in 1997. Following a management role on the Valencia Conference Centre, he divided his time between the London and Berlin offices, where he provided support to the team on the Reichstag project. He was also responsible for Foster + Partners’ first project for Hines, the Metropolitan, in Warsaw. He was made a Senior Partner in 2004.