Adolf Hoch

Born in Winterberg, Bohemia, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Adolf Hoch’s father was a shoemaker and saddler, but Adolf and his older brother would eventually take up the profession of architecture. From 1924 through 1929 he was a student at the Federal Higher Technical Institute for Educating and Experimenting in Mödling, Austria and worked as a bricklayer during the summer months to support his education. From 1929 through 1932 he studied at the Academy of Arts in Vienna and received a diploma under famous German architect and designer Peter Behrens. For a time, he worked as a construction engineer for the company of Ing. Seemann in Mödling.

The year that he completed his degree, Hoch was awarded the academy’s Meisterschulpreis award and he continued to work under Behrens until 1937. The following year he founded his own office with a friend and they worked together to design the Goerz-Werke in Vienna. During World War II, he served as a soldier and his father went missing during the final year of the conflict. In 1947 he began his career as a civil architect in earnest and the following year won an Olympic gold medal in the Architecture, Architectural Designs, Mixed competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics for his project “Ski Jump Stadium Kobenzl”, although his plans were never realized. Until 1936, the old Kobenzl ski jump had existed on the slope of the Latisberg in Wien (Vienna). The new construction planned after World War II was designed as a 60-meter jump with amphitheater-like bleachers for approximately 25,000 spectators. In the summer, other sports and cultural events were to take place in the complex.

Over the course of his career, Hoch designed 12 apartment buildings, 18 hospitals and other public buildings and 7 industrial buildings in addition to publishing three works on architecture from 1948 through 1969. He became particularly known, however, through the design of the Opera Passage in the city center of Wien and three other shopping arcades in Wien . He gained the honorable title of “Professor” in 1970 and in 1989 received the Golden Diploma of the Academy of Arts in Wien. He also was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honor (Goldenes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich), which is given to Austrian natives and foreigners who have who have provided special services to the country. He died in Lainz Hospital in Vienna at the age of 81, having suffered multiple organ failure and brain strokes after glaucoma surgery, and was buried in Hietzing Cemetery in Vienna. His two daughters took up after their father and also became architects.