Architect Richard Niblack Dead of Cancer at 63

Richard C. Niblack, a nationally renowned architect whose projects include the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, Johnson Manned Spacecraft Center for NASA in Houston and Madison Square Garden in New York, has died of cancer. He was 63.

Niblack, who was a resident of La Jolla, joined the prestigious architecture firm of Pereira & Luckman when he graduated from USC in 1953 and became director of design four years later when the firm became Charles Luckman Associates. He was named partner-in-charge of design when the firm became the Luckman Partnership Inc. in 1977. He retired in 1990 because of his illness and died Feb. 14.

During his Luckman tenure, the firm was recognized with 98 awards for design excellence for national projects that have since become landmarks. The list includes: Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, the 62-story First Interstate Bank Building headquarters, Broadway Plaza, the Hyatt Regency Hotel and parts of Los Angeles International Airport, Disney World’s EPCOT Center in Orlando, Fla., and the U.S. Pavilion for the New York World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows on Long Island, among others.

Niblack was a member of the American Institute of Architects, SCARAB Honorary Architectural Society, San Diegans Inc. and the San Diego Automotive Society.

Survivors include his wife, Hedy; his mother, Olyve Niblack; his daughter, Lori Gilder; his son, Dr. Mark Niblack; his grandson, Jeffrey Gilder, and his sister, Marion Carlson.