Peter R. Rice (Peter Ronan Rice,^[1] 16 June 1935 – 25 October 1992) was an Irish structural engineer. Born in Dublin, he grew up in 52 Castle Road, Dundalk in County Louth, and spent his childhood between the town of Dundalk, and the villages of Gyles' Quay and Inniskeen. He was educated at Queen's University of Belfast where he received his primary degree, and spent a year at Imperial College London. Rice acted as Structural Engineer on three of the most important architectural works of the 20th century: the Sydney Opera House (with Ove Arup), Pompidou Centre and the Lloyd's Building and was renowned for his innate ability to act as both engineer and designer.

He originally studied Aeronautical Engineering but switched to Civil Engineering. Taken on by Ove Arup & Partners, his first job was the roof of the Sydney Opera House. He married Sylvia Watson in 1960 and they had one son ( who became an engineer) and three daughters. Jonathan Glancey in his obituary said "Rice was, perhaps, the James Joyce of structural engineering. His poetic invention, his ability to turn accepted ideas on their head and his rigorous mathematical and philosophical logic made him one of the most sought-after engineers of our times".^[2]

He believed the best buildings result from the symbiotic relationship between the architect and the engineer where the engineer is the objective inventor and the architect the creative input. He found the Anglo Saxon understanding of the work of an engineer restrictive and preferred the French and Italian interpretation of the role.^[3]

Among the notable buildings on whose design he worked are the Centre Pompidou, the Sydney Opera House, Lloyd's of London, the Louvre Pyramid, the Mound Stand at Lord's Cricket Ground, Kansai International Airport and Stansted Airport. Towards the end of his life he was largely responsible for the new façade of Lille Cathedral.^[2][4]

In 1992, he was the second engineer to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects (the first was Ove Arup), and the second Irishman after Michael Scott. The award is conferred by the Sovereign annually for work that has "promoted, either directly or indirectly, the advancement of architecture."

He was diagnosed with a brain tumour^[5] in 1991 and died the following year aged 57. A sign has been put up outside his childhood home, 52 Castle Road, Dundalk, County Louth, saying "Birthplace of Peter Rice, Engineer, 1935–1992". The plaque was erected privately by the (then) Dundalk Town Architect, Paul Clancy.

Peter Rice has been influential for the development of building technology; he thus contributed to extend architectural engineering as a professional field. Rice has intricately tied the disciplines of structural engineering and architectural technology.^[6] Among Rice's major achievements are his contribution to the development of structural glazing and the optimisation of tensile structures using steel, glass and wood. Through his mathematical insight, Rice had refined the engineering methods applied to slender, light-weight structures.

Rice's book, An Engineer Imagines, was posthumously published and came to be considered an important work in the history of building design.^[5] The Peter Rice Prize was established at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1994 in recognition of the ideals and principles represented by the late eminent engineer.^[7] The Peter Rice Silver Medal competition was established at Dundalk Institute of Technology (his home town) in 1996 under the patronage of Ove Arup and Engineers Ireland (Institution of Engineers of Ireland). This medal is awarded annually, to the best presentation by an engineering student of the institute on their practical project activity. In 2019, a documentary by Marcus Robinson, An Engineer Imagines, was screened by Channel 4 and in cinemas.^[8]

In 2012-2013, to celebrate Rice's 20 year anniversary, Arup organised the exhibition Traces of Peter Rice with a documentary. ^{[9][10][11][12]}

In 2023 on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Opera House, the Irish postal service, An Post, issued a stamp to mark the contribution of Rice to its opening. ^[13]

• An Engineer Imagines, Peter Rice (Ellipsis Press, 1998)
• An Engineer Imagines, Peter Rice (Artemis, 1994)
• Structural Glass, Hugh Dutton, Peter Rice (Routledge; 2001)
• Transparente Architektur, Glasfassaden mit Structural Glazing, by H. Dutton, P. Rice (Birkhäuser Verlag; 1995)
• Yutaka Saito in: Space design, 8/1992,335 by Y. Saito, O. Murai, K. Nanba, M. Ueda, P. Rice, T. Shinoda (p. 5 – 188)
• Building a show: The Bastille Dances, by Station House Opera in: The Architects' Journal, 6/1989, by P. Rice (p. 72–73) – performance review
• Design for better assembly, case study: Rogers' and Arup's in: The Architects' Journal, 36/1984, by J. Young, P. Rice, J. Thornton (p. 87–94)
• Menil Collection Museum roof: evolving the form in: Arup journal, 2/1987, by P. Rice (p. 2–5)
• Rogers revolution: Lloyd's remarkable new headquarters in: Building Design, 1986,807, by P. Rice (p. 32–33)
• Il punto di vista di Peter Rice | An engineer's view in: L'Arca, 1987,5, by P. Rice (p. 70–75)
• Unstable structures in: Columbia documents of architecture and theory, 1992, by P. Rice (p. 71–89)
• Stratégie de l'araignée in: L'architecture d'aujourd'hui, 1987,252, by P. Rice (p. 78–79)
• Menil Collection museum roof: evolving the form in: Offramp, 1991,4 by P. Rice (p. 117–119)
• Gleichgewicht und Spannung | Equilibre et tension in: Archithese, 2/1990, by P. Rice (p. 84–96)
• Konstruktive Intelligenz in: arch+: Rhetorik des Machens, 1990,102, by G. Behnisch, C. Vasconi, O. Aicher, J. Nouvel, H. C. Schulitz, P. Rice, R. Rogers, S. Polónyi, H. von Malotki (p. 42–52)
• Peter Rice: Performing Instability, 2015, by Dr Greg Kerr, Enlighten Publications, University of Glasgow^[14]
• Traces of Peter Rice, Kevin Barry (ed) (Lilliput Press, 2017)

• Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia; 1957
• Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England; 1967
• Amberly Road Children's Home, London, England; 1969
• National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace, London, England; 1970
• Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, England; 1970
• Perspex spiral staircase, Andrew Grima jewellery shop, 80 Jermyn Street, London, England; 1970

• Super Grimentz Ski Village, Valais, Switzerland; 1970
• Conference Centre, Mecca, Saudi Arabia; 1971
• Special structures advice to Frei Otto and others on pneumatic and cable structures including "The City in the Arctic"; 1971
• Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg), Paris-4^ième, France; 1971
• Jumbo jet hangar, Johannesburg, South Africa; 1976
• TGV Station Lille, France; 1994
• Mobiles Zelt in London, England; 1992
• TGV Station Roissy, France; 1991–94
• Elektronikfabrik Thomson Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France; 1990
• Transformation of the Louvre, glass pyramids, Paris-1^er, France; 1988–93
• Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie Paris-19^ième, France; 1986
• De Menil Collection Houston; 1981–86
• IBM Traveling Pavillon; 1980–84
• "Quartierslaboratorium" für Stadterneuerung Otranto, Italy; 1979
• Residential complex in Corciano, Italy; 1978–82
• Canopy "Le Nuage" at La Défense, Nanterre, France; 1986–89
• Roof of the postal coach station in Chur, Switzerland; 1989–92
• The Full Moon Theatre; Gourgoubès, France; 1991–92
• 'Pabellón del Futuro; Seville, Spain; 1991–92
• Japan Bridge (passerelle Kupka) at La Défense, Nanterre, France; 1990–93; project completed posthumously by collaborating engineers Kate Purver, Lionel Pennison and Pat Dallard and by collaborating architectural technologist Hugh Dutton
• West facade of Lille cathedral, France; 1991–99; project completed posthumously