Emmy-winning production designer Rene Lagler will receive the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award at the ADG’s 21st annual Excellence in Production Design Awards on Feb. 11 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.
A recipient of five Emmys and 18 Emmy nominations, Lagler is best known for his contemporary and classic designs for awards shows and specials, sitcoms, talk shows, network news and game shows. He designed the 57th Academy Awards for which he won an Emmy; the Grammy Awards from 1983 to 1987; the Emmy Awards; and the Country Music Awards from 1991 to 2006.
Lagler was production designer for the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and for seven events for David Wolper’s Liberty Weekend in 1986 celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, for which he also won an Emmy.
In addition to designing venues for three popes that have come to America, Lagler designed TV specials and series for artists such as Barbara Streisand, Frank Sinatra, George Burns and Carol Burnett. He also worked on Hollywood Squares with his mentor, E. Jay Krause.
Lagler redesigned the main newsroom studio for CNN in Atlanta, as well as CNN studios in New York, Los Angeles and Washington. He also designed the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in 1988, New York in 1992, Chicago in 1996 and Los Angeles in 2000, as well as both of President Bill Clinton’s presidential inaugural galas in 1993 and 1997.
