He founded AS&P (Albert Speer & Partner) in Frankfurt in 1964, and the firm went on to work on projects across the world, including Expo 2000 in Hanover, a criminal court complex in Riyadh, and World Cup stadiums in Qatar. Two of those projects landed in Nigeria. AS&P was commissioned to review and refine Abuja’s central district layout, revisiting land-use plans, boulevard concepts, and zoning for the capital’s core. Years later, in 2008, the firm partnered with DEEN Associates to draft a transportation master plan for Akwa Ibom State, mapping out road hierarchies and development priorities for the region.

It’s a quiet irony: infrastructure that ordinary Nigerians drive on every day traces back to a firm built by someone spending his life outrunning his father’s name.

Should where a design comes from matter once it’s built and serving people, or does a name like that never fully wash out of a place?