William Whitfield (architect)
{{Short description|British architect (1920–2019)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sir William Whitfield
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| birth_date ={{birth date|1920|10|21|df=y}}
| birth_place = Stockton-on-Tees, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|2019|3|16|1920|10|21|df=y}}
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| alma_mater = King's College, Durham University
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| occupation = Architect and town planner
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Sir William Whitfield {{postnominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (21 October 1920 – 16 March 2019){{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/03/sir-william-whitfield-obituary|first=Roland|last=Jeffery|title=Sir William Whitfield obituary|work=The Guardian|location=London|date=2019-04-03|accessdate=2019-04-03}} was a British architect and town planner.
Early life
Whitfield was born in Stockton-on-Tees into a coal-owning family and studied architecture at King's College, Newcastle (later the Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape), where he was admitted by a special dispensation at the unusually early age of 15,{{cite web|title=Sir William Whitfield|url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803122322799|website=Oxford Index|publisher=OUP|accessdate=30 November 2014}} and where he later studied Town Planning after the Second World War.
Career
Whitfield designed the Glasgow University Library (1968) and the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery Extension at the University of Glasgow (1962–81), as well as an extension to the Newcastle University Students' Union building (1964) and University Theatre (now unrecognisable and called the Northern Stage). He designed the business school and the science library at Durham University (both now extended) as well as the departments of geography and psychology, and was a co-author of the 1969 development plan for the university.{{cite web|url=https://durhamcity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Annual-Report-2019.pdf|title=Annual Report|year=2019|work=City of Durham Trust|page=3|access-date=3 August 2024}} In 1970 a major bush-hammered concrete Brutalist extension to Whitfield's design was opened{{NHLE |desc=Chartered Accountants' Hall, One Moorgate Place |num=1064586 |accessdate=10 October 2018}} at Arthur Beresford Pite and John Belcher's 1890-1893 Institute of Chartered Accountants headquarters, Chartered Accountants' Hall, including a new entrance; as well as the 1987 Department of Health building, Richmond House in Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, London. He designed the Chapter House at St Albans Cathedral, the Catheral Lodge in the close at Canterbury Cathedral and the new Mappa Mundi Library at Hereford Cathedral in a free gothic style.
File:Gates to Tusmore Park - geograph.org.uk - 453478.jpgWith Andrew Lockwood he designed the neo-Palladian mansion Tusmore Park in Oxfordshire for the Saudi Arabian financier Wafic Saïd.{{cite news|last1=Worsley|first1=Giles|title=The English country house rises once more|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1475634/The-English-country-house-rises-once-more.html|accessdate=30 November 2014|work=Daily Telegraph|date=2 November 2004}}
He was Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral from 1985 to 1990,{{cite book|last=Burman|first=Peter|title=St. Paul's: The Cathedral Church of London, 604-2004|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2004|chapter=Chapter 23: Decoration, Furnishings and Art since 1900|page=264|editor-last1=Keene|editor-first1=Derek|editor-last2=Burns|editor-first2=R. Arthur|editor-last3=Saint|editor-first3=Andrew|ISBN=9780300092769}} architect for the restoration of Christ Church Spitalfields, a Commissioner of English Heritage, Commissioner of the Royal Fine Art Commission and a Trustee of the British Museum. He was awarded CBE in the 1976 Birthday Honours and knighted in the 1993 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette|issue=53153|date=31 December 1992|page=2|supp=1}}
References
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External links
- [http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803122322799 Biography in Oxford Index]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitfield, William}}
Category:Architects from County Durham
Category:New Classical architects
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:20th-century English architects