Glenn Howells is a British born architect. His practice, Glenn Howells Architects, has offices in Birmingham and London. Howells founded his practice in London in 1990 but later moved the main office to Birmingham in 1992.
His first big break was being appointed architect for the Custard Factory in Birmingham by developer Bennie Gray. The Custard Factory has gone to become an award winning example of affordable office development, aimed at small arts and design businesses, such as the Maverick TV production company.
This was followed by the Market Place in Armagh, Northern Ireland. This elegant arts centre won numerous design awards, including an RIBA regional award.
Notable projects include Timber Wharf and Burton Place for innovative developers Urban Splash in Manchester. In Birmingham, Urban Splash and Glenn Howells collaborated to design a refurbishment of The Rotunda, a landmark highrise building that is currently being transformed from an office building into a residential building.
A more recent project is the Savill Gardens Visitor Centre at Windsor Great Park, which opened in June 2006. The competition winning scheme run by The Crown Estate, will create a new landmark structure that creates a gateway to the listed gardens reflecting the character and quality of the park. The building unites all visitor facilities under one gently undulating grid shell roof creating a series of spectacular linked spaces. The grid shell roof is constructed from larch and clad with green oak from The Crown Estate's own sustainable sources from the Windsor Estate. The grid shell is supported by an earth structure on the entrance side which houses ancillary facilities, while the garden side is elevated on legs to open up spectacular views.
In October 2006, it was announced that Glenn Howells had been appointed to design a large hotel and residential scheme as part of the Snowhill development in Birmingham. [1] Initial renders showed a 40 storey grey curved tower with a smaller tower alongside. However a public exhibition revealed the tower to be 43 storeys and with amendments to the previously shown render. Now under construction, it would be one of the tallest buildings in the city and would consist of the tallest hotel building and tallest residential building in Birmingham.
In early 2007, Glenn Howells was reported in the Birmingham Post as advocating a new modern art gallery for Birmingham, to add to the existing Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Ikon Gallery.
In March 2011 the government announced that John Madin's Birmingham Central Library was to be granted an immunity from listing, paving the way for the redevelopment of Paradise Circus. At the time of the announcement Glenn Howells was working with Argent on proposals for the redevelopment, which remains controversial amongst supporters of the existing library building.