Derek Walker

Derek John Walker (born 1929, Blackburn Lancashire) is a British architect primarily associated with urban planning and leisure facilities architecture through his firm Derek Walker Associates.

Biography

From 1970 to 1976, Walker was Chief Architect and planner of the new town Milton Keynes,^[1] and head of Architecture at Royal College of Art. With Stuart Mosscrop and Christopher Woodward, Walker designed the Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, one of the first covered shopping centres in Britain, opening three years after the Brent Cross Shopping Centre.^[2]

He recruited a team and over seven years produced a landscaping strategy for the 'new city', eleven village plans, the structure for the programme for producing 3000 houses per year with supporting community, leisure, retail and sporting and cultural facilities. Amongst many buildings possibly the most celebrated was the shopping building in Central Milton Keynes.^[3][4] A unique concept at the time 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m²) with a plan generated around covered landscaped streets. The team for this complex included Stuart Mosscrop, Christopher Woodward and Syd Green.

In 1980, Walker was involved with Norman Foster and Frank Newby in a controversial scheme to expand the Whitney Museum in New York City using air rights purchased from nearby properties to build a mixed-use skyscraper which would include a new wing for the museum. When a furore developed, the museum denied it had solicited the team.^[5]

Academic Posts

• Professor of Architecture and Design Royal College of Art London
• Visiting Professor University of Southern California Los Angeles
• UCLAS at Los Angeles
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Tennessee

Family

Walker was married to the artist Jill Messanger, and has two sons.

Notable projects

• Housing Association, Newton Garth, Leeds 1968/69
• Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, Milton Keynes
• Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds
• The City Park and Sculpture Park for Central Milton Keynes
• Extensive Renovations of the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong
• The Whitney Museum extension in New York, with Sir Norman Foster
• Kowloon Park Hong Kong including Olympic Pools, Sports hall, Piazza, Sculpture walk and Chinese garden
• New Equine Training Facility for Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club at Shatin
• Master Plan for New City of Jubail in Saudi Arabia
• The Lijnbaan covered Shopping Precinct, City of Rotterdam
• Central Business District for New City of Jubail, Saudi Arabia – Masterplan
• The Wonderworld Themepark and Related Industries proposal for a 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) site Corby
• Clarence Dock – Masterplan mixed use development, Leeds
• The Royal Armouries Museum – Tilt Yard and Craft Court Leeds
• Telluride Year Round Resort Masterplan Colorado USA
• Commodores Point mixed use Development and Marina, Jacksonville, Florida – Masterplan
• Museum of British History – a proposal for the St Bartholomew's Hospital site London
• Ushiku – Masterplan for a city of 100,000 people Ushiku, Japan
• "Xanadu" – an unrealised 2,000,000 sq ft (190,000 m²) mixed use Leisure Development Rotherham Lancashire
• National Museum of the United States Army Washington DC – Concept and Detailed Design
• "Golden Eye for Blackpool" – a proposed Second Gateway Covered Leisure Facility and Mixed Use Development

Publications

• The Great Engineers: The Art of British Engineers 1837–1987. ISBN 0-85670-917-4.
• Happold: The Confidence to Build. ISBN 0-419-24060-8.
• Animated Architecture.
• 'Derek Walker Associates 'The View from Great Linford' Monograph" ISBN 85490282 2
• 'Los Angeles Profile Architectural Design Magazine with USC 1982"
• Structural Engineering Design in Practice. With Roger Westbrook.
• The Royal Armouries The Making of a Museum. With Guy Wilson ISBN 0-948092-26-2.
• New Towns (Architectural Design, No 111). With Maggie Toy.
• AD Milton keynes 1.2.3 Volumes Profiles Architectural Magazine 1973-4-5.
• The Architecture and Planning of Milton Keynes.

References

External links

• Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre
• British Design