Gareth Wright, architect, was born on September 8, 1943. He died of septicemia on May 22, 2014, aged 70
Gareth Wright enjoyed the distinction of designing one of the few postwar British buildings to be accorded Grade-II listed status. Many worthy modern buildings have succumbed to the wrecking ball after attempts to get them listed have failed. However, the people of Maidenhead are still enjoying their library designed in 1973 by Wright.
He was a slightly mercurial but well regarded young architect at the practice Ahrends, Burton and Koralek, when he conceived a design that was an early exemplar of the high-tech architecture that would come to dominate British buildings through the influence of Norman Foster and Richard Rogers. Wright applied the technique — using new technologies and materials in a Modernist idiom — on a municipal library.
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He was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, in 1943 to an illustrator and an art teacher. Later he had four children of his own: from his first marriage Zephy and Merlin; and from his second marriage Mattie and Maud. Wright’s other projects included one of the first live/work developments at Bridge Wharf in Islington. He also persuaded local residents to accept extensions to the historic Pluckley Primary School in Kent and Freshford School in Bath.
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