Richard Seifert

Richard Seifert
Born	(1910-11-25)25 November 1910 Zürich, Switzerland
Died	26 October 2001(2001-10-26) (aged 90)
Nationality	British
Occupation	Architect
Practice	R. Seifert and Partners
Buildings	Centre Point Tower 42 Gateway House Alpha Tower South Bank Tower More listed below

Gateway House, Manchester (1969).

Centre Point, London (1966).

Tower 42, London (1980).

Richard Seifert (born Reubin Seifert; 25 November 1910 – 26 October 2001^[1]) was a Swiss-British architect, best known for designing the Centre Point tower and Tower 42 (previously the NatWest Tower), once the tallest building in the City of London. His eponymously named practice – R. Seifert and Partners (later the R. Seifert Company and Partnership) was at its most prolific in the 1960s and 1970s, responsible for many major office buildings in Central London as well as large urban regeneration projects in other major British cities.

Biography

Seifert was born to a Swiss family and came to London when young. He attended the Central Foundation Boys' School^[2] and subsequently obtained a scholarship to the Bartlett School of Architecture, graduating in 1933.^[1] Seifert served in the Royal Engineers during World War II.^[3]

Seifert and his company were responsible for more London buildings than Sir Christopher Wren and designed more than 500 office blocks across the UK and Europe.^[1]

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C467/05) with Richard Seifert in 1996 for its Architects Lives' collection held by the British Library.^[4]

List of works

London and suburbs

^{[citation needed]}

• 90 Long Acre, Westminster
• Barnet House, High Road, Totteridge and Whetstone
• Blackfriars Station, Queen Victoria Street, City of London (1977 design, building was redesigned in 2012)
• Beagle House, Tower Hamlets
• Britannia Hotel (The Biltmore, Mayfair Hotel), Grosvenor Square, Mayfair
• Centre Point, New Oxford Street, Camden
• Corinthian House, Lansdowne Road, Croydon
• Drapers Gardens, Throgmorton Avenue, City of London (demolished)
• Essoldo Paddington Cinema, Great Western Road, Westminster (demolished)
• Euston Station, Eversholt Street, Camden
• Farryner House, Monument Street, City of London
• Goodhart Place, Horseferry Road, Limehouse
• Kensington Forum (built as Penta hotel), Cromwell Road, Kensington^[5]
• Kings Mall, King Street, Hammersmith 1980
• Kellogg House, Baker Street, Westminster
• Limebank House, Gracechurch Street, City of London (demolished)
• London Metropole Hotel, Edgware Road, Westminster
• New Printing House Square, Gray's Inn Road, Camden
• New London Bridge House, 5 London Bridge Street, Southwark (demolished – site now occupied by The News Building)
• No. 1 Croydon (the NLA Tower), Addiscombe Road, Croydon
• One Kemble Street (Space House), off Kingsway, Camden
• 1, 2 & 3 St John's Square, Finsbury (now known as Gate House, 1 St John's Square, Clerkenwell, Islington)^[6]
• Riverside Baths, Erith, Kent (demolished)
• Sobell Leisure Centre, Islington (1973)^[7]
• South Bank Tower, Stamford Street, Southwark
• The Pirate Castle, Oval Road, Camden Town, North London
• Tolworth Tower, Ewell Road, Tolworth, Kingston upon Thames
• Tower 42, Bishopsgate, City of London
• Wembley Conference Centre, Wembley, Middlesex
• Windsor House, London, Victoria Street
• Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington

Outside London

The Anderston Centre, Glasgow (1972).

Sussex Heights apartment block, Brighton (1968).

• Alpha Tower, Birmingham
• Anderston Centre, Glasgow (partly demolished)
• Concourse House, Liverpool (demolished 2009)
• Elmbank Gardens, Glasgow (1971)
• Heron House, Glasgow
• Hilton House, Hilton Street, Manchester
• Gateway House, Piccadilly Approach, Manchester (1969)
• Metropole Hotel, Birmingham
• Sussex Heights, Brighton
• Hexagon Tower, Manchester

References

1. "Richard Seifert (obituary)". The Guardian. 29 October 2001. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
2. "Alumni". Central Foundation Boys' School. 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
3. William D. Rubinstein (22 February 2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 890–. ISBN 978-0-230-30466-6.
4. National Life Stories, 'Seifert, Richard (1 of 8) National Life Stories Collection: Architects' Lives', The British Library Board, 1996. Retrieved 10 April 2018 ^{[dead link‍]}
5. Gardiner2021-03-23T10:00:00+00:00, Joey. "Developer withdraws plans for £1bn Kensington tower scheme". Building. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
6. H.M. Land Registry Title number LN49048, drawing numbers 376.8 to 376.15 & 376.28, plans to the deed of 30 January 1963 made between W. McQueen & Co Ltd, Arrol Investment Company Limited and Cornersites (Investments) Limited
7. "Meta Title". www.better.org.uk. Retrieved 13 March 2022.

External links

Media related to Richard Seifert (architect) at Wikimedia Commons