I have tried to attach a news report from the Architect’s Journal, but it resists all my attempts. It is a very mournful piece of news so far as I’m concerned, announcing the closure of the architectural practice of Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones.
I first met Jeremy and Ed in the summer of 1994, when John Wykeham, the then Head of Administration, and I were going round meeting architects who we might consider to re-design the National Portrait Gallery. They had an office in Percy Street and were working together on the plans for the Royal Opera House, a young practice as they described themselves even though they were both in their mid-fifties, having known one another at the Architectural Association, worked together at Milton Keynes, collaborated on the design of Northampton Town Hall and then gone their separate ways for over a decade until Ed wanted to come back to London from Canada and Jeremy needed help on the Royal Opera House. I worked with them for ten years or so: on the design of the Ondaatje Wing and the reshaping of the ground floor of the National Gallery. They have had a good run and have done an amazing amount of intelligent, well considered and important work, for which they don’t always get the credit they deserve.
I could not agree more with the plaudits. Edward in particular was extraordinary thoughtful in designs for the proposed Portrait Gallery of Canada, which was unfortunately ended for political reasons.
Dear Lilly, Yes, sad that it was axed. Charles