Michael Fowler
Encyclopedia
Sir Edward "Michael" Coulson Fowler, FNZIA
New Zealand Institute of Architects
The New Zealand Institute of Architects is a membership based professional organisation. This body represents 90% of all registered architects in New Zealand and promotes architecture that enhances the New Zealand living environment....

, (born 19 December 1929), is a New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 and author who served as Mayor of Wellington
Mayor of Wellington
The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of Wellington, New Zealand, and presides over the Wellington City Council. The Mayor of Wellington administers only Wellington City itself — other municipalities in adjacent areas of the Wellington Region such as Lower Hutt, Upper...

 from 1974 to 1983.

Biography

He was born in 1929 in Marton
Marton, New Zealand
Marton is the hub of the Rangitikei district of the Manawatu-Wanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. It is situated 35 kilometres southeast of Wanganui and 40 kilometres northwest of Palmerston North. The population was 4752 .-History:...

, and was educated at Christ's College in Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

.

Wellington's principal concert performance hall, the Michael Fowler Centre
Michael Fowler Centre
The Michael Fowler Centre is a concert hall and convention centre in Wellington, New Zealand. It was constructed on reclaimed land next to Civic Square, and is the pre-eminent concert site in central Wellington....

, commemorates in its name Sir Michael.

Sir Michael designed Wellington's Overseas Passenger Terminal in the early 1960s, which was to have served international passenger ships, but never saw its intended use due to the rising popularity of air travel. In an interview many years later, he said that he "was party to the design of the biggest white elephant that Wellington ever built."

Criticism

He was criticised for his comments in May 2011 where he backed a controversial Wellywood sign in a handwritten letter to The Dominion Post, describing its critics as "dumb, humourless, totally irrelevant and probably Irish". When later questioned, he was unapologetic stating that his comment "wasn't meant to be derogatory." Irish residents in New Zealand expressed outrage at the comments.

External links

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