Alex Gordon

Sir Alexander John Gordon, CBE (25 February 1917 – 12 July 1999) was a Welsh architect. Born in Ayr, Scotland, he was brought up and educated in Swansea and Cardiff. After World War II he designed several major buildings in Cardiff and Swansea, and from 1971 to 1973 he served as president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1974 he summarised the needs of new architecture as 'Long life, loose fit, low energy'.

Biography

Gordon was born in Ayr, Scotland, the son of John Tullis Gordon (b. 1884), a telegraph engineer, and Euphemia Baxter Borrowman Gordon, née Simpson (1890–1942). In 1925 the family moved to Swansea. He lived in South Wales for the rest of his life, for many years at Llanblethian in the Vale of Glamorgan.

He was an enthusiastic art collector, and bequeathed 32 paintings to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, including works by Marc Chagall, Augustus John, Kyffin Williams, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Elisabeth Frink and a portrait bust of himself by Ivor Roberts-Jones.

He retired in 1982, but retained a consultative role until 1988.

He died in St Hilary, Vale of Glamorgan on 23 July 1999. He was unmarried.

Training Gordon became a trainee architect in the Swansea Borough Architect's Department in 1935, and studied part-time for the RIBA intermediate examination, which he passed before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Selected works

1955 University Sports Pavilion, Cardiff (Awarded RIBA Bronze Medal) 1966 Cyncoed Methodist Church, Cardiff (Grade II listed building) 1966 Snelling House, Cardiff. Headquarters of Wales Gas, now the Big Sleep hotel. Mid-1960s Staff housing Atlantic College, St Donats 1967 Cement and Concrete Association Training Centre, Fulmer Grange, Slough 1968 Churchill House, Cardiff 1970 Telephone Exchange Building, Swansea 1970 Cardiff University School of Music 1971 Sherman Theatre, Cardiff 1972 Mathematics Building, Cardiff University 1973 Students' Union Building, Cardiff University Honorary fellow, American Institute of Architects Honorary fellow, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Honorary member, Bund Deutscher Architekten (Association of German Architects)