Muriel Lamb

Muriel Emily Lamb (née Sanders; 20 February 1911 – 29 August 2010) was a New Zealand architect. She was one of the first women in New Zealand to set up her own architectural practice. She was the second of three daughters of Ada Sanders, a dressmaker prior to her marriage, and her husband George, an Auckland accountant. She was educated at Diocesan School for Girls, and later in Hawke's Bay at Woodford House, where she studied sculpture, music, art and painting. As Lamb was not able to bear children herself, the couple applied to adopt, but their application was declined due to their age. Lamb successfully appealed this decision in court and the couple adopted their first baby when Lamb was 44 years old and her husband was 50. In her third year, her lecturer Vernon Brown gave her a fail grade while giving men with lower marks a pass. Lamb told Brown that he must either pass all the students with similar marks or fail all of them; Brown passed Lamb and the men with lower marks. Lamb did not return to the college for her fourth and final year of studies; instead, she spent time working on the Lamb house on Arney Road for her mother-in-law and her husband's two unmarried sisters. The house has been preserved by the family and is considered the best surviving example of Lamb's work.

While in London she met J. B. Price, the head of Shell Oil's New Zealand business, who commissioned her to design the layouts for service stations to be built in New Zealand. She was sent on a research trip through the United States, and worked for Shell for ten years, designing many of their New Zealand sites. She had been predeceased by her husband, Jim Lamb, in 1975.