James Stirling - Architect:
James Stirling (1926-92) became famous amongst architects for his Cambridge University Library building but became popularily known due to his Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, which appeared in a TV advert for Rover cars in the late Eighties.

James Stirling - Winner of RIBA Gold Medal 1980

James Stirling - Brief History of this Key UK Architect
Big Jim was born in Glasgow in 1926

He trained at Liverpool University from 1945 to 1950.

Big Jim worked with Lyons, Israel & Ellis in London before forming a partnership with James Gowan. Influenced by the later designs of Le Corbusier - such as Maison Jaoul - and the Smithsons, Stirling & Gowan Architects produced rational brick and exposed concrete that strongly expressed the functional. They had a close relationship to the New Brutalism of Denys Lasdun et al.

James Stirling produced a building in Cambridge and Oxford that allowed experimentation due to their programme. Later his work became known for its promulgation of Postmodernism, especially his designs for Cologne and Stuttgart. His practice changed name in 1971 to James Stirling Michael Wilford and Associates. The Clore Gallery at the London Tate and later the Salford Concert Hall - the Lowry - were produced.

James Stirling died in 1992.



Practice Chronology

1956-63 : Stirling and Gowan
1963-71 : James Stirling
1971-92 : James Stirling Michael Wilford and Associates
1989- present : James Stirling Michael Wilford and Associates Ltd which became in 1992 Michael Wilford and Partners Ltd which today is Bain + Bevington Architects Ltd from 2000.

Michael Wilford founded with Russell Bevington and Laurence Bain, Michael Wilford and Partners and changed the name of JSMWAL to MWPL 1 yr after Jim’s death. The Clore Gallery at the London Tate (all completed by JSMWAL; part refurbished in 2001 by B+BAL) and later the Salford Concert Hall (Lowry) were produced (initial design work carried out by JSMWAL in 1992; revised and updated by MWPL and completed in 2000; second phase completed by B+BAL two years later).

Michael Wilford left the practice in 2000 all rights and liabilities are carried by the continuing practice B+BAL.


Clore Gallery London : photograph © adrian welch may 2007

Featured buildings:
Andrew Melville Halls, St. Andrews, Scotland
1967
James Stirling : Scottish Building

Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, England
1968
Cambridge building

Clore Gallery, Tate Gallery, London, UK
1985
Clore Gallery London

Lowry Centre, Salford Quays, Manchester, England
2002
Lowry Centre Manchester

Number 1 Poultry, City of London
1999
Number One Poultry



James Stirling Michael Wilford : chronological list of all key buildings

Jim Stirling : Pritzker Prize 1981

World Architecture : e-architect - a guide to key buildings across the globe

Book: ‘James Stirling Michael Wilford’
published by Thames and Hudson
ISBN 0-500-34126-5

Comments / photos for the James Stirling Architecture page welcome:
info@e-architect.co.uk

James Stirling Architect - page : adrian welch / isabelle lomholt