Architects

Name:

Joseph Lea Gleave

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

08/05/1907

Year of Birth :

Circa Year of Birth :

Date of Birth Before (Year):

Date of Birth After (Year):

DOB (1st 'Or' Year):

DOB (2nd 'Or' Year):

Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

16/01/1965

Year of Death:

Circa Year of Death:

Date of Death Before (Year):

Date of Death After (Year):

DOD (1st 'Or' Year):

DOD (2nd 'Or' Year):

Town of Birth :

Bio Notes :

Joseph Lea Gleave was born in Manchester in 1907, the son of James Gleave, farmer, and his wife Hannah Lea. He studied studied part-time at Manchester University School of Architecture from September 1923 to September 1927. He was articled to James Theodore Halliday in Manchester and then subsequently an assistant to Francis Jones (1927-28) and Thomas Cecil Howitt in Nottingham (1928-30). From February 1930-May 1931 he was an assistant with Jones & Dalrymple.

In 1931 at the age of twenty-three he won the international competition for a monument to Christopher Columbus in the Dominican Republic and was awarded the University's degree of MA honoris causa in the same year: this led in 1932 to his appointment as senior assistant on the School of Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art, quickly followed by promotion to head of the School of Architecture and Town Planning in 1935. Gleave's period as Head of School was interrupted by war service in Ack Ack Command in which he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel: initially he had formed the 94th Ack Ack manned by the College's remaining students. On his return to the School he had redesigned the Columbus Memorial in 1946-47 and is said to have assisted his brother-in-law William Hardie Kininmonth with the design of Renfrew Airport.

In 1948 Andrew Graham Henderson invited Gleave to join the Keppie & Henderson practice which then became Keppie Henderson & J L Gleave, Gleave taking over Henderson's house, Lincluden, at 14 Dalziel Drive. He was initially engaged on housing, schools and the new Engineering Building of the University of Glasgow but quickly made himself the leading designer of hospitals in Scotland with the innovative Vale of Leven Hospital built in 1952-55 and generally revitalised the practice recruiting the best students from his friend John Needham, Head of School at Dundee.

Although the practice was hugely successful, serious differences arose between Gleave and the two senior partners, Henderson and Alex Smellie. These arose from Gleave's predilection for all-night working to meet deadlines (he came in to review the results at 4am) and Henderson's preference for multi-disciplinary teams and a more ordered work-flow. Matters came to a head early in 1958 after he won the competition for the Queen Mother's Hospital for Children at Yorkhill, Glasgow in his own name and he left to establish his own practice, J L Gleave, taking Ivor Dorward and the commissions for the Queen Mother Hospital and Prestwick Airport with him.

Gleave was proposed for election as ARIBA in 1931 by James Theodore Halliday Francis Innes Jones and John Hubert Worthington but does not appear to have been admitted until 1953, just after establishing his own practice the year before. He was elected RSA in 1959. He served on the councils of both the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the Royal Institute of British Architects and was appointed to the Royal Fine Art Commission, Edinburgh's Princes Street Panel and the Historic Buildings Council; he was also the University of Glasgow's Consulting Architect for the redevelopment of Hillhead and together with Ivor Dorward designed a number of the buildings.

Gleave's hectic life style eventually affected his health. Cancer was diagnosed in the spring of 1964 and he died in the Western Infirmary in Glasgow on 16 January 1965. He was survived by his wife Margaret Grierson Sutherland and his son David, also an architect and his daughter Carolyn, an interior designer. The practice was continued by Ivor Dorward and A S Matheson who had been assumed into partnership in 1963, the name changing to Dorward Matheson Gleave & Partners. David Gleave joined in 1987 when the name changed again to Matheson Gleave Partnership, prior to being merged with Young & Gault.

Gleave's Columbus Monument was eventually completed in 1992 twenty years after his death.

Bio Notes continued...

Additional Notes

The following private or business addresses are associated with this person:

Private Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From Char	Date From Type	Date To Char	Date To Type	Notes
8 Durley Avenue, Park Road Timperley Cheshire England	Private

row(s) 1 - 1 of 1

Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date From Type	Date To	Date To Type	Notes
90 Oxford Road Manchester England	Business	1931
1 Great Stuart Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	c. 1938		c. 1940

row(s) 1 - 2 of 2

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this person (click on an item to view details):

Employers2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position
Keppie Henderson & J L Gleave	400567	In year 1948	In year 1958	Partner
J L Gleave & Partners	400983	In year 1958	In year 1964	Partner
James Theodore Halliday	205181			Apprentice
Francis Jones	204945			Assistant
Thomas Cecil Howitt	204981			Assistant

row(s) 1 - 5 of 5

The following individuals were employed or trained by this person (click on an item to view details):

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position	Notes
John Edgar McCulloch	400492	1940s		Assistant
Hugh Crawford Stewart Ferguson	403357	In year 1961	In year 1963	Assistant

row(s) 1 - 2 of 2

The following individuals proposed this person for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Proposer	Proposer Link	Date Proposed	Notes
James Theodore Halliday	205181	1931/12/02	For Associateship
Francis Jones	204945	1931/12/02	For Associateship
John Hubert Worthington	204946	1931/12/02	For Associateship

row(s) 1 - 3 of 3

This person was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):

Buildings and Designs2 classic

Building Name	Date Started	Town, District or Village	City or County	Country	Notes
Christopher Columbus Memorial	In year 1931		Dominican Republic		Won competition for a memorial to Christopher Columbus in 1931 for the project to become dormant for the next fifteen years until 1946.
University of Glasgow, Engineering Building	In year 1949		Glasgow	Scotland	For alterations and additions
Belford Hospital	After 1949	Fort William	Inverness-shire	Scotland
Carnwadric Church and Hall	In year 1950		Glasgow	Scotland	Conflict of information with \'Buildings of Scotland\'. This is given in \'Scottish Churches in the Post-War Period\'. Plans prepared before War and construction after. <br>
University of Glasgow, Quincentenary Memorial Gates	After 1950		Glasgow	Scotland
Whitby County Modern School	After 1950	Whitby	Yorkshire	England
University of Glasgow, Departments of Geography, Geology and Zoology	After 1950		Glasgow	Scotland
Clydesdale Bank	After 1950	Possilpark	Glasgow	Scotland
Vale of Leven Hospital	In year 1951	Alexandria	Dunbartonshire	Scotland
Drumchapel Baking and Biscuit Factory, Great Western Road	In year 1951		Lanarkshire	Scotland
Clydesdale Bank Headquarters, St Vincent Place	In year 1951		Glasgow	Scotland	Alterations and additions
Lightburn Secondary School	After 1953	Lightburn	Glasgow	Scotland
Anderson's College Medical School	In year 1954	Kelvinhaugh	Glasgow	Scotland	Alterations and additions
Prestwick International Airport	In year 1954		Ayrshire	Scotland	Central (Control) Tower Buildings
St Andrew's Secondary School	In year 1954	Carntyne and Robroyston	Glasgow	Scotland

row(s) 1 - 15 of 34

The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Notes
Post Office Directories
Stark, David	Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Co., 1854 to 2004	2004	Glasgow: Stenlake Publishing Ltd
RIBA	The RIBA Kalendar 1939-1940	1939	London: Royal Institute of British Architects
www.indiana.edu	www.indiana.edu
Glendinning, Miles	Rebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision, 1945-75	1997	Tuckwell Press Ltd	p12, p169 Vale of Leven Hospitalp140-2
RIBA	The RIBA Kalendar 1950-1951	1950	London: Royal Institute of British Architects

row(s) 1 - 6 of 6

The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Building Id	Item Name	Notes
Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material	Professor David M Walker personal archive	100041			Unattributed obituary in DMW archive
Information via email	Courtesy of David Gleave	201237			Sent January 2012

row(s) 1 - 2 of 2

Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 classic

RIBA Proposers

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

Bibliographic References

Bib ref classic

Archive References

Arc ref classic