Architects

Name:

Euan Kidston Colam

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Year Only

Exact DOB:

23/06/1926

Year of Birth :

1932

Circa Year of Birth :

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DOB (1st 'Or' Year):

DOB (2nd 'Or' Year):

Date of Death:

Date Not Known

Exact DOD:

23/06/1926

Year of Death:

Circa Year of Death:

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Date of Death After (Year):

DOD (1st 'Or' Year):

DOD (2nd 'Or' Year):

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Bio Notes :

Euan Kidston Colam was born in 1932 and spent his early years near Boat of Garten, moving to Helensburgh in 1940 at the start of the war to live with his grandmother. He attended primary school in Helensburgh and was a boarder at Loretto School, Musselburgh from 1946 until October 1950 when he was called up for two years national service at the age of 18. He was posted to Libya for a year as part of his service.

Having resolved at the age of 10 or 11 that he would become an architect, he studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art from 1952 to 1958. His research thesis was on small housing, and he worked part-time in housing at the Edinburgh City Architect's Department for a year to finance his education.

After graduating, Colam gained practical experience with the Bank of Scotland, working on branch office alteration projects in Glasgow and Edinburgh. He was elected ARIBA in 1960. He joined Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall (RMJM) on 1 April 1960. At the time he joined, there were some 30 people in the firm, and the practice’s swift growth led to frequent moves of office as additional properties around Edinburgh were found to house the new apprentices and employees.

By 1964 he had become a representative of the Edinburgh chapter of the RIAS.

At RMJM, he worked under John Richards. He recalls that Matthew's working method - 'to find people that he really trusted to take charge of the work and give them a lot of responsibility for getting on with it' - meant that he rarely came into direct contact with Matthew himself, whom he always addressed as Sir Robert. He credits Richards as his key mentor: 'I learnt everything I know about architecture from John Richards. He wasn't I think a great intuitive designer, but he wanted everything that he worked on to be really good, and he expected everyone else to live with that. Of course he didn't always get the right answer at first shot and it could be a struggle ... but it was worth the drama to get the right results! He was not just my main influence, he was my only influence I suppose on the architectural design side.'

The first major RMJM project he worked on was the University of Edinburgh’s David Hume Tower. While he had no design input on this, he was charged with a significant amount of detailing for the next project, the Royal Commonwealth Pool, which would be the work of which he was most proud. Always keenly interested in the management side of the profession, Colam was given the task of overseeing construction of Stirling University, in order to ensure it adhered to the extremely tight time frame that had been set for it. Influenced in their design by the University of East Anglia, the teaching buildings opened on schedule in 1970, and the library a few months after the students had arrived. He recalls the hair-raising experience of finishing the accommodation blocks: 'We had students moving in before we had a certificate of occupancy. We had tremendous help from the county master of works, who was brilliant. He was on site with us three times that day and he made clear exactly what he needed to be done, and we finally got the temporary certificate for the buliding about 6 o'clock in the evening - at which time the students had already fully occupied - so what would have happened if we couldn't have done it, I don't know. We went straight to the pub after that!' After Stirling, he worked on the Edinburgh airport terminal, for which the practice was firmly instructed to design a low-ceilinged structure; this has since been altered beyond recognition.

He left RMJM in 1986 and worked for three years on the St Enoch Centre, Glasgow as a freelance site architect before joining Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons Ltd, who were construction managers for the St Enoch Centre, to work as design manager on projects such as the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters and offices for Standard Life.

Colam retired in 1999. Since his retirement, he has worked on restoring his A-listed home, bought in 1971.

'Biography authored by the Dictionary of Scottish Architects Compilation Team.'

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
Rosebank Cottage Old Philipstoun West Lothian Scotland	Private
6 Inverleith Row Edinburgh Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Notes
Alva Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	196	working for RMJM
Hill Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	196	working for RMJM
13\|15\|17 South Charlotte Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	196	working for RMJM
31 Regent Terrace Edinburgh Scotland	Business	1960	working for RMJM
St Andrew Square Edinburgh Scotland	Business	Late 196	working for RMJM

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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	Notes
Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall (RMJM)	406000	1960/04/01	In year 1961	Architect
Bank of Scotland Architect's Department	400866	In year 1958	In year 1960	Architect
Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall & Partners (RMJM)	202068	In year 1961	In year 1986	Architect
(Sir) Robert McAlpine & Sons Ltd	402526	In year 1989	In year 1999	Architect
Edinburgh City Architect's Department (Edinburgh Corporation)	201964	c. 1957			Worked part-time for one year while studying at ECA.

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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
University of Edinburgh, David Hume Tower (Arts Building) and redevelopment of George Square	In year 1960		Edinburgh, Midlothian	Scotland	As assistant architect with RMJM.
Royal Commonwealth Pool	In year 1965		Edinburgh	Scotland	As architect with RMJM. Project architect
University of Stirling, including library and landscaping	In year 1970	Stirling	Stirlingshire	Scotland	Worked on the central area including a section of the teaching buildings, the library, the MacRobert Centre, the first stage of the community facilities and the shops, the residences.
University of Stirling, Teaching Building (unidentified)	In year 1970	Stirling	Stirlingshire	Scotland
University of Stirling, MacRobert Arts Centre	In year 1971	Stirling	Stirlingshire	Scotland
Bottle Exchange	In year 1972	Dean Village	Edinburgh	Scotland	Conversion of derelict bottle works into office for practice.
Edinburgh Airport	In year 1975		Edinburgh	Scotland	Project architect, with John Richards
International Business Machines (IBM) Factory	In year 1979	Greenock	Renfrewshire	Scotland	As Project Manager
St Enoch Centre	In year 1986		Glasgow	Scotland	Site architect (freelance)
Royal Bank of Scotland	In year 1990	The Gyle	Edinburgh	Scotland
Standard Life House	In year 1993		Edinburgh	Scotland
Buchanan Galleries, Buchanan Street	Early 1990s		Glasgow	Scotland	Design manager. With McAlpine. May have worked on an unrealised part of the project.

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
Miles Glendinning, Diane Watters, David Whitham	Docomomo Scotland Leaflet				Cover, p231 Royal Commonwealth Pool
Willis, Peter	New architecture in Scotland	1977			p52-55 University of Stirlingp76-9 Royal Commonwealth Pool
Glendinning, Miles	Rebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision, 1945-75	1997	Tuckwell Press Ltd		p16, p165-7 George Square redevelopment - Arts Towerp29,39,86,116,125-9,164,185 Royal Commonwealth Pool
Glendinning, Miles	Modern architect: the life and times of Robert Matthew	2008	RIBA Publishing		p257,292-3
Allen, Nic (ed.)	Scottish Architects in Conservation				p77
Municipal Annual	Scottish Municipal Annual	1964		1964-1965

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The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Building Id	Item Name	Notes
Interview of Euan Colam by Kirsten McKee	Courtesy of Euan Colam	201162			3 December 2008

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

Bibliographic References

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Archive References

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