Richard Alfred Hardwick Livett [commonly known as R. A. H. Livett] was born in Balham, Surrey [now London], England on 7 February 1898. After studying at the Architectural Association in London from 1919 to 1922. He qualified as an architect in 1922 and later that year was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA). From 1922 to 1925 he worked as an assistant to Paul Waterhouse (1861-1924) and to Michael Theodore Waterhouse (1888-1968).
From 1925 to 1931 he was employed as chef assistant to Thomas Cecil Howitt (1889-1968), architect to Nottingham Corporation, and worked on the redevelopment of the civic centre and on housing estates. In 1931 he moved to Manchester where he was appointed Deputy Director of Housing under Leonard Heywood, responsible for the development of the Wythenshawe Estate and for Smedley Point Flats in Cheetham.
In 1934 Livett was appointed the City of Leeds' Director of Housing. During his tenure he built up a large department and supervised major slum-clearance and redevelopment schemes, notably in the Quarry Hill area.
In 1948 Livett was made the first City Architect for Leeds and over the next decade was responsible of the design and development of large municipal and numerous schools and civic buildings in the city. These included Halton Moor Primary School (1948); Seacroft Primary School (1950); Allerton Grange Secondary Modern School (1955); Skelton Grange Power Station (1953); the Central Ambulance Station (1954); Leeds College of Technology, Art and Commerce (1956); and, with Yorke, Rosenburg & Mardall, Temple Moore Grammar School (1957).
Livitt was a pioneer in the use of prefabricated systems and communal services, based on European models, which he implemented in housing schemes in Leeds.
Livett was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1922. He died in Leeds on 20 September 1959.
Livett, R. A. H. ‘House Refuse: Improved Methods of Collection and Disposal, with particular reference to the Garchey System’. Perspectives in Public Health vol. 68, no. 3, May 1948 pp. 160-169
Livett, R. A. H. ‘Modern flat building’. Perspectives in Public Health vol. 61, no. 2, March 1940 pp. 48-57
Philliskirk, Ben. “Bogged down in housing”: Politics and Planning in Residential Leeds, 1954-1979. PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2016
Ravetz, Alison. Model Estate: Planned Housing at Quarry Hill, Leeds. London: Taylor & Francis, 2014
Thirties: British Art and Design before the War. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979 [Catalogue of an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, 25 October-13 January 1979]