Arnold Joseph Philip Powell [commonly known as Philip Powell] was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England on 15 March 1921 and studied modern Languages at Cambridge University. After leaving Cambridge, he decided like his elder brother, Michael Powell (1916-1971), to pursue a career as an architect. In 1939 he entered the Architectural Association Schools in London, where he met American-born John Hidalgo Moya (1920-1994) who had entered the the AA the previous year.
On leaving the AA, Powell worked briefly in the office of Frederick Gibberd, before in 1946 forming the architectural partnership Powell & Moya with Moya and his brother Michael. In 1950 Michael Powell left the practice to join London County Council Architects as Assistant Housing Architect.
Despite differences in temperament Powell and Moya worked closely together on all projects. In 1961 Robert Henley and Peter Skinner entered the partnership. They were joined by John Cantwell and Bernard Throp in 1976, and the practice became Powell, Moya & Partners.
Moya retired from the practice in 1990, followed by Powell in 1991, although he acted as a consultant to the firm until 1994.
In 1974 Powell & Moya were awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, the first time the medal was awarded to a practice rather than to an individual.
In 1975 Powell was knighted for his services to architecture. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA), and was awarded the RIBA London Architecture Bronze Medal in 1950. He was also elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1972 and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1977. He died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on 5 May 2003
In 1946 Powell & Moya won a competition-winning commission to rebuild a large area of war-damaged housing in Pimllico, London. The project was developed in stages and eventually completed in 1962. Subsequent projects by the practice included Chichester Festival Theatre in Chichester, Sussex (1950–61); the Skylon at the South Bank, London for the Festival of Britain (1951); Mayfield School in West Putney, London (1956); Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Berkshire (1958–66); Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire (1961-72); Wycombe General Hospital in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire (1966-75); Cripps Building, St John’s College, Cambridge (1967); Blue Boar Quad, Christ Church, Oxford (1968); with Takaki and Dodd, the British Pavilion, Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan (1970); Plumstead Manor School in Woolwich, London (1973); Wolfson College, Oxford (1974); Museum of London (1976); dining rooms at Eton College (1974–76); headquarters of London and Manchester Assurance in Exeter, Devon (1978); National Westminster Bank at Shaftesbury Avenue, London (1982); the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, London (1986); and the redevelopment of the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London (1990-94).
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See also:
British Listed Buildings - 45 listed buildings by Powell & Moya [Link below]
Historic England - 47 entries on Powell & Moya [Link below]
UK Modern House - 12 buildings by Powell & Moya [Link below]
RIBApix! - over 700 images of work by Powell & Moya [Link below]
‘Chichester Festival Theatre’. Architects’ Journal vol. 136, no. 1§, 1962 pp. 25-40
Clifford, H. Dalton. ‘A house that surveys the Weald’. Clifford, H. Dalton. ‘A house that surveys the Weald’.
Levey, Michael. ‘3 new art galleries’. Architectural Design vol. 38, October 1968 pp. 483-489 [Discusses a new art gallery designed by Powell & Moya for Christ Church College, Oxford]
‘Cripps Building, St John’s College, Cambridge’. Architectural Review [London] vol. 142, no. 847, 1967 pp. 181-188
Harwood, Elain. Mid-Century Britain. Modern Architecture 1938-1963. London: Batsford, 2021
Hitchcock, Henrry-Russell. ‘Pimlico’. Architectural Review [London] vol. 114, no. 681, 1953 pp. 176-184 [Housing at Churchill Gardens, Pimlico, London designed by Powell & Moya]
Mills, Edward David. The New Architecture in Britain 1946-1953. London: The Standard Catalogue Co., 1953 [Discusses two houses in Chichester, Sussex designed by Powell & Moya pp. 55-62]
Powell, Kenneth. Powell & Moya. London: RIBA Publishing, 2009
Powell, Kenneth. ‘Powell & Moya: the first fifty years’. Architects’ Journal 4 July 1966 pp. 27-58
Powell Moya and Partners. London : Powell Moya, 1989.
Powell, Philip. ‘Architects’ approach to architecture’. Royal Institute of British Architects vol. 73, March 1966 pp. 116-127 [Philip Powell discusses Churchill Gardens in Pimlico, London designed by his practice Powell & Moya]
Webb, Michael. Architecture in Britain Today. London: Country Life, 1969