Terry Farrell (architect)

Sir Terence Farrell (born 12 May 1938), known as Terry Farrell, is a British architect and urban designer.

He graduated with a degree in architecture from Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (then part of Durham University) in 1961, followed by a Masters in urban planning at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

In 1965, Farrell moved to London to form a partnership with Sir Nicholas Grimshaw.

In 1980, after working for 15 years in partnership with Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Farrell founded his own firm, Farrells.

He established his reputation with three completed projects in London in the late 1980s: Embankment Place, 125 London Wall aka Alban Gate and SIS Building aka Vauxhall Cross.

He garnered a strong reputation for contextual urban design schemes, as well as exuberant works of postmodernism such as the MI6 Building.

In 1980, he founded his own company, Terry Farrell & Partners.

In addition, Farrell lectures at a number of different universities including Cambridge University, the University of London, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Sheffield.

In the early part of his career, Farrell gave emphasis to housing projects.

Later, after the break with Grimshaw, he became the UK's principal postmodernist and was best known for the TV-am headquarters in Camden Lock and the redevelopment of Comyn Ching Triangle in London's Covent Garden.

In the 1980s and 1990s his projects included Charing Cross Station, the MI6 headquarters building, The Deep Aquarium in Hull and The International Centre for Life in Newcastle.

More recent work includes the new headquarters for the Home Office, the conversion of the Grade I-listed Royal Institution of Great Britain and the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

He has been responsible for regeneration projects in the UK including Newcastle Quayside, Brindleyplace in Birmingham, Edinburgh Exchange District, Greenwich Peninsula and Paddington Basin.

He has also designed his own buildings within these projects, including the Edinburgh International Conference Centre with the help of Duncan Whatmore, and The Point in Paddington Basin.

Since setting up his practice in Hong Kong in 1990, he has designed the Peak Tower, Kowloon Station development and the British Consulate-General, Hong Kong.

His KK100 tower in Shenzhen is the tallest building ever by a British architect.

Farrell is on the Design Advisory Committee of the Mayor of London.

In 1991, his practice expanded internationally, opening an office in Hong Kong.

In Asia his firm designed KK100 in Shenzhen, the tallest building ever designed by a British architect, as well as Guangzhou South railway station, once the largest railway station in Asia.

Farrell was named CBE in 1996 and made a Knight Bachelor in 2001.

In 2008 he was appointed Design and Planning Leader for the Thames Gateway, Europe's largest regeneration project.

In May 2010, he was appointed to regenerate the 72 acre area around Earl's Court exhibition centre.

When completed in December 2010 Guangzhou South railway station was for a time the largest railway station in the world.

In 2012 his practice was appointed as masterplanners for Wood Wharf – the next phase of Canary Wharf's development.

In East Asia, projects include Incheon International Airport in Seoul and Beijing South railway station, the largest in Asia.

At the 2013 invitation of Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, his firm commenced the Farrell Review of Architecture and the Built Environment, intended to offer expert guidance on the direction of British architecture.

Farrell was born in Sale, Cheshire.

His maternal grandfather was born in Manchester to an Irish mother who had emigrated to England from Ireland to escape Great Famine.

As a youth he moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, where he attended St Cuthbert's Grammar School.

He was made a visiting professor at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University, and also an honorary freeman of Newcastle, in 2016.

In 2018, he donated £1 million and his archive to the university.

Farrell has been married three times, and has five children and six grandchildren.