GMW Architects was an architectural practice based in the United Kingdom. In August 2015, the firm was taken over by Scott Brownrigg.

History

The practice was established in 1947 by Frank Gollins (1910–1999), James Melvin (1912–2012) and Edmund Ward (1912–1998), and operated as Gollins Melvin Ward. In the 1950s it designed Castrol House, a tower on

Marylebone Road Marylebone Road ( ) is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east–west from the Euston Road at Regent's Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington. The road which runs in three lanes in both directi ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, notable as one of the first uses of curtain walling on a building in the United Kingdom, and the central campus for the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

.GMW Partnership website
/ref> In the 1960s it went on to design two buildings at Undershaft in the City of London: the 28-storey Commercial Union Tower, the first building in the city to exceed the height of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

, and the now demolished headquarters of P&O. These buildings both featured an innovative structure by which the office floors are hung by steel rods from cantilevers extending out from the concrete core, rather than being supported from ground level. St Helens 002

The three founders retired in 1974, leaving a well-established practice. Soon afterward, GMW was awarded a commission to design the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. In 1983, the firm was appointed to design the new

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

headquarters building at 54 Lombard Street; eleven years later, the practice was appointed to handle the refurbishment of Tower 42 in London.

BIM

The company played a role in the early development of

building information modelling Building information modeling (BIM) is an approach involving the generation and management of digital representations of the physical and functional characteristics of buildings or other physical assets and facilities. BIM is supported by vario ...

, employing the developers of RUCAPS, the first 'building modelling' application (used for the King Saud University project), and from 1977 sold through GMW Computers Ltd in several countries worldwide. It was amongst the leading systems of its time, selling many hundreds of copies at a time when

computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

was rare and expensive.

Jonathan Ingram Jonathan Ingram (born 23 June 1961) is an Australian inventor, businessman and author. He is particularly associated with development of early building information modelling (BIM) applications, including Sonata, Reflex and ProReflex - descr ...

, sometimes called the 'Father of BIM', worked on enhancing RUCAPS at GMW Computers in the early 1980s. Envisaging a better software, he quit working at GMW, got a bank loan so that he could purchase a workstation, and developed

Sonata In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until th ...

, released in 1986 and sold to GMW in 1987. The term 'building model' (in the sense of BIM as used today) was first used in a 1986 paper by Robert Aish – then at GMW Computers – referring to the RUCAPS software's use at Heathrow Terminal 3, and it is regarded as a forerunner to today's

BIM Building information modeling (BIM) is an approach involving the generation and management of digital representations of the physical and functional characteristics of buildings or other physical assets and facilities. BIM is supported by vario ...

software.

Current activities

By the time of its 2015 acquisition by Scott Brownrigg, GMW had become a transport specialist. It undertook work for

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

, had completed the passenger terminal at the Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz Airport in

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

, and continued to work on the completion of the Istanbul Airport (designed by Grimshaw Architects, Nordic Office of Architecture and Haptic). Following the acquisition, the practice ceased working under its own name.

References

External links

GMW website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gmw Architects Architecture firms based in London Design companies established in 1948 1948 establishments in England 2015 disestablishments in England