Liam O'Connor (born 1961) is a British

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

best known for designing national public

memorials A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, Tragedy (event), tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objec ...

in a contemporary classical style.

Biography

O'Connor established his own practice, Liam O’Connor Architects and Planning Consultants, in 1989. In 1992 he won a European prize for his design of two buildings as part of a new urban block development in the centre of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. In 1992, O’Connor received the first prize for his masterplan on the redevelopment of the area around the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. Between 1995 and 1997 he was a

special adviser Special adviser may refer to: *Special adviser (Norway), a high-ranking civil servant *Special adviser (UK) A Special Adviser, also known as a SpAd, is a temporary civil servant who advises and assists UK government ministers or ministers in th ...

for architecture and urban design to

John Gummer John Selwyn Gummer, Baron Deben, FRASE (born 26 November 1939) is a British Conservative Party politician, formerly the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suffolk Coastal and Lewisham West, now a member of the House of Lords. He was Chairman of th ...

during his tenure as

Secretary of State for the Environment The secretary of state for the environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment (DoE). Today, its responsibilities are carried out by the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs and the ...

. In 1999 he won the international competition to design the Memorial Gates, London, which were inaugurated by

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

in 2002. In 2004, O'Connor was the architect for the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial at the

Ministry of Defence Main Building The Ministry of Defence Main Building or MOD Main Building, also known as MOD Whitehall or originally as the Whitehall Gardens Building, is a Listed building, grade I listed government office building located on Whitehall in London. The building ...

in London. The same year he entered the winning design for the

Armed Forces Memorial The Armed Forces Memorial is a national memorial in the United Kingdom, dedicated to the 16,000 servicemen and women of the British Armed Forces killed on duty or through terrorist action since after the Second World War. It is within the Nation ...

at the

National Memorial Arboretum The National Memorial Arboretum is a British site of national remembrance at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. Its objective is to honour the fallen, recognise service and sacrifice, and foster pride in the British Armed Forces and ...

in Staffordshire, which was official dedicated in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II on 12 October 2007. O'Connor subsequently designed the

RAF Bomber Command Memorial The Royal Air Force Bomber Command Memorial is a memorial in Green Park, London, commemorating the crews of RAF Bomber Command who embarked on missions during the World War II, Second World War. The memorial, on the south side of Piccadilly, fac ...

, set between Piccadilly and The Green Park in central London, unveiled by Elizabeth II in 2012 during her

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th annivers ...

year. Liam O'Connor worked alongside

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...

in the restoration of and extensions to the eighteenth century Magazine Building in Hyde Park Gardens for the creation of a new exhibition facility for the

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Westminster, Greater London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Galler ...

which opened in 2013. The firm then designed the Orangery New Building at

Kensington Palace Kensington Palace is a royal residence situated within Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has served as a residence for the British royal family since the 17th century and is currently the ...

for

Historic Royal Palaces Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity that manages the United Kingdom's unoccupied royal palaces: * The Tower of London * Hampton Court Palace * The State Apartments and Orangery at Kensington Palace * The Banqueting House, Whiteh ...

. This was a carefully placed extension in brick and Portland stone to the Grade I listed Orangery at the Palace, an eighteenth century work attributed to Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor. O'Connor was commissioned to design the British Normandy Memorial in

Ver-sur-Mer __NOTOC__ Ver-sur-Mer (, literally ''Ver on Sea'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department and Normandy (administrative region), Normandy Regions of France, region of north-wester ...

, France, which was formally inaugurated on 6 June 2019 by British Prime Minister

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead (; ; born 1 October 1956), is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretar ...

and French President

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

. O'Connor is a member of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

, the

Art Workers' Guild The Art Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British painters, sculptors, architects, and designers associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of al ...

and

INTBAU The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU) is an international organization established in 2001. The organization arose from a research project initiated in 2000 at The Prince's Foundation for the Built ...

, and a fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

. He was previously an adjunct professor in architecture at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to memorials, he has designed numerous residential and commercial buildings.

Awards

His new house in Belgravia, one of the largest new houses on the Grosvenor Estate in a century, won the UK Property Awards 'Best Architecture Single Residence, London' award in 2022. The Armed Forces, Normandy and RAF Bomber Command memorials have won the US based National Sculpture Society Henry Hering Medal for Art & Architecture in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Liam O'Connor is the 2025 Laureate of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize. The jury acknowledged his lifelong dedication to the design of a body of excellent new traditional public and private buildings and civil monuments – ''works projecting grace and beauty and expressing the shared emotions and cultural expectations of their audiences.''

References

External links

Liam O'Connor website
{{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Liam 1961 births Living people 20th-century English architects British special advisers English designers Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects New Classical architects