Peter Thomas Dunican FIEI (15 March 1918 – 18 December 1989) was a

structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of safety, technical, economic ...

and former chairman of Ove Arup & Partners.

Life and career

Involved in Ove Arup & Partners from its early days, and becoming a partner in 1956, Peter Dunican is widely regarded as the right-hand man of Ove Arup, the firm's founder. In the words of Jack Zunz and Peter Hobbs, other senior partners from the firm, after his death in 1989: :"If Ove is the architect-philosopher, Peter is the builder, the doer who moulded the philosophies into workable arrangements whereby so many hundreds of talented people have come together to work under the Arup banner." Dunican became chairman of the Ove Arup Partnership, a trust which owned Ove Arup & Partners on behalf of its staff, in 1977. As senior partner at Arup from 1956, Dunican is credited with overseeing much of its growth from a single office in London in 1946 to a firm of over 15000 staff (in 2020). He also worked on many of the firms most iconic projects, including the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

Coventry Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Michael, commonly known as Coventry Cathedral, is the seat of the Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese of Coventry within the Church of England. The cathedral is located in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The curren ...

, Centre Pompidou, the

Barbican Estate The Barbican Estate, or Barbican, is a residential complex of around 2,000 flats, maisonettes, and houses in central London, England, within the City of London. It is in an area once devastated by World War II bombings and densely populated b ...

and others. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

in 1978, president of the Institution of Structural Engineers for 1977–78 and was appointed CBE in the

1977 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1977 are appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 1977. The awards were announced on 30 December 1976 in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: Australia,Australia: Ne ...

. He died in 1989.

References

1918 births 1989 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Structural engineers Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Presidents of the Institution of Structural Engineers {{UK-engineer-stub