George Valentine S. Myer (1883,

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

– 1959,

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 ...

) was an English architect and portrait painter appointed by the

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

to design one of the first purpose built broadcast buildings in the world,

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

, Langham Place,

completed in 1932.

Career

Myer started in practice on his own account at nineteen, specialising in medium-sized houses, then continued in partnership with John W Fair (Fair and Myer) including designing houses in

Gidea Park Gidea Park () is a neighbourhood in the east of Romford in the London Borough of Havering, south-east England. Predominantly an affluent and residential area, it was historically located in the county of Essex. It saw significant expansion in t ...

, Romford, Essex. By 1928, his career had progressed sufficiently to have completed the design of Asia House in Lime Street (1912–13) and Portsoken House in the Minories (1927–28). This experience in office design would prove invaluable to his commission for Broadcasting House as would his experience as a collaborative commercial architect. The later partnership of George Val Myer and F J Watson-Hart was to undertake significant commissions in the reconstruction of

Park Lane Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park to ...

for the Grosvenor Estate. Aldford House (1930–2) was a modernistic apartment block with classical stylings imposed by

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

and Fountain House (1935–38) followed the design guidance of

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (9 November 1880 – 8 February 1960) was a British architect known for his work on the New Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Cathedral, and d ...

. Val Myer was a successful commercial architect whose work typified the conventions of that remit and his time. His notability derives from his design response to the opportunities presented by his most significant commission.

Broadcasting House

Val Myer and Watson-Hart had been working in 1927 for the consortium headed by Lord Waring that owned the sites at the bottom of Portland Place that the BBC had identified as a potential location for their new broadcast building. Val Myer, starting as the landlord’s architect, came to undertake the lease-holder’s bespoke design. For the BBC, their own civil engineer, M T Tudsbery had selected the site and development strategy and was to determine the technical and functional brief. Val Myer named his original design 'the Top Hat design' and it was frequently compared, from its first appearance, to a 1930s

ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

for its clean-cut lines and allusions to New York Art Deco. The building linked emphatically to the rest of

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

through its complementary use of Portland stone but was modernistic in spirit, and adorned with radical sculptural commissions by

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as "the greatest artist-craftsma ...

, most notably the statues of Ariel and Prospero. Val Myer worked alongside M T Tudsbery and formulated the approach of locating the office accommodation around the outside of the building to insulate a massive central brick tower of 22 broadcast studios from noise intrusion. Acoustic separation was pursued through the development of novel constructional technologies and strategies at all levels of design. Val Myer’s work as chief architect of the building and the concert hall was supplemented by that of a BBC team of architects for the interiors headed by Raymond McGrath that included Serge Chermayeff,

Wells Coates Wells Wintemute Coates (December 17, 1895 – June 17, 1958) was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an expatriate Canadian who is best known for his work in England, the most notable of which is the Modernist block ...

, Dorothy Warren Trotter and

Edward Maufe Sir Edward Brantwood Maufe, RA, FRIBA (12 December 1882 – 12 December 1974) was an English architect and designer. He built private homes as well as commercial and institutional buildings, and is remembered chiefly for his work on place ...

, each a bespoke commission for a distinct function. War damage, technological change and the severe environmental limitations and inflexibility of the original design have caused the original studio interiors to be almost wholly replaced. Key surviving interiors have been restored in works concluded in 2009.

References

External links

Images of Val Myer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myer, Val 1959 deaths 1883 births Architects from Herefordshire English portrait painters Sherwood Foresters officers Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Hereford