Joseph Lea Gleave (born 5 August 1907 in Manchester; died 16 January 1965 in Glasgow) was a British architect. In 1931, when he was 23, he won the international architectural competition for the
Columbus Lighthouse in
Santo Domingo Este,
Dominican Republic, a memorial monument that was a tribute to
Christopher Columbus.
Later in his career he became known for the designing of a number of Scottish hospitals.
Life
Gleave was the son of a farmer, James Gleave and his wife Hannah
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Lea.
Between September 1923 to September 1927 he studied on a part-time basis at
Manchester School of Architecture.
In 1927 he was apprenticed to
James Theodore Halliday in Manchester for several months, before moving to work with Francis Jones as assistant, between 1927 and 1928. In the same year Gleave moved employment again to
Thomas Cecil Howitt from 1929 to 1930.
From February 1930 to May 1931 he assisted with Jones & Dalrymple in Manchester.
The following year, Gleave was appointed to
Edinburgh College of Art as a senior assistant.
In 1935, he was promoted to director of the School of Architecture at the college.
World War II
During the war, he was assigned to the
Anti-Aircraft Command and reached the rank of
lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
.
After the war
After he returned to the department in 1946, he spent a year redesigning the Columbus Memorial and working on
Renfrew Airport along with his brother-in-law, the Scottish
architect William Kininmonth.
In 1948, Gleave became a partner at Keppie Henderson, with the firm being renamed to Keppie Henderson & J L Gleave.
Initially focusing on houses and schools, he constructed the new Engineering Building at the
University of Glasgow, which lead to additional work, in the construction of hospitals. Between 1951 and 1955, Gleave worked on the development of
Vale of Leven Hospital
Vale of Leven District General Hospital or simply the Vale of Leven Hospital is a district general hospital in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
History
The hospital has its origin ...
. At the time, his practice was expanding.
Know to be eccentric and unpredictable in his approach,
with a penchant for late night working, sometimes as late as 4am, his approach led to differences and eventually arguments with the two other partners in the firm, Henderson and Alex Smellie. This led him in early 1958, to establish his own consultancy,
known as '' J L Gleave''. Shortly after he worked on commissions for the
Queen Mother Hospital in Glasgow and additions to
Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
In 1964, he constructed a new science block for the University of Glasgow that was named in honour of Lord
John Boyd Orr
John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr, (23 September 1880 – 25 June 1971), styled Sir John Boyd Orr from 1935 to 1949, was a Scottish teacher, medical doctor, biologist, nutritional physiologist, politician, businessman and farmer who was awarded ...
of Brechin, named as ''Boyd Orr Building''. Orr was a noted
biologist
A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...
and
nutritional physiologist
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
, who was
Rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
between 1945 to 1947 and
chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
from 1946 to 1971.
Death
On 16 January 1965, Gleave died in the
Western Infirmary in Glasgow.
He has been suffering from cancer for more than a year, but diagnosed in the spring of the year before.
His wife, Margaret Grierson Sutherland survived him.
He had two children, a daughter Carolyn, who was an interior designer and a son David.
His son David also trained as an architect.
He would go on to join his fathers old practice in 1987 that changing name as partners came and went and time went on, eventually becoming Young & Gault.
Gallery
:::
File:Santo Domingo.El Faro a Colón.20170402.jpg, Columbus Lighthouse. Designed by Gleave in 1931 but not completed fully until 1992.
File:Belford Hospital, Fort William (geograph 5818002).jpg, Bedford Hospital, Fort William. After 1949
File:Glasgow university with sno.jpg, University of Glasgow, Quincentenary Memorial Gates. Circa 1950
File:30 - 40 St Vincent Place, Clydesdale Bank Headquarters.jpg, Clydesdale Bank Headquarters, Glasgow. Circa 1951. Alterations.
File:The Vale of Leven Hospital - geograph.org.uk - 273091.jpg, Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria. Circa 1951
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gleave, Joseph Lea
1907 births
1965 deaths
Architects from Manchester
English architects