Sir Edward Michael Coulson Fowler (19 December 1929 – 12 July 2022) was a New Zealand architect and author who served as
mayor of Wellington
The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of the City of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representat ...
from 1974 to 1983.
Early life and family
Fowler was born on 19 December 1929 in
Marton, the son of William Coulson Fowler and Faith Agnes Netherclift.
He was educated at Manchester Street School in Feilding
and
Christ's College in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
, before studying architecture at
Auckland University College
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
between 1950 and 1952 and earning a Diploma of Architecture.
He later returned to the
University of Auckland
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
, graduating with a Master of Architecture degree in 1973.
In 1953, Fowler married Barbara Hamilton Hall, and the couple went on to have three children.
Architectural career
Fowler started his career in 1954 at the
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
office of
Ove Arup and Partner, and became an
Associate 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 ...
in 1955.
In 1957, he returned to New Zealand, working initially as a self-employed architect in Wellington, and in partnership (Calder, Fowler, Styles and Turner) from 1959 to 1989.
In the early 1960s, Fowler designed the
Wellington Overseas Passenger Terminal, which was to have served international passenger ships, but never saw its intended use due to the rising popularity of air travel.
In an interview many years later, he said that he "was party to the design of the biggest
white elephant
A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...
that Wellington ever built".
Fowler was elected a
Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects in 1970.
Political career
Fowler was first elected to the
Wellington City Council
Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...
in
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Janu ...
on the
Citizens' ticket. Four years later he stood for the parliamentary seat of
Hutt in the
1972 general election for the
National Party where he came runner up to Labour's
Trevor Young
Trevor James Young (28 August 1925 – 13 May 2012) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Biography Early life
Young was born in 1925 in Turua on the Hauraki Plains. The son of Leslie Robert Young, he grew up in Cambridge and Bl ...
.
Fowler was elected
mayor of Wellington
The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of the City of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representat ...
in
1974, in a very tight race with long-serving incumbent Sir
Frank Kitts
Sir Francis Joseph Kitts (1 May 1912 – 16 March 1979) was a New Zealand politician. He was the longest-serving mayor of Wellington, holding the post from 1956 to 1974. He was the Labour Member of Parliament for between and 1960.
Early lif ...
, a post that he held until he retired in 1983.
His
1977 re-election campaign was against local
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
entertainer
Carmen Rupe, who ran with the support of local businessman
Bob Jones with the slogans "Get in behind" and "Carmen for Mayor" and a platform of gay marriage and legalised brothels (although neither of these are local-government matters in New Zealand).
The main focus of his mayoralty was the redevelopment of the central city with the large scale demolition of buildings determined to be earthquake-prone. He encouraged building owners to demolish instead of earthquake strengthening them, particularly on the city's "golden mile" along
Lambton Quay
Lambton Quay (once known as The Beach) is the heart of the central business district of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand.
Originally, as the name implies, it was the high-water line of the foreshore, and sometimes the sea would roll ...
where half of the 187 at-risk buildings along the route (including many historic hotels) were pulled down. Another part of his modernisation agenda for the city was the construction of a new event centre. Initially, this was to be built in place of the
Wellington Town Hall
The Wellington Town Hall ( mi, Te Whare Whakarauika) is a concert hall and part of the municipal complex in Wellington, New Zealand, which opened in December 1904. It has been closed to the public since the 2013 Seddon earthquake, and it is cur ...
. However, Fowler encountered significant public opposition to demolishing the town hall which led to the town hall to be retained and the new centre being built next door and opened officially in 1983.
Fowler also established council committees to regularise contact between the city and both government agencies and
Wellington Harbour Board
(Strong but true)
, predecessor =
, merged =
, successor =
, formation =
, founder =
, founding_location =
, dissolved =
, merger =
, type ...
to streamline key relationships necessary for city development. Newer buildings were constructed en-masse and the city had a development craze which, in Fowler's view, enhanced the city. He was opposed by heritage lobbies over the mass demolitions but was fiercely counter-critical of those advocating building preservation, and once went as far as to describe them as "jackbooted zealots".
In the lead-up to the
1984 general election, Fowler was speculated as a contender for the National Party nomination for the
Wellington Central electorate. He admitted he had been invited by the party's electorate chairman to stand, but had declined to run.
Honours and awards
In 1977, Fowler was awarded the
Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal. In the
1981 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a
Knight Bachelor
The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...
, in recognition of his service as mayor of Wellington.
Fowler received the
New Zealand Institute of Architects
Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) is a membership-based professional organisation that represents 90 per cent of all registered architects in New Zealand, and promotes architecture that enhances the New Zealand livi ...
' Award of Honour in 1983, and the following year he won the
Alfred O. Glasse Award from the New Zealand Institute of Planning.
Wellington's principal concert performance hall, the
Michael Fowler Centre
The Michael Fowler Centre is a concert hall and convention centre in Wellington, New Zealand. It was constructed on reclaimed land next to Civic Square, and is the pre-eminent concert site in central Wellington.
Commissioned in 1975, building be ...
, opened in 1983, was named in his honour.
Controversies
During the construction of
Te Papa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring f ...
on Wellington's waterfront in the mid-1990s, Fowler was critical of the final design. His claims of similarity with
Nazi architecture
Nazi architecture is the architecture promoted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime from 1933 until its fall in 1945, connected with urban planning in Nazi Germany. It is characterized by three forms: a stripped neoclassicism, typified by the ...
in the published drawings (akin to the work of
Albert Speer) drew controversy.
Fowler was criticised for his comments in May 2011, where he backed a controversial
Wellywood
Wellywood is an informal name for the city of Wellington, New Zealand. The name—a conflation of Wellington and Hollywood—is a reference to the film production business established in the city by ''The Lord of the Rings'' film director Sir ...
sign in a handwritten letter to ''
The Dominion Post'', describing its critics as "dumb, humourless, totally irrelevant and probably Irish". When later questioned, he was unapologetic stating that his comment "wasn't meant to be derogatory."
Irish residents in New Zealand expressed outrage at the comments.
Later life and death
After retiring from the mayoralty he was appointed in 1983 as chairman of the
Queen Elizabeth Arts Council by the then National government. The appointment caused some controversy, with allegations of cronyism coming from the opposition Labour Party given Fowler's history as a National candidate.
The Fowlers later bought an orchard in
Marlborough
Marlborough may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
** Marlborough College, public school
* Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England
* The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England
Austral ...
, where they lived for 12 years before returning to Wellington in 2003. Barbara, Lady Fowler, died in 2009. In the
2010 Wellington local elections
The 2010 Wellington Region local elections were part of the 2010 New Zealand local elections, to elect members to sub-national councils and boards. These elections covered one regional council (the Greater Wellington Regional Council), eight terr ...
, Fowler stood in the Lambton Ward for a seat on the Wellington City Council, finishing fifth of nine candidates, with the three highest-polling candidates elected.
Fowler died with
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
on 12 July 2022, at the age of 92.
Citations
General and cited references
*
*
External links
Michael Fowler, front left, in 1977 (photo)
Michael Fowler, left, in 1979 (photo)
Cartoon of Frank Kitts & Michael Fowler in 1974
Sir Michael's personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Michael
1929 births
2022 deaths
Fellows of the New Zealand Institute of Architects
Mayors of Wellington
New Zealand architects
New Zealand artists
New Zealand Knights Bachelor
New Zealand National Party politicians
New Zealand politicians awarded knighthoods
People educated at Christ's College, Christchurch
People from Marton, New Zealand
Unsuccessful candidates in the 1972 New Zealand general election
Wellington City Councillors
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
Fellows of the American Physical Society