Leonard Roy Lovell-Smith (born Leonard Roy Smith; 26 September 1884 – 25 April 1972) was a New Zealand architect.

Early life and family

Leonard Roy Smith was born 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 River / ...

on 26 September 1884, the son of the printer and stationer William Sidney Smith and his wife Mary Jane (Jennie) Smith (née Cumberworth). The family later changed their surname to Lovell-Smith. His siblings included feminist and community worker

Kitty Lovell-Smith Hilda Kate Lovell-Smith (10 July 1886 – 3 February 1973), generally known as Kitty Lovell-Smith, was a New Zealand businesswoman and community organiser. Early life Lovell-Smith was born at Riccarton, New Zealand, Riccarton, in Christchurch ...

, artist and writer Edgar Lovell-Smith, and artist Colin Lovell-Smith.

Career

Lovell-Smith served articles with A.H. Hart and qualified as an architect in 1905, establishing his own practice that year, as well as becoming the youngest associate member thus far of the newly formed

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 ...

Lovell-Smith's parents were friends of Kate Shepard, and she provided the funds with which the family home "Midway", on Middleton Road in

Riccarton Riccarton may refer to: New Zealand * Riccarton, New Zealand, a suburb of Christchurch ** Riccarton (New Zealand electorate), the electorate named after it ** The location of Riccarton Race Course * a locality on the Taieri Plains in Otago Scotlan ...

, was built in 1920. Lovell-Smith designed it in the English Domestic Revival style, and lived there in the 1930s and again after his conversion of it into flats in 1949. Lovell-Smith joined the Valuation Department of the State Advances Corporation in 1933, becoming the district property supervisor before retiring in 1939. He still continued in private practice, and was particularly known for ecclesiastical and residential buildings. Churches designed by Lovell-Smith include St Ninian's Presbyterian Church, Riccarton (1926), St Paul's Presbyterian Church, Timaru (1926), a carved chapel at Te Waipounamu School (1926), St John's Methodist Church, Bryndwr (1928), St Andrew's Church in Hokitika (1931), St Kentigern's Anglican Church in Ataahua (1933) and the Kaiapoi Methodist Co-operating Church (1934). Significant residential properties include the former Methodist Parsonage in Kaiapoi (1914), and the landmark

Skellerup Skellerup is a New Zealand-based manufacturer of industrial and agricultural rubber products. The company, then called Para Rubber Company, was founded by George Skellerup in 1910 when he opened his first retail shop in Christchurch and now empl ...

House in Christchurch.

Death

Lovell-Smith died on 25 April 1972, and he was buried at Waimairi Cemetery, Christchurch.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovell-Smith, Roy 1884 births 1972 deaths Architects from Christchurch 20th-century New Zealand architects Burials at Waimairi Cemetery 20th-century New Zealand public servants