James joined the practice’s Norwich office in 2007 as Managing Partner.
While he has a strong appreciation of the historic environment, his background as an architect lies firmly in the commercial sector. Despite its national reputation for conserving and adapting historic buildings, the practice has an impressive, if lesser known, track record in new build within a wide variety of sectors. It is James’s mission to promote these proven strengths in designing offices, schools, residential and healthcare buildings in parallel with its traditional areas of expertise.
There are two sides to his professional life - firstly, the ‘emotive designer’, keen to provide creative solutions which exceed clients’ expectations. The other facet is the highly organised manager who enjoys the challenge of a leadership role looking after the needs of his team of 25 in Norwich and involving himself in strategic planning for the practice’s future.
James is conscious of the value of learning from the past without the need for slavish copying. He maintains an active designing role. He has experience of a number of procurement routes including design & build and partnering.
Sustainable issues are high on his agenda and he is keen to promote its benefits to clients. James believes that good, environmentally-aware design adds value to a project and, as the innovative projects he has designed demonstrate, well- crafted contemporary architecture can make a real improvement to peoples’ lives.
‘It’s important to maintain a healthy balance between the need for sheer hard work and getting real enjoyment and delight from a project. This message should permeate every strata of the team from architects to administrators.’