page_title: Ralph Covell
section_title: Post-war career
hierarchical_section_title: Ralph Covell / Post-war career
caption_attribution_description: English: Hotel Piccadilly, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester
context_page_description: Ralph George Covington Covell was an English modern architect, active during the post-war period to the early 1970s.
context_section_description: After the war he resumed architectural practice, and was elected FRIBA in 1946. Covell was joined by Albert Edward Thurman "Gerry" Matthews in 1948 to form "Covell & Matthews". Matthews had also served in the Royal Engineers, seeing service in Italy and the Western Front.
  They acquired work with the Ministry of Defence allegedly due to Marshall's wartime acquaintance with Montgomery. This work included contracts in Gibraltar during which time Albert Heasman joined the practice as a senior partner.
  Matthews' connections with developers led to their first major contract, part of the 1959 redevelopment of the Piccadilly Gardens area of Manchester City Centre, which led to the practice opening an office in Manchester. The firm developed 'Piccadilly Plaza', a group of three buildings linked by a podium. The tallest, an office block originally called 'Sunley Tower', features a textured design on one side evoking circuit boards. The second, originally the 'Ramada Manchester Piccadilly' is a hotel. The third, 'Bernard House' featured a unique roof described as "timber structure of hyperbolic paraboloid form, comprising of a main rib element on each of the four axes of twin Glulam Beams" but was demolished in 2001. The Piccadilly Plaza is now considered by some to be an exemplar of modernist architecture.
  By 1960 the practice had become "Covell Matthews and Partners" and it expanded rapidly over the following decade, with Brian Falk and John Wheatley joining the practice during this period. By 1970 they had offices in Edinburgh and Aberdeen whilst Covell himself mostly remained based at the Lexington Street office in Soho. Covell himself was elected FRIAS in 1965. During this period the practice was associated with many buildings in Scotland and included the McCance building (1962–3) and Alec House (1963-68) now part of the University of Strathclyde and the brutalist John Lewis store in Aberdeen (1968–70). However work in England continued including the residential estate at Bar Hill, Cambridge, and a pub in West Ham in 1968.
  Although Covell retired in 1972, the practice continued as the "Covell Matthews Partnership" and continued to evolve thereafter.
caption: Picadilly Plaza, Manchester
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