Owen Williams (engineer)

Sir Owen Williams
Owen Williams, circa 1960s.
Born	Evan Owen Williams 20 March 1890 Tottenham, London
Died	23 May 1969(1969-05-23) (aged 79) Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Children	Owen Tudor Williams
Engineering career
Discipline	Architecture, engineering
Institutions	University of London
Practice name	Sir Owen Williams & Partners
Projects	Gravelly Hill Interchange, Birmingham
Significant design	Daily Express Building, Manchester Boots Buildings, Nottingham
Significant advance	Concrete engineering

Sir Evan Owen Williams (20 March 1890 – 23 May 1969) was a British engineer and architect, known for being the principal engineer for Gravelly Hill Interchange (known popularly as Spaghetti Junction) as well as a number of key modernist buildings, including the Express Building in Manchester and Boots D10 Building in Nottingham.

Primarily an engineer, he was not classically trained as an architect but showed an exceptional degree of proficiency with both flair and functionality in his buildings which were considered far ahead of their time during the 1930s. Williams ultimately believed architecture and engineering must be inseparable.

Williams born at 16 Caroline Terrace in Tottenham, London, England, on 20 March 1890. He was the son of Evan Owen Williams, a Welsh-born grocer and Mary Roberts. Originally both farmers, they both moved to London some years before Owen was born. Williams had two sisters and two brothers. Mary Kate, died young, but the second born, Elizabeth Maud, became an author. Owen had an older brother, Robert Osian, who was a successful banker and came out of retirement to manage the finances of his brother's engineering practice which was launched in 1940. Williams attended Tottenham Grammar School and Williams excelled in mathematics. He was apprenticed to the Electrical Tramways Co. in London in 1907 and at the same time did an engineering degree at the University of London.

In 1912 Williams assumed a position as engineer and designer with the Trussed Concrete Company. Seven years later, he started his own consulting firm, Williams Concrete Structures.

Appointed chief consulting civil engineer to the British Empire Exhibition which included the old Wembley Stadium. The commission also included the Palace of Industry building in Brent, the first building in the United Kingdom to use concrete as the exterior. The building was listed in 1997 in recognition of this but was delisted in 2004 after an appeal by a property developer. Williams was recognised for his achievements and recognised a knighthood in 1924.