William Toomath
| Stanley William Toomath | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 November 1925 Lower Hutt, New Zealand |
| Died | 20 March 2014 (aged 88) Wellington, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Buildings |
Toomath Senior House Wool House (Wellington) Mackay House Wellington Teachers College |
Stanley William (Bill) Toomath (12 November 1925 – 20 March 2014) was a Wellington (New Zealand) architect. He was a founding member of the Architectural Group in Auckland in 1946, a life member of the Wellington Architectural Centre and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects. Both the founding of the Group and the Architectural Centre were important factors in New Zealand's modernist architectural history.
Born in Lower Hutt, Toomath studied architecture at the Auckland College of the University of New Zealand between 1945 and 1949. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture, and was awarded a UNZ two-year travelling scholarship which took him to Europe in 1951. Adding an early Fulbright Graduate Award in 1952 enabled him to complete a MArch at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he was taught by I. M. Pei and was a co-student with John Hejduk. He briefly worked with Walter Gropius at the Architects' Collaborative and then with I. M. Pei before returning to New Zealand in 1954.
On his return from New York Toomath set up practice, and three years later was joined by Derek Wilson to establish Toomath and Wilson. Toomath and Wilson were later joined by Don Irvine and Grahame Anderson in 1972, forming the firm Toomath Wilson Irvine Anderson Ltd.
Toomath's work reflects an exploratory and intelligent engagement with modernist architectural ideas. A key architectural interest was the articulation of continuous space, which is particularly evident in his Toomath Senior house, Lower Hutt (1949), and the Mackay house, Silverstream (1961). The Toomath Senior house is famous as the site of a discussion Toomath and Lew Martin had with architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner about New Zealand construction. Pevsner found the detailing of a post in the carport unrefined. Toomath argued that it reflected an honesty in detailing, relevant to New Zealand architecture. The Mackay House, Silverstream is symmetrically planned and was designed for a couple without children. It was awarded the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) Bronze Medal in 1962.
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