My father, Tim Wallis, who has died aged 86, was a senior architect for Avon county and Bristol city councils. He specialised first in public housing but spent the majority of his career designing schools and colleges. Some of his better known buildings are the Michael Tippett Centre at Bath Spa University, and the Ralph Allen Building at Bath College.
Tim studied architecture at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in the late 1950s, learning under Colin St John Wilson. There Tim explored painting, art and graphics. He was one of the Cambridge Four, which had a show in 1960, the year of his graduation, at London’s New Vision Centre gallery, curated by Robert Freeman (who later found fame photographing the Beatles).
For this exhibition the group received a mention in the critic Lucy R Lippard’s 1966 book, Pop Art. Tim also became writer/editor for IMAGE, a magazine introducing new creative talent.
Tim was born near Dudley, West Midlands, to Joan (nee Ellis) and Roy, who, after serving as a dispatch rider in the second world war, became town clerk for Monmouth. While at Monmouth school for boys, Tim became amanuensis to the composer Dennis Stoll, sparking his lifelong love of music.
Tim’s first architectural job was for the county borough council of Northampton, where he joined the Masque theatre as actor, programme designer and scenery painter. In 1963 he met Mary Garrett, a teacher; they married later that year.
In 1965 they moved to Bristol, where Tim took a job in the county architect’s department. They settled with their growing family in the garden suburb of Sea Mills, some of the first “homes for heroes” to be built under the Addison Act and which the poet John Betjeman called “that magic estate”.
On top of his county council work, Tim was involved in his family’s local school communities, including drawing the plans to refurbish Portway school’s outdoor learning cottage (Pen-y-Cae) in the Black Mountains, in Wales, and helping in the redesign of Sea Mills primary school.
In retirement from 1993, Tim was a knowledgable tour guide at Woodchester Mansion in the Cotswolds. He immersed himself in creative writing, set up the Sea Mills flower show and campaigned to save local libraries. In 1999 Tim launched a local newsletter, Community Voice, which he edited for 20 years.
He also organised local campaign groups including Save Sea Mills Garden Suburb (SSMGS) which, in the mid-2000s, successfully reversed council plans to demolish part of the estate. In 2012 SSMGS received an English Heritage Angel award for “the rescue of Sea Mills Conservation Area”.
In recognition of his community work, in 2020 Tim was awarded the Lord Mayor’s medal of Bristol.
He is survived by Mary, their four children, Catie, Lucy, Becky and me, six grandchildren, Eleanor, Luke, Alex, Anna, Lucy and Wilf, and by his two sisters, Fee and Judy.
