Today we celebrate the long-standing and successful career of our friend and colleague Gary Tidmarsh who, after 32 years of being in the practice, has now retired.
Our Managing Director, Matthew Goulcher, recognises his contribution as an important part of what Levitt Bernstein has become.
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“1992 to 2024 is 32 years. Gary joined the practice as a freelancer, employed very much for his drawing and illustration skills. He and a friend had won an international competition for a new Commonwealth Institute. Eventually, when the project was finally abandoned, Gary was employed at Levitt Bernstein on a full-time basis. In 1992, the practice was based in Camden but was building its new home in Dalston, and so Gary was there for this move.
He worked on some significant arts projects with Director Axel Burrough, including The Corn Exchange, Kings Lynn and an early iteration of the German Ryan Gallery in Walsall (the gallery that Caruso St John later designed). Housing masterplanning followed — he helped win the Chalkhill regeneration competition with his drawings and then worked on its design. In those days, there were only two or three people trusted with illustration and perspective work, and he was one of them.
In 1996, Gary and I were made Directors. We were surprised! The older Directors had decided to skip a generation and appoint 'younger things' to take the practice forward, so we did. Larger projects followed for Gary — Stratford Circus Performing Arts Centre and the Theatre Royal on the arts side, and the huge Pimlico Village project — a groundbreaking mixed use development in Victoria with one of Sainsbury’s largest stores at the base and mixed tenure housing above.
Then came the Brunswick Centre with David Levitt and more Allied London work in Manchester, and it went on: Ocean Estate, Gascoigne Estate, Devonshire Park, the award-winning Sutherland Road, finishing with Plashet Road and the beautiful beast that is to be the new Finsbury Leisure Centre with new housing surrounding it.
So, a considerable body of work that Gary has left that has it’s imprint on the practice.
I've worked with Gary for 32 years here — more or less all our careers. It will be a different place without him.”
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Gary will continue his contribution to the practice as a consultant.
Following Gary’s retirement, we are delighted to announce slight changes in our company structure, which support our development as a practice in this exciting new era. We welcome Simon Lea to the Board of Directors alongside Matthew Goulcher, Irene Craik, Jo McCafferty, Barry McCollough, and Victoria Turner.
In addition, five new team members have been appointed Studio Directors, a new role within our practice. Kate Digney and Glyn Tully will co-lead the Place Studio, focusing on our work in landscape and urban design; Clare Murray will continue steering our Sustainability work, Paul Martin has become our Technical Design Director and Mark Lewis will lead our Arts Studio, focussing on the practice’s work in cultural projects.
Congratulations everyone!
