The Quality Review Panel has 32 members and tests the fundamental design principles of planning proposals both at pre-application stage and as part of the application process itself. They support the work of the Legacy Corporation’s Planning Decisions Team which has considered new developments for the Park and the surrounding area since 1 October 2012.

The new panel members are:
 
• David Lindsey - Max Fordham
• Graham King - City of Westminster
• John O’Mara - Herzog & de Meuron
• Johnny Winter - Cullinan Studio
• Kelvin Campbell - Smart Urbanism
• Lee Bennett - Sheppard Robson
• Michál Cohen - Walters & Cohen Architects
• Mike Martin - Turkington Martin
• Rachel Haugh - SimpsonHaugh and Partners
• Russell Curtis - RCKa
• Steven Bee - Steven Bee Urban Counsel
• Sue Rowlands - Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design
• Teresa Borsuk - Pollard Thomas Edwards
• Toby Johnson - Haworth Tompkins
 
Peter Studdert, chair of the Quality Review Panel, said: ‘The Legacy Corporation is experiencing very strong growth, with development coming forward both in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and in surrounding areas such as Hackney Wick and Bromley-by-Bow. The new members will add unrivalled expertise to the work of the Quality Review Panel, and will help the Legacy Corporation ensure that high standards of design quality are secured in all new developments.’
-Ends-

For more information contact the Press Office at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on +44 (0) 20 3734 9010 or email press@QueenElizabethOlympicPark.co.uk 

New Quality Review Panel members appointed February 2016:

David Lindsey

Max Fordham

David is a senior partner with environmental engineering practice Max Fordham. He joined the practice in 1982 and became a senior partner in 2000. He has worked on some of Max Fordham’s most significant buildings, with award winning architectural practices. Recent examples include: the refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall, with Allies & Morrison; the London Library, with Haworth Tompkins; and St Martin-in-the-Fields with Eric Parry Architects.

David studied engineering at Loughborough University and has 25 years’ experience designing, delivering and monitoring a range of projects, working with numerous clients, project managers, architects and contractors. His experience covers a broad range of industry sectors and building types, but he has a particular interest in cultural buildings and the healthcare sector. 

Graham King

City of Westminster

Graham is Head of Strategic Transport Planning & Public Realm, Growth Planning & Housing Department, at the City of Westminster. He is currently engaged with various projects including Crossrail 1, Crossrail 2, and West End Partnership projects (for example, with Transport for London, including Oxford Street, Hanover Square, Bond Street, Baker Street and Covent Garden). 

Graham has worked as a town planner for London boroughs since 1973, previously working for Bromley and Richmond upon Thames. His past projects have included the Cross River Partnership, Hungerford Bridge, Somerset House, Albert Memorial, Paddington Opportunity Area, Victoria area development and transport schemes, Exhibition Road, Westminster public area policy and coordination, and planning briefs and policy development. Graham has been a member of the CABE 2012 Design Review Panel and a Design Council CABE Built Environment Expert, and also has Design South East panel experience. He has been a university lecturer and external examiner since 1979.

John O’Mara

Herzog & de Meuron

John is projects director at Herzog & de Meuron’s UK office. He has directed projects such as the Blavatnik School of Government, Tate Modern, and One Wood Wharf in Canary Wharf. John studied at Bolton Street Institute, Dublin, and continued to study architecture at South Bank University, and the Architectural Association, London. From 2001 to 2008, he collaborated with the innovative architectural and design practice Future Systems in London. 

John worked on numerous built works and competitions across public and private sectors, including educational, commercial and arts based projects. John has over 20 years’ experience of working with design led practices, and is a regular visiting critic at architecture and design schools, including the University of Cambridge, the Architectural Association and the Royal College of Art.

Johnny Winter

Cullinan Studio

Johnny is a director of Cullinan Studio, and has worked on some of the practice’s most notable projects. He has experience in a wide range of sectors including masterplanning, higher education, residential and commercial development. He is currently leading the project team for the modernisation of the Central Building at Fitzwilliam College, at the University of Cambridge. He is also working on the design of the Passivhaus retrofit of the 1964 Mathematics Department building at Queen Mary University of London, in Mile End. Johnny studied at the Polytechnic of Central London. 

In 1989 he joined Cullinan Studio, and his early projects included the Ready Mix Concrete International Headquarters in Surrey and designing a new masterplan for the University of North Carolina, in Charlotte, USA, to accommodate an extra 10,000 students. Other notable work includes leading the design team for the University of Cambridge Centre for Mathematical Sciences, and presenting a Vision and Framework to the Chinese University in Hong Kong for the sustainable expansion of its existing campus. Johnny is also a Waterside Aylesbury Design Advisor and a client design advisor for the local authority at Hemel Hampstead. 

Kelvin Campbell

Smart Urbanism 

Kelvin is the chair and founder of Smart Urbanism, an urban research and development collaborative. An architect and urban designer, Kelvin co-founded Urban Initiatives in 1989 as an interdisciplinary urban planning and design practice, leading it on a wide variety of award winning projects. He continues as a consulting director to Urban Initiatives Studio. 

Kelvin has been a visiting professor of urban design at the University of Westminster; a member of the CABE design review panel; chair of the Urban Design Group; member of the Prince’s Foundation Advisory Panel; and a long time assessor for the National Housing Design Awards. In 2013 he received the Urban Design Group  Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the profession and was later awarded the 1851 Royal Commission Fellowship in the Built Environment.

Kelvin is also an honorary professor at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, a research centre at University College London’s Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment. He was lead author of ‘By Design’ (CABE, 2000), the government’s guidance on design in the planning system, and also wrote and published ‘Re:Urbanism’, ‘MASSIVE SMALL’ and ‘The Radical Incrementalist’.

Lee Bennett

Sheppard Robson

Lee is a partner and school design lead at Sheppard Robson. During his time at the practice he has helped to build up a broad portfolio of exemplary projects, ranging from schools built in a socio-economically challenged area of Liverpool to the independent Perse School in Cambridge. Current projects include the Sir Simon Milton University Technical College in Pimlico, sponsored by Westminster University, and a new 1,000 pupil free school with a science specialism in east London.

A graduate of the Liverpool University School of Architecture, he remained in the city to work on two Royal Institute of British Architects award winning university buildings with King McAllister. He then spent several years at Foster and Partners working on towers in the UK and USA. His higher education experience includes projects at Imperial College, the Universities of Manchester, Brunel, Cambridge, and the London Business School. Lee is also a long standing external critic for the 3rd Year at Liverpool University.

Michál Cohen

Walters & Cohen Architects
Michál is a director of Walters & Cohen Architects. She was born and educated in South Africa, before setting up her award winning practice with Cindy Walters in 1996. Michál is responsible for many of Walters & Cohen’s education projects, which began in 2003 with designs for an exemplar primary school under the Department for Education’s Schools for the Future initiative. She has led a variety of projects, including a new teaching building at St Paul’s Boys’ School, and a museum and boat building academy in Portsmouth. She also led the practice’s work devising a reference primary school for the Scottish Futures Trust, which included workshops with pupils and staff, at the award winning Lairdsland Primary School in Kirkintilloch.   

Michál is a Design Council CABE Built Environment Expert, a trustee for Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust and a member of the Design South East panel. Michál is also an external examiner at the University of Nottingham. In 2012 Michál Cohen and Cindy Walters won the Architects’ Journal’s inaugural Woman Architect of the Year award.

Mike Martin

Turkington Martin

Mike is a director at Turkington Martin. He is an experienced practitioner, working for many years in a multi-disciplinary environment as landscape architect and urban designer. He is a persuasive advocate of the value of high quality public realm and has played a significant role in the development of large scale frameworks, including Convoys Wharf, Imperial West and Greenwich Peninsula.  

Previously, Mike was a director of Whitelaw Turkington. Before this, he led design teams at the Greater London Council, Building Design Partnership and Aukett, where his experience was varied both in scale and sensitivity and included Coin Street Riverside Walk and Community Gardens, Channel Tunnel Folkestone Terminal, Joseph Banks Building at Kew Gardens, and a new city extension masterplan for Tirana, Albania. Mike has also taught urban design at Westminster University and the urban design module on the MA Planning Programme at the University College London’s Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment.

Rachel Haugh

SimpsonHaugh and Partners

Rachel jointly founded SimpsonHaugh and Partners in 1987. From its initial years, focusing on competitions and small scale projects combining design quality with minimal budgets, Rachel has been instrumental in building the practice’s strong project portfolio and reputation as leading urban and civic architects. The practice was awarded Building Design’s Office Architect of the Year in 2014.

The practice is now 110 strong, with staff divided equally between London and Manchester. Projects on-site include One Blackfriars, Battersea Power Station Phase 1 and Dollar Bay in London, Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp, a number of commercial projects and large masterplanning initiatives, including ‘St John’s’, the redevelopment of the former Granada TV site in Manchester.

The practice originated from a shared belief in the power of high quality design to lead the regeneration of post-industrial cities and initiate new contemporary architectural identities. As projects have increased in scale over the past 20 years, these original values have matured and been reinforced and remain the practice’s guiding principles.  Notwithstanding the practice’s success and growth, the founding partners remain personally involved in each project.  Rachel is a powerful critic and a strong sounding board at the early stages of a project, as well as a passionate advocate of the rigorous interrogation essential to maintain design quality through to completion.

Russell Curtis 

RCKa

Russell is a founding director of RCKa, a London-based architectural practice that specialises in innovative residential, community and commercial projects. He founded RCKa in 2008 together with Tim Riley and Dieter Kleiner. In 2009 the practice won the prestigious Europan 9 international housing competition for a site in Stoke-on-Trent, followed by a Royal Institute of British Architects competition for a new housing scheme in Preston, Lancashire. The practice is now working on a range of innovative residential projects for developers including Pegasus Life and Pocket Living, as well as community projects for several London boroughs.

Russell graduated from Newcastle University in 1997 and qualified as an architect in 1999. He has worked on a range of projects across the UK and Europe, including the Stirling Prize shortlisted Sainsbury's Greenwich and Shell's EpiCentre project in Rijswijk, The Netherlands.

Russell is a past chair of the Royal Institute of British Architects Procurement Reform Group. He is also a founding member of Project Compass CIC, a not-for-profit research organisation that campaigns for better procurement of public buildings.

Steven Bee

Steven Bee Urban Counsel

Steven established Steven Bee Urban Counsel in 2010. His practice provides planning and heritage advice, guidance and expert support to all those engaged in development. He is currently advising on projects in London, Guildford, Cambridge, Bath, Milton Keynes, Hampshire and Manchester. Commissions range from guidance on the adaptation of individual buildings, through assisting comprehensive redevelopment of urban sites, to evaluation of strategic development opportunities.

Steven is chair of the Academy of Urbanism, of which he has been an Academician since 2008.  He is a director of the Historic Towns and Villages Forum and a member of the Urban Design Group. He is a member of New London Architecture and its Sounding Board. He is a former CABE enabler, regional representative and member of its Planning Advisory Group. He is a member of the Design South East panel.

Steven is a chartered town planner with over 30 years’ experience of planning and development at local and national level, and in the public and private sectors. He was an executive board member of English Heritage for eight years, where he was responsible for its statutory and advisory services to planning and development across England. Before that he was Director of Planning and Development Services at Winchester City Council for five years.  He was a director of planning and architecture practice Llewelyn-Davies for whom he worked for 11 years, after nine years with the London Borough of Lewisham. 

Sue Rowlands

Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design

Sue is a director of Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design.  As both a chartered architect and town planner, she brings planning and design together to deliver high quality development. Sue has expertise in providing design advice and negotiation on major planning applications for public sector organisations, ranging from greenfield urban extensions to tall buildings in urban areas.

She has led multi-disciplinary teams to deliver residential and mixed use masterplans at a variety of scales (from more than 3,000 dwellings to sites for just a few new homes).  She has an in-depth, practical understanding of the technical issues that influence masterplans and how design can help resolve these issues creatively. Other work includes producing planning policy to secure high quality development.  Sue is a leading expert in Neighbourhood Planning, and is skilled at bringing local people and other stakeholders together to develop visionary plans that embody strong placemaking concepts.

Teresa Borsuk

Pollard Thomas Edwards

Teresa is a senior partner at the architectural practice Pollard Thomas Edwards. She has over 30 years’ experience in housing, mixed use and regeneration sectors, and has designed and delivered projects ranging from major developments to infill sites and refurbishments. Recently completed projects include ‘The Scene’, a mixed use regeneration project in Walthamstow incorporating new homes built over a nine screen multiplex cinema and retail; 'The Avenue', a residential project in Saffron Walden; and a scheme of four new six to seven storey apartment blocks in Cambridge.

Current projects include two developments at North West Cambridge, a new district and extension to the city, centred around a mixed academic and urban community, led by the University of Cambridge. Teresa is a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors awards judge, a Royal Institute of British Architects client advisor, and has been an advisor and judge on a number of design competitions. In 2015 she was named Woman Architect of the Year by the Architects’ Journal.
 
Toby Johnson

Haworth Tompkins

Toby is a director of Haworth Tompkins and has worked with Graham Haworth and Steve Tompkins for over 10 years on a range of high profile projects including the Stirling Prize winning Liverpool Everyman, and Stirling Prize shortlisted Young Vic Theatre and Liverpool 1 regeneration project. Before joining Haworth Tompkins Toby was a director at MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, leading the Stirling Prize shortlisted Coventry Phoenix Initiative, the Dana Centre for the Science Museum and the Ruskin Archive at Lancaster University. 

Toby has gained a wide range of experience in cultural, educational, housing, mixed use and regeneration projects and is interested in how contemporary architecture can embrace and respond to the layered complexities of the modern city.Toby studied at Cambridge University, has been a chair of the London Borough of Southwark design review panel for eight years, and a member of the London Borough of Newham design review panel since 2013.