My uncle, Geoffrey Collens, who has died aged 86, was an architect, a renowned landscape design expert and a generous supporter of the arts.
Born in Sevenoaks, Kent, Geoffrey was one of three children of Emily and John Collens, both civil servants. When his father’s Post Office department was evacuated from London in 1940, the family moved with it to Harrogate, north Yorkshire, where one of their neighbours was an architect, which sparked Geoffrey’s interest.
He went to Harrogate grammar school, where his handwriting style was described by one master as “illegible cave scrawl”. Between 1951 and 1956, Geoffrey studied architecture at Leeds School of Architecture and Town Planning. His first job was with Basil Spence & Partners in London, with whom he worked on the Chadwick laboratories at Liverpool University and the Aeronautics building at Southampton University.
In 1960, he started a degree course at the University of Pennsylvania, during which he worked for Doxiadis Associates in the city. Returning to the UK in 1962 he was elected an associate of the Institute of Landscape Architects and joined Derek Lovejoy & Associates, with whom he remained all his career, becoming chair in 1990. His major projects for the practice included the HMS Raleigh Naval Training centre at Torpoint, Cornwall, and the Barnard Park redevelopment of bomb sites in north London.
Perhaps one of his greatest professional achievements was becoming a pre-eminent landscape expert witness at public inquiries, which included those into the construction of the Eton Olympic rowing lake at Dorney, Berkshire, and of Heathrow Terminal 5. His sharp analytical brain and robust character made him popular with planning barristers.
He had a huge appetite for travel and combined this with an active social life. An avid opera fan and classical music buff, he was a sponsor of many charities and cultural organisations including Blackheath Halls and Glyndebourne.
Geoffrey did not use email and did not own a PC or a TV. His main medium of communication was the telephone or postcard. His phone calls were never short, as he always had much to say, and his postcards impossible to decipher. He never missed a birthday or an anniversary and was meticulous in his present buying, particularly at Christmas.
He is survived by his twin sister, Joan. His brother, John, my father, predeceased him.
