Our friend Tony Meats, who has died aged 82, was one of the most talented and influential urban designers of his generation. In the course of a long and prolific career, Tony revelled in challenges ranging from “surgical” insertions into historic towns to the design of whole new communities on virgin sites.
As a planner and urbanist he was among that rare breed who could see beyond the stern discipline of architecture to a wider world of possibilities. In doing so he built a network of loyal friends and colleagues who valued his creativity, imagination and, above all, his humanity.
Born in Nottingham to Charles Meats, who worked for John Player, and Cora (nee Birkhead), he gained a scholarship to High Pavement school. Throughout his life, Tony remained devoted to his native city and its architecture, which he celebrated in a recent series of watercolour paintings. His schoolboy prowess at drawing was hardly valued in his early employment in Nottingham, but following national service with the RAF in Germany he won a free place at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, the school that has nurtured many of our foremost architects. In 1959 it was certainly the spot to be and among his teachers was the town planner Graeme Shankland.
Following a spell with the pedigree practice of Powell and Moya, he joined Shankland at the freshly minted Graeme Shankland Associates, latterly the Shankland Cox Partnership. The year was 1963, and the timing was propitious: the firm had won a series of contracts of breathtaking scale in Britain and overseas, and Tony was ideally positioned to take up the challenge as leading urban designer, initially on the Liverpool city centre plan, which allowed positive and imaginative development to take place over a long period. The plan was richly illustrated by Tony’s visionary drawings and 3D visualisations.
Assignments in the Caribbean and the Adriatic were balanced by projects in the Middle East, where he gave form and structure to huge unbuilt sites. Typical was a new community for Kuwait where, by flexing a proposed motorway he set the plan on a diagonal, freeing it from the standard rectilinear straitjacket with a magical flourish of the pen.
In 1968 he married Sarah (nee Fryer) and left the firm to set up an independent practice in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, housed in a converted baker’s shop, from which Sarah still runs her catering business. Tony widened his reputation as a designer who could turn dry briefs into desirable places, engineering infrastructure into lively, even quirky, buildings and conjure up visions to inspire the whole team. Tony’s drawings and master plans are proudly displayed on the walls of clients and friends across the globe.
Tony also painted buildings and landscapes, always on the spot, and his exquisite watercolours were widely exhibited. The baker’s shop played host to numerous gatherings where Tony and Sarah’s warm hospitality and sense of fun will long be remembered.
He is survived by Sarah, their twin sons, Rupert and Oliver, and by three grandchildren.
