Derek Walker (architect)

Walker was the architect for the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, a £42.5million project which opened to the public in 1996.

He ran the architecture course at the Royal College of Art between 1984 and 1990.

In 1980 Walker was involved with Norman Foster and Frank Newby in a controversial scheme to expand the Whitney Museum in New York City using air rights purchased from nearby properties to build a mixed-use skyscraper which would include a new wing for the museum. When a furore developed, the museum denied it had solicited the team.

Amongst his many buildings, possibly the most celebrated was the Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. At the time of its opening in 1979 it was a unique concept for 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m) of retail space with a plan generated around covered landscaped streets. The team for this complex included Stuart Mosscrop, Christopher Woodward and Syd Green. In July 2010, the building was recognised with a Grade II listing, to applause from the 20th Century Society and other conservationists.

From 1970 to 1976 Walker was Chief Architect and planner of the new town Milton Keynes. He recruited a team and over seven years produced a landscaping strategy for the 'new city', eleven village plans, the structure for the programme for producing 3000 houses per year with supporting community, leisure, retail and sporting and cultural facilities.

After completing his national service, Walker went on to study architecture at Leeds Art School; whilst there he met his first wife Jill Messenger. He then studied planning at the University of Pennsylvania before returning to the UK in 1960 to set up an architectural practice in Leeds.

Derek John Walker (15 June 1929 – 11 May 2015) was a British architect primarily associated with urban planning and leisure facilities architecture, through his firm Derek Walker Associates.

Walker was born on 15 June 1929 in Blackburn, Lancashire, however he and his family moved to Leeds in West Yorkshire when he was very young.