Richard Barry Parker

Richard Barry Parker (November 18, 1867 – February 21, 1947) was an English architect and urban planner associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was primarily known his architectural partnership with Raymond Unwin.

Parker was born in Chesterfield in 1867, the son of bank manager Robert Parker. He trained at T.C. Simmonds Atelier of Art in Derby and the studio of George Faulkner Armitage in Altrincham. In 1891 he joined his father in Buxton and designed three large houses for him there.

In 1896 Parker went into partnership with Raymond Unwin, who was Parker's half cousin as well as his brother-in-law, having married his sister Ethel in 1893. They collaborated on architectural writing including "The Art of Building a Home" (1901), applying the Arts and Crafts Movement to working-class housing.

In 1902 they were asked to design a model village at New Earswick near York for Joseph and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, and the following year they were given the opportunity to take part in the creation of Letchworth, when the First Garden City Company asked them to submit a plan.

In 1903 they were involved with the "Cottages Near a Town Exhibit" for the Northern Art Workers Guild of Manchester. In 1904 after their plan was adopted they opened a second office at Baldock. In 1905 they were invited by Henrietta Barnett to design the new Hampstead Garden Suburb, working in association with Edwin Lutyens.

In May 1914 the partnership of Parker & Unwin was dissolved, as Unwin became increasingly involved with public sector work. Parker continued his town planning practice, advising on Porto, Portugal in 1915 and São Paulo, Brazil in 1917-1919. From 1927 he advised the Manchester City Council on the development of Wythenshawe, where he had a continuing role until 1941. He died at Letchworth in 1947 at the age of 79.

References

* [http://www.codexgeo.co.uk/dsa/architect_full.php?id=M002214 DSA Architect Biography Report: Parker & Unwin]

* [http://www.answers.com/topic/richard-barry-parker Richard Barry Paker] , "A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture", Oxford University Press.