Top Braidwood architect Bill Nimmo dies age 80

Feb 4 2010 by George Topp, Hamilton Advertiser

ONE of Scotland’s most distinguished architects, Bill Nimmo, has died following a short illness.

His death on January 21 came suddenly and until a week before, he had no warning that he was suffering from acute leukaemia.

Bill (80), was originally from the Wishaw area, but lived most of his life in the village of Braidwood.

Educated at Wishaw High, Bill decided he didn’t want to join the family joinery business.

Having set his heart on architecture, he studied at the Glasgow ‘Tech,’ forerunner to Strathclyde University, and later at Glasgow School of Art, where he won the foremost award for final-year students.

Having graduated, he then established his own practice in Wishaw, but with National Service calling, he left it in the trusted hands of a colleague.

It was also then that he married Lanark woman Mae Hannah, with one of their first homes being married quarters in the Rhineland.

These ‘quarters’ were often damaged barracks and discovering Bill’s qualifications, the Royal Engineers commissioned him as an officer and set him to work masterminding the design and construction of new barracks, and also thousands of homes for British soldiers and German civilians.

Armed with that experience, he set to expand his practice on leaving the army, moving William Nimmo and Partners to new offices in Glasgow.

Large scale commissions, such as schools, factories and even two whisky distilleries, followed, as did department stores for Baird Brothers and House of Fraser.

Establishing his practice in London’s Grosvenor Square, and Chelsea, saw his large team designing offices across London and elsewhere. One such design, Britannic House, became the world headquarters for oil giants BP.

In Glasgow, his award-winning practice had major projects such as the £400million redevelopment of the Faslane Submarine Base on the Clyde – something which occupied a large team of his architects for nine years – and the premises of STV and Radio Clyde. Bill retired in 1997 at the age of 68.

He was awarded the CBE, made a freeman of the city of London, and became a Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

He is survived by his wife Mae, sons David, Robert and Wilson, and daughter Sandra.