Derek Walker

Derek Walker

Derek John Walker (born 15 June 1929, Blackburn Lancashire) is a British architect primarily associated with urban planning and leisure facilities architecture through his firm Derek Walker Associates. From 1970 to 1976, Walker was the first Chief Architect of the new town Milton Keynes, and head of Architecture at Royal College of Art. With Stuart Mosscrop and Christopher Woodward, Walker designed the Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, the first U.S.-style shopping centre in Britain.

From 1970-76 he was the first and only Chief Architect and Planner of the new city of Milton Keynes. He recruited an exceptionally talented team unique in the history of the New Towns movement, 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. Amongst many buildings of real unique quality possibly the most celebrated was the central Area Shopping Building. A unique concept at the time 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m2) with a plan generated around covered landscaped streets. The Close knit team for this complex included Stuart Mosscrop, Christopher Woodward and Syd Green.

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.