RIP Sir Michael Fowler: 1930-2022

Much has been made this week of the drive and vision former Wellington mayor Michael Fowler had as he oversaw major change to the Wellington CBD.

But when I heard that Michael had died this week, I remember him as a a great boss who I learnt so much from and a lifelong friend and mentor.

As an architectural student in the 60’s. I sought experience by working Christmas holidays with Sir Miles Warren in Christchurch, Rodney Smith in Hamilton and Calder Fowler and Styles in Wellington.

When I graduated in 1967 from Auckland University, there was a recession on the building industry, and I could not find a job in Auckland. I rang Michael, who said get your bottom down here as soon as possible – we can’t cope with the work we have.

It was the architectural equivalent of being thrown at the deep end. He gave me the Wellington Club, the Union Steamship Company, a shop and a church in Taumaranui, various houses and the Salvation Army in Lower Hutt to design.

The Wellington Club was to me to be a grand residence on the Terrace to nurture ‘after hours’ the business men who worked by day in their faceless offices The Stage one building was to be the Club’s home, with Stage 2 being a revenue generating high rise . Unfortunately along came the Ministry of Works with the Shell Gully motorway and the rear site disappeared.

The low rise Club was thus marooned in an uneconomic situation, with huge annual rates, so its fate was sealed a few years too early. We tried with the Architectural Centre to get the building listed, but were told by the Historic Places Trust that the building was not old enough to list.

At the time Michael sold the somewhat radical design to the Club demonstrating his ability to enthusiastically support ideas and concepts that were linked with civic vitality and architectural progress.

It was a fact that in the 1960’s the predominant civil servant workforce would leave the CBD to drive home to Johnsonville or the Hutt Valley.

I got an insight to one of the key reasons Michael is remembered as a mayor one evening when he took me to the rooftop of our office building, Prudential House in Lambton Quay. We met the caretaker who lived on the top floor of the building and very happily told us: . ‘I can look over the city and harbour from here, have all day sun and can be in Lambton Quay in two minutes by lift’.

Michael’s response as he admired the view? “More people should live like this.”

I personally attribute Michaels vision and passion to the concept of apartment dwelling and the after hours vitality that we perhaps take for granted in our beautiful and fortunate city. Widened footpaths for people, one way streets that he fought the traffic engineers to establish ,demonstrated his vision that cities are for people not cars.

Through Michael I met like-minded souls such as Carmen Rupe who was prosecuted for selling wine on the footpath outside her premises, The Purple Onion. It was a time of change. Michael’s hands on energy and drive got the Michel Fowler Centre built in record time. He personally fund raised at the site.

As a naïve graduate, I learnt so much from Michael. He once at work invited me to sit in on a briefing with a rather strident woman who was wanting to build a new house in Days Bay. She kept mentioning Bonzo. Bonzo ate his breakfast with her, liked to go outside often, and loved being in front of the fire.

At the conclusion of the meeting, whilst filling in that awkward time when you are waiting in the lobby for the lift to arrive, I asked her ‘what sort of a dog is Bonzo?’ The thunderous reply was ‘Bonzo is my husband !’ The firm lost the commission but mercifully Michael did not fire me.

He didn’t see the mayoraity as a career choice. He just wanted to get things done. I remember him saying that if people didn’t like his approach, they would vote him out. But three terms later he was still there and was knighted for his services to the community.

Michael was a unique one-off change enthusiast with the practical skill, determination and passion to promote architecture. I left him in 1971 to’ push my own barrow’ and saw him much less frequently but my time with him is unforgettable.