June 22, 2023
Andrea Brown passes away making 2023 the official ‘Annus Horribilis’
“Hello Tom, it is Andrea Brown calling…”
Actually it was her husband William emailing me this morning to inform us that Andrea had suddenly passed away. And with that, another close friend and colleague leaves this earthly plane. In what appears to be turning the marquardt+ blog into a continuous list of obituaries this year, we were hit again with the loss of another cherished confidant and talent. I guess this is what happens when one gets to a certain age, but come on…
Andrea and William had finally settled down in Leicestershire (three different locations there alone that I know of, as they kept buying, renovating and moving, something they did all their lives together) where Andrea will now be laid to rest.
Vince Gammino once called Andrea Brown “The Fiona Turkseven of London” and for those of you who know of Fiona, you will totally understand.
Late friend Bruce Dunlap could imitate her calling me. He would leave me messages that had me immediately calling Andrea in London only for us to determine it had been Bruce. Her high British way of speaking was at once distinct and to the letter perfect to our inexperienced American ears. I am really glad she and I spoke at length in February, and she of course subsequently wrote me a wonderful note when I informed her that Bruce had passed away. It was the last time we would communicate, ironically.
And oh the stories…
Andrea was an established London architect and industry rep whom I met attempting to procure specifications and a way to procure the Norman Foster designed desking system Nomos, by Italian furniture company Techno in 1988 when it came out but had not released in the US. I could not make headway calling Tecno in Italy so they gave me their UK representative in London to work with, Andrea Brown.
She figured it out of course undercutting the pricing and lead times of the Herman Miller Burdick group alternative we were considering. From that working experience we became fast friends and kept in contact.
Her husband William Brown was in leadership at Lloyds of London.
When William and Andrea found out I was going to take my first trip to London the following year to see modern architecture no less, they made sure they hosted me. During that trip Andrea introduced me to my architectural publishing heroes Peter Davey and Peter Buchanan of The Architectural Review and arranged a lunch for us at the Bride of Denmark pub owned by the magazine at the time in the basement of their former Queen Anne’s Gate offices.
She also arranged appointments to meet her friend Nicholas Grimshaw at his offices (he was surprisingly hysterical and candid) and got me a personal tour of Norman Foster’s offices with his marketing team. To top it off, she subsequently arranged for me to have access to the Renzo Piano Workshop offices when I went on to Paris from London on that trip.
She and William also took me to the Lloyds of London headquarters for a personal tour of the building, including a sandwich lunch on the rooftop with the window washing mechanicals (Andrea said that day that to her it still looked like a very expensive oil refinery).
Adding to that, she arranged for me to see a number key Grimshaw and Foster projects I wanted to see, including a few in construction and not yet open, including having the architects of some of these projects she knew be there with us to explain the work. Nigel was one of them, whom later ended up consulting with her and I with some of our projects.
As a young designer at the time I was totally blown away, being thrust into the work and world of practitioners I so admired from afar.
When I left Eva Maddox Associates and went on my own, she and William were instrumental in helping me form my own practice, and flew in to help with the opening of my first brick and mortar studio on North Halsted Street here in Chicago, and a reception for the location in Milwaukee. It was during this visit, that they announced they would set up a small studio for me led by Andrea, in London.
She also introduced me to London lawyer and subsequent friend the late Joseph Hamed.
She and Joseph worked hard to secure a work permit for me in the UK, though we ultimately were denied after three applications. At the end of the last hearing when Joseph said I was helping employ British citizens, the judge said “We cannot justify giving an American designer a work permit to practice here full time when we have designers working at McDonalds” to which Andrea quipped in her formal dry British way much to Joseph’s horror: “Why would we hire a designer who’s only working experience is at a McDonalds? And by the way, are they not an American employer?” MEOW. Andrea was a force of nature.
She secured us many small specialized projects, including work with the Italian Trade Commission, trade show exhibits for Techno, and model condo projects in Egypt, a flagship cell phone store in Abu Dhabi, other work in both the UK and France.
We did some amazing charette work after the Bishopsgate Terrorist bomb went off in the London business district on a Saturday in 1993 while I was in London and we worked almost 35 hours straight to get reinsurance companies offices William worked with and destroyed in the explosion, back up and running by the following Monday.
Andrea, Nigel and I did the planning and layouts, Andrea secured available warehoused desking and systems to be delivered and installed, phone systems and equipment, assembling a team of workers and technicians on a Sunday to set up almost 400 people in the hallways of the building William owned by that Monday morning at 9am. Honestly it would not have been possible were it not for Andrea and William’s connections and persistence to make it happen.
We had many project adventures between our studios and remained colleagues for 12 years until she decided to retire, and we subsequently remained friends for life.
She visited us here in the US a number of times over the years and my parents especially loved her and William. And no matter where they were living at the time William and Andrea always made a point to come see us if we were in the UK or Europe (including that one time she and William met and entertained Laura and Joyce Romanoff along with Adrian Leeds in Paris one winter and with their antics kinda scared them!).
They moved all the time, and Greg Martin who practiced in our name out of his bridge switching house studio by the Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee spent a great deal of time working with them in London on a rooftop penthouse home they built and lived in barely a year then sold.
Again, So. Many. Stories.
While in London once working with Andrea and her team, she took us all after work for drinks and dinner at Deal’s burger restaurant in Chelsea. At the time, it was part owned by Princess Margaret’s son David. Not a fan of the british royals, she loved this place because his being part owner in a burger bar was frowned upon by the british royals which as she told us made her want patronize the place that much more. That night at dinner, she told me: “You know Tom, I have a personal connection to the royals…I go to the same gynecologist as Fergie…and I am SO sick of hearing about that DAMN Baby!”
So for now, farewell Andrea, you were one of the most generous, caring, inquisitive, crazy, fun loving, thoughtful, positive and enthusiastic designers, comedians, and red wine consumers I have ever had the privilege to know. You taught me that if one cannot have fun being serious and getting work done, then it’s not worth being serious in the first place OR doing the work!
