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18 Facts About Frank Mears

1.

Frank Mears trained as an architect, initially under Hippolyte Blanc, and then, in 1903, under Robert Weir Schultz.

2.

Frank Mears advised the Department of Health on Housing in Scotland.

3.

Frank Mears died in Christchurch, New Zealand whilst visiting his son, Kenneth Patrick Geddes Mears.

4.

Frank Mears worked as his assistant, translating his ideas into plans and architectural drawings.

5.

Between 1925 and 1929, Frank Mears worked with the Jerusalem-based architect, Benjamin Chaikin, on designs for specific university buildings, including the Einstein Institute of Mathematics and the David Wolffsohn Library.

6.

In 1926, Frank Mears was engaged to prepare a scheme for a National Memorial to David Livingstone at Livingstone's birthplace in Blantyre.

7.

Frank Mears was keenly interested in rural issues and in 1926 he played a key role in the establishment of the Association for the Preservation of Rural Scotland.

8.

Frank Mears was critical of the insensitivity of the Ministry of Transport's proposal to drive a modern trunk road through Glencoe and, in response to representations by the APRS, the Ministry agreed to face its engineering works in Glencoe in local stone and to respect the local land form in its designs for road improvements throughout the Highlands.

9.

In 1935, Frank Mears was appointed consultant architect for a new crossing of the River Dee at Allenvale in Aberdeen, to relieve congestion on the historic Brig o Dee upstream.

10.

Frank Mears prepared plans and designs for a number of housing schemes in Peebles, including developments at Neidpath Road and Connor Street.

11.

Towards the end of his career, Frank Mears addressed the problem of rural depopulation in its most acute form in a strategy for the planning and redevelopment of the County of Sutherland.

12.

In 1943, Frank Mears was asked to prepare a regional plan for catchments of the Rivers Forth and Tweed.

13.

In 1940, Frank Mears was appointed planning consultant to the Corporation of Greenock.

14.

Frank Mears proposed redevelopment at lower densities, the creation of new industrial areas and the accommodation of the displaced population in a constellation of new neighbourhoods laid out in the Kip Valley on American Parkway lines to create a "federal Garden City".

15.

Frank Mears prepared layouts and designs for council housing in Greenock and a scheme for the redevelopment of part of the town centre which had been badly damaged by wartime bombing.

16.

In 1951, Frank Mears submitted proposals for the expansion and redevelopment of the University of Glasgow.

17.

Frank Mears's scheme involved a major expansion to the north of University Avenue into Hillhead, with new buildings arranged around a system of courts and quadrangles and linked by tree-lined footpaths.

18.

Frank Mears was employed across Scotland and was involved in significant projects in Ireland and Palestine:.