19 Facts About Michael Fowler

Sir Edward Michael Coulson Fowler was a New Zealand architect and author who served as mayor of Wellington from 1974 to 1983.

Michael Fowler was educated at Manchester Street School in Feilding and Christ's College in Christchurch, before studying architecture at Auckland University College between 1950 and 1952 and earning a Diploma of Architecture.

Michael Fowler later returned to the University of Auckland, graduating with a Master of Architecture degree in 1973.

In 1953, Michael Fowler married Barbara Hamilton Hall, and the couple went on to have three children.

Michael Fowler started his career in 1954 at the London office of Ove Arup and Partner, and became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1955.

Michael Fowler was elected a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects in 1970.

Michael Fowler was first elected to the Wellington City Council in 1968 on the Citizens' ticket.

Michael Fowler was elected mayor of Wellington in 1974, in a very tight race with long-serving incumbent Sir Frank Kitts, a post that he held until he retired in 1983.

Michael Fowler encouraged building owners to demolish instead of earthquake strengthening them, particularly on the city's "golden mile" along Lambton Quay where half of the 187 at-risk buildings along the route were pulled down.

However, Michael Fowler encountered significant public opposition to demolishing the town hall which led to the town hall to be retained and the new centre being built next door and opened officially in 1983.

Michael Fowler established council committees to regularise contact between the city and both government agencies and Wellington Harbour Board to streamline key relationships necessary for city development.

Newer buildings were constructed en-masse and the city had a development craze which, in Michael Fowler's view, enhanced the city.

Michael Fowler was opposed by heritage lobbies over the mass demolitions but was fiercely counter-critical of those advocating building preservation, and once went as far as to describe them as "jackbooted zealots".

Michael Fowler admitted he had been invited by the party's electorate chairman to stand, but had declined to run.

In 1977, Michael Fowler was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.

Michael Fowler received the New Zealand Institute of Architects' Award of Honour in 1983, and the following year he won the Alfred O Glasse Award from the New Zealand Institute of Planning.

Wellington's principal concert performance hall, the Michael Fowler Centre, opened in 1983, was named in his honour.

Michael Fowler was criticised for his comments in May 2011, where he backed a controversial Wellywood sign in a handwritten letter to The Dominion Post, describing its critics as "dumb, humourless, totally irrelevant and probably Irish".

Michael Fowler died with COVID-19 on 12 July 2022, at the age of 92.