{{Short description|English architect (1883–1959)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}} {{Use British English|date=September 2016}} {{Infobox person | image = Portrait of Val Myer.png | birth_date = {{birth date|1883|2|14|df=y}} | birth_place = Hereford, Herefordshire | death_date = {{death date and age|1959|2|25|1883|2|14|df=y}} | death_place = University College Hospital, London | education = University College School<br>University College London | spouse = {{marriage|Doris Krauss|1912}}<br>{{marriage|Betty Vera Cowell|1938}} | module = {{Infobox military person |embed = yes |embed_title = Military career |allegiance = |branch = British Army |service_years = 1914–18, 1939–40 |rank = Lieutenant Colonel | unit = Royal Engineers | battles = World War I }} }}
Lieutenant Colonel '''George Valentine Samuel Myer''' {{Post-nominals|country=UK|FRIBA}} (14 February 1883 – 25 February 1959)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.findmypast.co.uk/results/world-records/england-and-wales-births-1837-2006?firstname=george&lastname=myer&eventyear=1883&eventyear_offset=0|title=Births : George Valentine S. Myer|website=Search.findmypast.co.uk|accessdate=31 December 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.findmypast.co.uk/results/world-records/england-and-wales-deaths-1837-2007?firstname=george&lastname=myer&eventyear=1959&eventyear_offset=1|title=Deaths : George V. Myer|website=Search.findmypast.co.uk|accessdate=31 December 2018}}</ref> was an English architect and portrait painter appointed by the British Broadcasting Corporation to design one of the first purpose built broadcast buildings in the world, Broadcasting House, Langham Place, London completed in 1932.
==Career== Myer was born to Grenville David Myer (1847–1918<ref>"Deaths," ''The Times'', (4 September 1918), 1.</ref>) and Rachel Matilda Simmons (1858–1947).<ref>''Who's Who in World Jewry: A Biographical Dictionary of Outstanding Jews'', Harry Schneiderman and Itzhak J. Carmin (eds), (Monde Publishers, 1955), 541.</ref>
Hereford-born Myer started in practice on his own account at nineteen, specialising in medium-sized houses, then continued in partnership with John W Fair (Fair and Myer) including designing houses in Gidea Park, Romford, Essex.
By 1928, his career had progressed sufficiently to have completed the design of Asia House in Lime Street (1912–13) and Portsoken House in the Minories (1927–28). This experience in office design would prove invaluable to his commission for Broadcasting House, as would his experience as a collaborative commercial architect.
The later partnership of George Val Myer and F J Watson-Hart was to undertake significant commissions in the reconstruction of Park Lane for the Grosvenor Estate. Aldford House (1930–2) was a modernistic apartment block with classical stylings imposed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Fountain House (1935–38) followed the design guidance of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.<ref>''The Architecture of the Estate: Modern Times, Survey of London: volume 39: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 1 (General History)'' (1977)</ref>
Val Myer was a successful commercial architect whose work typified the conventions of that remit and his time. His notability derives from his design response to the opportunities presented by his most significant commission.
===Broadcasting House=== thumb|240px|right|Broadcasting House was designed by Val Myer and M. T. TudsberyVal Myer and Watson-Hart had been working in 1927 for the consortium headed by Lord Waring that owned the sites at the bottom of Portland Place that the BBC had identified as a potential location for their new broadcast building. Val Myer, starting as the landlord's architect, came to undertake the lease-holder's bespoke design. For the BBC, their own civil engineer, M T Tudsbery had selected the site and development strategy and was to determine the technical and functional brief.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Story of Broadcasting House: Home of the BBC|author=Mark Hines|date=2008|publisher=Merrell Publishers Ltd|edition=First|isbn=978-1858944210}}</ref>
Val Myer named his original design 'the Top Hat design' and it was frequently compared, from its first appearance, to a 1930s ocean liner for its clean-cut lines and allusions to New York Art Deco. The building linked emphatically to the rest of Regent Street through its complementary use of Portland stone but was modernistic in spirit, and adorned with radical sculptural commissions by Eric Gill, most notably the statues of Ariel and Prospero.
Val Myer worked alongside M T Tudsbery and formulated the approach of locating the office accommodation around the outside of the building to insulate a massive central brick tower of 22 broadcast studios from noise intrusion. Acoustic separation was pursued through the development of novel constructional technologies and strategies at all levels of design. Val Myer's work as chief architect of the building and the concert hall was supplemented by that of a BBC team of architects for the interiors headed by Raymond McGrath that included Serge Chermayeff, Wells Coates, Dorothy Warren Trotter and Edward Maufe, each a bespoke commission for a distinct function.
War damage, technological change and the severe environmental limitations and inflexibility of the original design have caused the original studio interiors to be almost wholly replaced. Key surviving interiors have been restored in works concluded in 2009.
=== Personal life === On 8 October 1912 at the New West End Synagogue, Myer married Doris Krauss, the younger daughter of Sydney Krauss.<ref>"Marriages," ''The Times'', (10 October 1912), 1.</ref> In 1938 he remarried to Betty Vera Cowell (1900–1976).
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp52307 Images of Val Myer]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Myer, Val}} Category:1959 deaths Category:1883 births Category:Architects from Herefordshire Category:English portrait painters Category:Sherwood Foresters officers Category:Royal Engineers officers Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:Military personnel from Hereford