Bell Phillips founding director to step down

Bell Phillips co-founding director Hari Phillips will step down after 20 years at the practice.

Phillips, who founded the practice in 2004 with Tim Bell, will step down towards the end of the year to “explore different opportunities and challenges”.

It is understood 50-year-old Phillips does not have another job lined up and is not moving to a different practice.

The practice’s associates Tom Morgan and Jay Morton have been appointed as new directors at the practice, taking up the role on 3 July. Tim Bell will remain as founding director of the 27-strong practice alongside Melissa Dowler, who became a director in 2016.

Phillips said: “I am immensely proud of what we have achieved over the past twenty years; the buildings we have created, the lives we have impacted, the people we’ve met and the team we have built.

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“In Tim and Melissa, I’ve been lucky enough to find two people who are not just great colleagues and immensely talented architects, but lifelong friends.”

He added: “Jay and Tom are great additions to the leadership team, and there is plenty to be excited about but on a personal level it feels like the right moment to find a new direction and a different challenge.”

Bell said Phillips’ contribution to the studio, which the pair founded after winning a design competition for a regeneration project in Newham, had been “immeasurable”.

“I had always assumed that we would continue our completed projects,” he said. “I had always assumed that we would continue as a team for the next twenty years, but I completely understand his decision to move on, and we very much look forward to seeing what he does next.”

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Phillips is currently a panel member for the quality review panels at the London borough of Havering and Harlow and Gilston Garden Town, which is a district council in Harlow, Essex. 

He is also the chair of the London Legacy Development Corporation quality review panel and is part of the national judging panel for the built environment awards scheme, the Civic Trust Awards.  

He was previously an associate director at Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and an architectural assistant at David Morley Architects. He was also formerly a mamber of the major projects judging panel for the London borough of Camden’s Camden Design Awards.