Tributes paid as Cundall founding partner dies aged 78

Tributes have been paid to Rick Carr, one of Cundall’s founding partners, after his death at the age of 78.

Carr, a key figure at the engineering consultancy for almost half a century, died last month following a period of ill health. He leaves a wife and three children.

He co-founded the practice in 1976 with Michael Burch, Geoffrey Cundall, David Gandy and Bernard Johnston, playing an instrumental role in the firm’s global growth.

In 1981 he persuaded fellow partner Laurie Clark to join him in establishing Cundall’s London office, in the process forming a “formidable double act and remaining lifelong friends”, the firm said.

The pair developed relationships in London with key clients, architects and project managers, leading to a series of high profile jobs including the Daily Telegraph Westferry Printworks. 

Carr’s best known projects also include the headquarters of globally renowned brands such as Swiss Bank, British Airways and Deutsche Bank London, and he played an important role in delivering London’s Millennium Dome, now known as The O2.

As an electrical engineer, Carr was also an avid supporter of Cundall’s early work in low-energy and sustainable buildings, a core part of the firm’s ethos.

Cundall partner and EMENA managing director Richard Stratton, one of Carr’s proteges, paid tribute to the co-founder’s ability to form close relationships across the industry.

“He had an enviable ability to connect with people and a remarkable memory for faces and details, skills that made him extremely successful at business development, which was instrumental in the growth and development of Cundall globally,” he said.

“His charisma, sense of humour and authenticity endeared him to people throughout the construction industry. If any of us met someone new in the industry and mentioned Cundall their response was most often, ’Oh yes - I know Rick Carr’.”

Stratton added: “I remember Rick with great fondness and respect. I was fortunate to work closely with him and have many happy memories and stories that will always make me smile and ensure Rick lives on in our hearts.

“I will always be grateful for his friendship, support and mentorship - he had a big impact on my career and those of so many others.”

David Dryden, also a partner at Cundall, remembers said it was “impossible to think of Rick without a smile on my face.”

“Such was the nature of his infectious sunny persona,” he said. “It was this ability to find a way to make everyone he met want to work with this unassuming Geordie lad, and his amazing capacity to retain names, faces and relationships, allied with a well concealed drive to succeed that set him apart.

“Rick never shied from a challenge, signing up at the age of 30 with his four founding partners, then five years later moving to London with Laurie Clark and together transforming a provincial practice to a national one in the process.”

Cundall said Carr’s legacy would “live on in the company that he loved, and he will be forever remembered as the family man and great friend that he was.”

Founded in Newcastle, the firm now operates in 27 locations around the globe and employs more than 1,000 staff.

Its current UK projects include AHMM’s recently approved office redevelopment in Marylebone, Buckley Gray Yeoman’s £90m overhaul of the City of London’s Broadgate Tower and LOM’s proposed extension of a brutalist groundscraper in Glasgow.