director profiles
Brian Eckersley
B Eng (Hons) BA (Arch) CEng MIStructE
Brian is responsible for the majority of the practice’s UK projects. He has extensive experience of many types of buildings and scales from historic refurbishment and rehabilitation through to large new-build schemes on greenfield sites and has been on the project team for numerous award and competition-winning schemes.
He has a keen interest in how pragmatic and economical use of engineering and construction methods can be used to make buildings.
Brian graduated in Civil Engineering at the University of Bristol and subsequently in Architecture at the University of North London. He spent seven years working with structural engineers Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners on many innovative structures and collaborated with innovative architects and artists on their work.
After spending time building a house suspended on steel trusses across a half constructed and derelict London building, he set up practice 1997 and continued his interest in unconventional structures and particularly the use of structural glass.
In 2004 he founded Eckersley O’Callaghan Structural Design with co-Director James O’Callaghan. Brian has taught at many UK schools of architecture including the Architectural Association, the Bartlett School, The Royal College of Art and the University of Cambridge.
James O’Callaghan
B Eng (Hons) CEng MIStructE
Acknowledged as an authority on the structural use of glass, James is perhaps best known for his highly innovative glass stairs, bridges and other structural elements in a range of Apple’s flagship retail stores including New York, London, Tokyo, Sydney and Beijing.
As a key player in the establishment of Dewhurst Macfarlane’s New York Office, he became Principal and worked on projects such as the School of Business at the University of Chicago, the Carl Icahn Laboratory at Princeton University and the David L Lawrence Convention Centre in Pittsburgh.
Since forming Eckersley O’Callaghan, James and Brian have worked together to realise their shared vision of a pioneering structural design practice that truly integrates architecture and engineering.
James believes it is imperative that the industry keeps on communicating to progress as a whole. “When we take on the challenges of developing complex glass structures, we need the industry to share the enthusiasm we have for developing new ideas.” Which is why he continues to pass on Eckersley O’Callaghan’s experience in this field at events such as Glasstec and Glass Performance Days.
