Jonathan Adams

Jonathan Gwyn Adams (born Bristol, England, July 1961) is a Welsh architect particularly known for his landmark buildings in Cardiff. Biography Adams was born in Bristol, England. His parents are both teachers from coal mining families in the South Wales Valleys and the family moved to Lodge Hill in Caerleon in the mid-60s. He was later educated at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff and he first started working for the former Greater London Council before getting a place at the Architectural Association in London. After graduating, he spent 15 years working in the practice of Will Alsop in London, where he worked on the North Greenwich tube station, next to the Millennium Dome. He returned to Wales in 1998. He later claimed he returned to Wales because London was "very inward-looking and self-regarding", while Wales was facing the "exciting time" of devolution during the late 1990s. Adams joined Percy Thomas Architects and began work on the £106 million Wales Millennium Centre project in Cardiff Bay, which opened in November 2004 and for which he is best known. Adams says the design was inspired by the architect of Cardiff Castle, William Burges and the layered cliffs of the South Wales coast. The building was designed to create a modern Welsh identity, using North Wales slate and Welsh timber cladding.