It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Axel Burrough, a former director of Levitt Bernstein, who led the major cultural and arts projects within the practice up until his retirement in 2011. Even after retirement, Axel continued to enrich and inform his two legacy projects right up until last year — the Bristol Beacon and LSO St Lukes.

Axel joined the practice in its early years in 1970, as a young graduate from the architecture school at Cambridge University. He very soon became involved in the fledgling stream of arts projects that started with the groundbreaking and award winning Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Recently voted by Mancunians as their favourite building in the city, Axel contributed conceptually as well as producing much of its technical design, and he continued to develop his theatre design skills at the South Hill Park Theatre in Bracknell, working closely with Ron Bayliss who helped deliver many later projects with him. He then produced the beautifully understated Pier Arts Centre gallery in Orkney later extended by others.

His portfolio of work that was to follow has been prolific, including the wave of National Lottery funded projects won in the 1990s and 2000s. These include the King's Lynn Corn Exchange, the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, Stratford Circus and the Theatre Royal Stratford East, The Regent Theatre and Victoria Hall in Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre refurbishment, and the original conversion of St Luke's Church for the London Symphony Orchestra. He developed this work to win other projects like Liverpool’s Victoria Gallery & Museum, the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and the Bristol Beacon – which has kept us busy for over 20 years.

Many of the projects involved the meticulous conversion or reworking of existing buildings, from the Grade I Georgian theatre in Bury St Edmonds, to the burnt-out Victorian school building that became the Ikon Gallery. Axel brought a principled and academic rigour to his design, working in a calm and considered way with his teams, always finding creative solutions to seemingly intractable problems. He developed close relationships with many of his clients and collaborators, who had huge respect for his knowledge and expertise. Latterly these have included Louise Mitchell, the ex CEO of Bristol Beacon, and Carl Giegold of Threshold Acoustics in Chicago.

He mentored numerous architects in the practice over his 40 plus years with us, but especially Mark Lewis, who heads up our Arts Studio today. He was always approachable and ready to discuss any issues, bringing his thoughtful insight and great experience. He was a recognised expert in the industry in theatre and performance space design with a particular interest in Georgian theatre design, which led to the commission at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmonds.

Axel’s work was quietly groundbreaking and forward thinking, particularly in todays’ context of the retrofit and regenerative agenda. Each project exemplifies the value of creative reuse or transformation of older buildings, and users and visitors have always been delighted by the experiences he curated.

Although he had been suffering from serious health problems, as recently as December, Mark took Axel around the newly completed redesign of LSO St Lukes, with his wife Jeni. He was involved as an advisor to our team in its early stages and continued to show a huge interest in our work.

We will miss him — his insight, dry sense of humour and continued dedication to the practice.