Create Streets founder Nicholas Boys Smith also handed an MBE
The former director of the building safety programme is among a host of civil servants at the housing department who have been recognised in the New Year Honours List.
Neil O’Connor, a lead civil servant at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), has received an Order of the Bath for services to building safety while former DLUHC lead non-executive director Michael Jary was awarded a CBE for public service.
OBEs handed out at the department include chief librarian David Smith for services to government knowledge and information management, and David Levy, senior community outreach advisor for the Ukraine Humanitarian Taskforce, for refugee resettlement.
In the architecture sector, Hopkins Architects co-founder Patty Hopkins has been named OBE for services to architecture.
Hopkins founded the practice behind the London 2012 Olympics Velodrome and Westminster tube station in 1976 with her husband Michael Hopkins, who passed away in June last year.
The couple were jointly awarded the RIBA Gold Medal for Architecture in 1994. Said h
Nicholas Boys Smith, Create Street founder and chair of Office for Place, has also been handed an MBE for services to planning and design.
Describing the award as a “lovely surprise”, Boys Smith said it was a testament to the team at Create Streets, advisors at Office for Place and volunteers from community and neighbourhood groups which he had worked with.
Meanwhile, Graham Paterson, former executive director of Glasgow-based contractor City Building, has been named OBE for services to equality and inclusion in construction.
Other OBE recipients include Royal Academy of Engineering president James Rufus, for services to engineering, education and energy, and Helen Zammit-Wilson, director of the National Valuation Unit at the Valuation Office Agency, for services to the surveying profession.
In the energy sector, Lee McDonough, the director general for net zero, nuclear and international at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, has received an Order of the Bath for services to energy and climate.
Chair of the Offshore Wind Acceleration Taskforce Timothy Pick has also been handed an OBE for services to offshore wind energy.
Also recognised in the honours list was Society of Black Architects co-founder Audley English, who received an MBE for services to architecture and sustainability.
English graduated from the Architectural Association as the UK’s first West Indian architect and founded a black-led architectural practice which designed innovative social housing, sustainable schemes.
He said he was “deeply touched and honoured to receive this unexpected accolade”.
“This MBE is not just a personal recognition but extends to my family, friends, past and current team, and clients who have supported and continue to support my ongoing vision.”
He added: “This MBE is dedicated to my late mother, who arrived as a first-generation Windrush migrant, seeking to provide her children with a better life. She instilled in us the mantra ‘Believe in yourself and never give up.’”
Planning consultant Helen Fadipe has also been handed an OBE for services to town planning.
Fadipe is the founder and chair of BAME Planners Network, an initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in the planning profession in the UK and Ireland.
“I feel very honoured, privileged and inspired that my contribution to the planning profession has been recognised,” she said.
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