Designer of 1004 estate, Fola Alade, dies at 87

RENOWNED architect and one of Nigeria’s first four Architecture graduates, Fola Alade, is dead.

Reports from the family say he died on June 19, aged 87.

Born November 24 1933, Alade MFR, hailed from Aramoko-Ekiti then under the old Ondo Province but rose to national prominence because of his landmark works that dot the landscape of Nigeria and beyond.

His architectural masterpieces include the 1004 Housing Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Federal Secretariat building in Ikoyi, Lagos and the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

Others are the Remembrance Arcade, Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, Satellite Town, Lagos, Nigerian Air Force Base, Ikeja Lagos, the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies building, Kuru, near Jos, the National Judicial Institute, Abuja and Nigerian Embassy buildings in 11 countries.

Entries in the Wikipedia says he attended St Phillips Elementary School in Aramoko, Ekiti and Christ’s School, Ado Ekiti for his secondary education. In 1961 he graduated from the Nigerian College of Arts & Sciences and Technology Zaria (now Ahmadu Bello University) as one of the first four pioneer Architecture graduates. Thereafter, he completed his post graduate studies at the Architectural Association School of Tropical Studies, London in 1965, on a Commonwealth Scholarship.

After his post-professional training, he became an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects(R.I.B.A.) and Architects’ Registration Council of the United Kingdom (ARCUK) in 1963. He joined the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing as a Resident architect in the old Western Region and later Lagos City Council. 

In 1969, he became the first Registrar of the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON). He later joined the Federal Civil Service. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health of the UK (F.R.S.H.) in 1965. He became Chief Project Architect in 1972, and the Director of Public Buildings in 1975. He was the first Architect to become a Federal Permanent Secretary in 1976, a post he held until his retirement in 1979 after which he established his private practice Fola Alade Associates in 1979. 

He served as the General Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Architects. He was appointed Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council of the Federal University of Port Harcourt in 1990. Fola Alade was awarded an OFR and he became a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects. He also held several traditional titles including the Maiyegun of Aramoko.