
Coventry Cathedral, Coventry, England, Perspective sketch
1958 · Pencil on paper
10 1/4 x 14 9/16" (26 x 37 cm)
Museum of Modern Art

Basil Spence was a British architect whose postwar modernist designs in concrete and steel reshaped institutional and civic building across the United Kingdom. His Coventry Cathedral, completed in the 1960s, became the era's most visible statement on reconstruction and renewal, balancing austere geometric form with careful attention to human scale and material warmth. He designed major university, hospital, and commercial structures that established a coherent language for public architecture in the decades following World War II.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 26d ago