Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) established the Distinguished Fellow Award to recognise members who have had exceptional influence on or have been exceptional contributors to architecture in New Zealand. The Distinguished Fellow Award is one of the highest awards conferred by the New Zealand Institute of Architects. There may be no more than 10 Distinguished Fellows at any time. In 2020, Wellington architect Bill Alington became the eighth member of this select group.

NZIA citation

Bill Alington’s career is marked by a deep and abiding commitment to the social role of architecture. This is primarily manifested in his architectural projects but is also to be found in his teaching and in those long and generous conversations that so many colleagues have found enlightening down through the years.

Over the course of a professional career that began with the Architectural Division of the Ministry of Works and which spanned the second half of the 20th century, Bill completed designs for a range of much-awarded civic buildings and a broad variety of smaller-scaled community and church-related projects. Each of these projects was invested with a sensitive humanism appropriate to its scale and programme, and all expressed a refined sensitivity to architectural proportion and detailing. In particular, Bill developed an approach that yielded successful architectural results for many small community groups for whom the benefits of good design might otherwise have been out of reach. His own house is one of the outstanding works of New Zealand mid-century modernism, its merits sufficiently undeniable that it was accorded Historic Place Category 1 status.

Bill has demonstrated a deep professional commitment throughout his career. He has served as an NZIA Councillor, Vice-president and Branch Chair, and as Assistant Editor of the NZIA Journal. Bill also contributed significantly during the most active period of the Architectural Centre in Wellington and was president of that organisation. His contribution to the founding of the Architecture School at Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka was highly influential, and his teaching, of architectural history and in the design studio, inspired generations of students. In all aspects of his career, Bill has given exemplary service to his profession and to New Zealand architecture.