Visionary architect Revel Fox dies at 80
December 15, 2004 Edition 1
Farook Khan & Karen Breytenbach
Revel Fox, the nationally acclaimed architect whose development plans for Durban's beachfront caused a controversary in 1985, has died of cancer aged 80.
Fox died on Monday at his Cape Town home. He was born in Durban on September 20, 1924, the son of Albert Fox, a decorated World War 1 veteran and customs and excise officer, and an English mother, Ivy.
Although he began his schooling at Grey College in Bloemfontein, he spent his childhood in Luderitz in the then South West Africa, befriending mostly German expatriate youth.
When Fox had almost completed high school, the family returned to Durban, where he matriculated.
The young Fox was an avid sportsman, playing first-team rugby, competing in athletics and swimming and acting as a volunteer lifesaver.
Yesterday, there was great sadness at Durban's City Hall when it was learnt that he had died.
Many of the incumbents who held high public office at the time recalled how he suprised many members of the white community when he told them in 1985 that Durban's beachfront should be re-developed to cater for a non-racial community.
Andrzej Kiepiela, who was in the business of marketing Durban at the time, said that even the SABC did not want to feature Fox in any programme because he had publicly said that the apartheid government should meet the ANC in exile as a matter of necessity.
"There were many whites who were scandalised by his vision. When he was asked to plan the beachfront, he said that he would do so knowing full well that very soon it would be used by people of all races," said Kiepiela.
City Manager Mike Sutcliffe said that Fox's death was a great loss: "It was he who brought a shift in the mindset of what the beachfront should be. His work brought a great deal of freshness to the city. Now we are in the process of upgrading some of the features he introduced."
Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo said Fox had the courage to plan public facilities for Durban, taking into account all its communities.
"When he planned the beachfront, he openly said that it was for all people regardless of colour.
"He was one of the group of progressive white people who told the government to talk to the African National Congress.
"He also called for the scrapping of apartheid and what he drew up as an architect has stood the test of time," said Naidoo.
In his early days, after matric, Fox was eager to join the army and fight in North Africa, but his parents insisted he should go to university. He picked architecture, he later admitted, as it looked like a "soft option".
At the University of Cape Town, before unenthusiastically finishing an 18-month architecture course and joining the army, he fell in love with Suzanne Krige, sister of well-known Afrikaans poet Uys Krige.
He married her three years later, after returning from fighting in Egypt and Italy in World War 2. It was in Assissi in Italy that he was archictecurally inspired for the first time.
In 1981 he won the Institute of South African Architects Award of Merit for the best examples of architecture in Natal, after designing the Federal Theological Seminary in Imbali.
He had two honorary doctorates conferred on him by the University of Natal (1993) and the University of Cape Town (2001) .
He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Suzanne, and three children.
