About us
As a RIBA Chartered Practice with a history traceable to 1888, we deliver projects using a range of procurement methods across the RIBA work stages. Our people and their skills are at the heart of our Practice where the breadth of experience is a key factor in our success. A team of professional problem solvers is at your disposal, all committed to adding value to your project at every stage of your interaction with us. Our attention to the finer detail means you can trust us to deliver at all levels.
Our specialist skills and our unique approach have earned us our reputation for excellence, particularly for our ecclesiastical, heritage and conservation work.
Working together
When we work with you, we want you to enjoy your relationship with us.
We aspire to create an environment that delivers benefits to both our organisations. We firmly believe that ‘people work with people’ so it’s important for you to know who we are and what we do. Introducing our team:
Sally Beeden
AMInstLM
Partner / Practice Secretary
Sally is responsible for the day-to-day running of the business and the financial management of Pearce Bottomley Architects.
Sally has extensive experience of business strategy, financial planning and project management. Her ability to bring skills and experiences gleaned from other sectors into our business has made her an invaluable member of the partnership.
Approaching issues with creativity and enthusiasm, Sally often offers a fresh approach to the management of other areas of the practice.
Out of work Sally enjoys competing her ex-racehorse.
Richard Appleyard
BA (Hons) BArch (Hons) RIBA
Partner / Architect
Richard oversees the commercial, education and healthcare activities of the practice.
With more than 20 years’ experience of designing and delivering projects across all sectors, he's developed particular expertise in healthcare.
This experience, coupled with an awareness of wider legislative and good healthcare practice, has maintained Pearce Bottomley Architects' position at the forefront of healthcare delivery.
Andy Laverick
BA(Hons) DipArch RIBA CMaPS
Associate Architect
Andy is an Architect with expertise in historic buildings, housing and contemporary design. Beyond designing buildings he has an expertise in construction law and construction health and safety.
Outside of the office he is a keen runner, participating in longer runs from 10k to full marathons. He is also a keen painter of both wildlife and buildings and landscapes.
Alexa Stephens
BA(Hons) BArch PGDip RIBA AABC
Associate / Conservation Architect
Alexa is an award-winning architect with a particular focus on ecclesiastical architecture. She is an AABC (Architect Accredited in Building Conservation) registered architect and has worked on many nationally important listed buildings and scheduled monuments gaining a significant amount of experience in this sector.
Alexa is also an inspecting architect for several Diocese including, Leeds, York and Lincoln and was awarded the UK young Church Architect of the year in 2019. She has also won the King of Prussia Gold medal for her project at St Margaret’s Church, Thimbleby for work to re-build the spire.
Alexa is also an Advising Architect to the York DAC, a committee member of the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association and also sits on the Church Buildings Council.
When not working Alexa is a Brownie leader and enjoys spending time with her young family.
Holly Spilsbury
BA (Hons) Architecture MArch (Dist) Architecture PGDip
Architectural Professional Practice SPAB Lethaby Scholar RIBA
Holly is passionate about unlocking the potential within a site or existing building by using creative design solutions. She has over 11 years’ experience of working within the conservation sector. It is important to Holly to ensure a sensitive approach to the building whilst achieving the clients’ aspirations and longevity for the building.
She is a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB). In 2019 she was awarded a place on the SPAB scholarship programme. She travelled across the UK visiting the architects, engineers, craftspeople and other professionals responsible for the country’s most prestigious historic building stock. This experience has given her an in depth understanding of traditional materials and how to successfully approach new design in a historic context.
Holly is working towards gaining conservation accreditation.
Kasturi Khanolkar
G.D Arch MA(Conservation Studies)
Architectural Assistant
Kasturi holds a master’s degree in Historic Building Conservation from University of York and currently is involved in ecclesiastical and historic buildings projects at PBA as Part II Architectural Assistant.
Prior to joining the practice, Kasturi has worked on conservation, refurbishment, and new build schemes in variety of sectors, gaining knowledge and experience that have helped develop her skills through all RIBA Work stages.
She is enthusiastic about design which enhances the built environment and the building user's experience and particularly enjoys the problem-solving aspect of architecture and the joy in bringing a building back to life.
Outside of work, Kasturi enjoys cooking, Indian classical dance and walks in the Yorkshire Dales.
Rachel Docherty
BA(hons) BArch(hons)
Architectural Assistant
Rachel has worked in practice for over 15 years, gaining experience in various sectors. She really enjoys working with residential clients whether it’s remodelling their existing home or creating a new home from scratch.
Away from the office she enjoys open water swimming, and once swam the length of Coniston Water in the Lake District. Food is her passion and she loves baking, having made wedding and birthday cakes for friends and family.
Heather Ransome
Administrator
Heather joined Pearce Bottomley Architects in 2023 as an Administrator, having gained a wealth of secretarial experience over the years in a variety of property sectors. Working primarily with the Ecclesiastical Team offering administration support, Heather’s role is varied and includes the organisation of all Church Quinquennial Inspections.
Outside of work, Heather enjoys cooking, reading and going on long walks, especially along the coast.
Jackie Woolley
Administrator
Having worked in various roles including the most recent as Operations Manager for an Equestrian Trade Exhibition, Jackie joined Pearce Bottomley Architects in January 2024 as an Administrator, providing administrative support to the professional staff.
She has three daughters who although now in their early twenties always keep her busy, but she finds time to enjoy reading, cinema and socialising with family and friends.
The legacy of ‘Mr P and Mr B’
The Birth of Craftsmanship: Where It All Started
Reflections of Tom Robbins, a now retired PBA Partner.
"When I joined the business in 2006, the practice was being managed by its third generation of partners, but Mr Pearce and Mr Bottomley still had a presence.
One of the first jobs I was tasked with was to design a new house for Anthony Pearce and his wife Gill.
I visited them in their impeccable modernist villa in Linton, Wetherby. The house was astounding: a faded exemplar of the kind of post-war optimism that infected the architects of that generation like a bug.
But the house as a 'machine for living' was never intended as a durable entity. By then, the plot out-valued the house’s beauty and function and the family decided to sell up and move to town.
Mr Pearce gave me exact instructions on how to convert a cottage in the centre of Wetherby into the home they needed. Under his guidance, we fitted the accommodation to their specific personal requirements and created a home that would pay dividends with time. We collaborated on every detail of the process; the whole-house ventilation system, the choice of timbers, the points of contract and, most importantly, the nature of space.
I worked with Mr Pearce on the assumption that he and Gill were downsizing for their autumn years but after practical completion, I realised that we’d been crafting well-loved plans for Gill's future without him.
I didn’t get to know Mr Bottomley so well before he and Anthony both passed away, within a month of each other in 2010. By all accounts they were the perfect partnership, complementing and accommodating each other in their joint intentions and ambitions. Anthony maintained a dogged attention to detail and Derek Bottomley had no fear or limit to his horizons.
I can remember him arriving at our offices in his pristine Fiat X 1/9. He must have officially retired a good 20 years previously but he still had an insatiable drive and passion for architecture. His house, named Non-Such, was a modernist villa of equal prominence to Mr Pearce’s but of a more brutal and decisive style.
The other building I know Mr Bottomley through is the medical centre in his town. Pearce Bottomley Architects built the GP surgery in 1976.
When we work on the building today, we can’t help but go back to Derek’s original hand-drawn, imperial scale blueprints, although the fact that they are as old as I am makes me nervous to handle them.
The building is typical of the functional optimism of the time and might easily have suffered from neglect, but we still work closely with the centre management.
By adapting the original building to current needs and expanding the facility into the adjacent listed property, we have continued Derek’s loving relationship with the building, its owner and its surrounding community."
Awards
These accolades not only celebrate our team's dedication but also showcase the remarkable outcomes that have left an indelible mark on the architectural landscape.