James MacLellan Brown was the City Architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 of Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, known for remodelling of Sir John James Burnet

John James Burnet

Sir John James Burnet was a Scottish Edwardian architect who was noted for a number of prominent buildings in Glasgow, Scotland and London, England...

's designs (1931) and designing the Mills Observatory

Mills Observatory

The Mills Observatory in Dundee, Scotland, is the only full-time public astronomical observatory in the UK . Built in 1935, the observatory is classically styled in sandstone and has a distinctive 7 m dome, which houses a Victorian refracting telescope, a small planetarium, and display areas...

 (1935).

Brown was the assistant to the City Architect, James Thomson

James Thomson (architect)

James Thomson was the former City Engineer, City Architect, and Housing Director of Dundee, Scotland. He originally planned an immense Beaux Arts style Civic Centre covering the centre of Dundee...

, who had originally planned an immense Beaux-Arts style Civic Centre covering the centre of Dundee. When the First World War intervened, his plans were scaled down and he retired in 1924. Thomson's ideas for extending City Square were developed again in 1924, when the École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...

-trained Burnet was commissioned to produce designs for the east and west wings to City Square

Town square

A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...

. Thomson died in 1927, and James MacLellan Brown, as Depute City Architect, remodelled Burnet's designs in 1931 and produced the scheme that was built. Later Brown collaborated with Professor Ralph Allen Sampson

Ralph Allen Sampson

Ralph Allen Sampson FRS was a British astronomer.He was born in Skull, Co Cork to James Sampson, a Cornish-born metallurgical chemist. The family moved to Liverpool and Sampson attended the Liverpool Institute and then graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge in 1888...

, Astronomer Royal

Astronomer Royal

Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the second is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834....

for Scotland, in designing Mills Observatory, a much more modern building than the one originally planned before the war.