Edward Jones graduated from the Architectural Association School in 1963 and since 1973 was a principal in private practice. He won first prize in 1972 with Jeremy Dixon in an international competition for Northamptonshire County Offices. In 1983 he won first prize in an international competition for Mississauga City Hall, Canada and the completed scheme won the Governor-General’s Award in 1990.
The Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones partnership was formed in 1989 and became a limited company in April 2003. The practice won RIBA Regional Awards for the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, 1989, the Residential Towers for the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, 1993, the Study Centre for Darwin College, Cambridge, 1994, superstore for J Sainsbury Plc, Plymouth, 1994, the Royal Opera House, London, 2000, the National Portrait Gallery, London, 2000, Saïd Business School, Oxford Phase I, 2001, and Phase II 2012 and four national awards for the two phases of the National Gallery project 2006. The practice also received AIA and Blueprint awards for the National Portrait Gallery, London and RFAC awards for Somerset House and the National Portrait Gallery. At the 1991 Venice Biennale their entry for an open international competition ‘A Gateway for Venice’ won first prize.
Dixon Jones were masterplanners of Somerset House where their fountains, café and bridge were installed in 2001 and the National Gallery in London, where they completed a major renovation of the Gallery. In 2009, following an international competition, the practice was appointed masterplanners for Chelsea Barracks. In 2012, their masterplan for Exhibition Road was opened to the public.
Edward Jones was chairman of the jury for the Laban Dance School Competition in Deptford, South London in 1997. In 2002 he served on the jury for the Diana Princess of Wales Fountain Competition in Hyde Park, London and was also a jury member for the Bank Street Building Competition in Ottawa, Canada, Barbara Hepworth Gallery competition in Wakefield in 2003 and the Student Centre Competition, UBC, Vancouver, 2005. He served on the RIBA Gold Medal Jury in 1993 and 1994, and on the Architectural Association Council 1993 – 1999. He was a Jury member for the RIBA Stirling Prize Midlist 2004 – 2007 and was chairman of the RIBA competition for the New Horizon Centre, London 2007 and the RIBA ‘Line of Sight’ competition 2007. From 2006-2010 he was a member of the Stratford City Design Review Panel for the 2012 Olympics, and from 2013-2015 he was vice-chair of the post-Olympic Quality Review Panel for the London Legacy Development Corporation.
Edward Jones’ work has been widely published and exhibited – he represented Britain at the 1980 and 2002 Venice Biennales.
From 1975-82 he was senior tutor at the Royal College of Art. Since the mid-1970s he has been a visiting professor at various universities in North America including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Philadelphia, Rice, Toronto, Waterloo and at Kent State University, Florence and UCD Dublin. He was a member of UCD’s Flying Circus, 1970-73. He has been an external examiner for the RIBA at various architectural schools in the UK and abroad including the AA London, Kingston, Portsmouth, Cardiff, Edinburgh and the Caribbean School of Architecture in Kingston, Jamaica (1995 – 1999). In 2007 he was external examiner at the MacKintosh School in Glasgow.
His book, Guide to the Architecture of London, was written with Christopher Woodward and published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in 1983; revised editions were published in 1992, 1995, 1998 and 2000, with a colour edition in 2009, and since turned into a smartphone app. A monograph on the work of the practice entitled Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones, Buildings and Projects 1959-2002 was published by Right Angle publishing in 2002.
In 2001 Edward Jones was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from University Portsmouth and an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Cardiff. In 2003 he was awarded an Honorary Professorship from the from the University of Cardiff, and he was appointed a Trustee to the Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust in 2004. In 2011 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland.
Edward was honoured with a CBE in the 2011 New Year’s Honours.