TRIBUTES were being paid yesterday to leading architect, academic, writer and broadcaster Patrick Nuttgens, who has died at the age of 74.

Professor Nuttgens, who lived in Terrington, near York, was the first academic to be appointed at York University when it was founded in 1962.

He was also a prolific writer and broadcaster and was awarded the CBE in 1983.

Born in 1930, the third of 12 children, he was educated at Ratcliffe College, in Leicester, Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University, from which he graduated in 1954.

He contracted polio when he was 12 and learned to walk again after being confined to a London open-air hospital for two years. The disease caused him problems in later life, with post-polio syndrome and multiple sclerosis.

He taught at Edinburgh University before moving south to York where he became director of the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies.

It was at York where he came to real prominence, making local and national headlines by attacking the city's planning policy.

He resigned from the Architects Advisory Committee in protest at the modern developments being planned.

He left the university in 1970 to become the first director of Leeds Polytechnic and after retiring in 1986 was appointed honorary professor at York. He held honorary degrees from York, Sheffield, Heriot Watt and the Open universities.

A York University spokesman said they owed Prof Nuttgens an "immense debt of gratitude".

"He was a riveting public lecturer. His contribution was a lasting one, he maintained close links with the university. He will be sadly missed."

He is survived by his widow, Bridget, and nine children