Early years
Curtis Green took up his own practice in 1898; his first projects included the exteriors of several power stations, including the Tramway Generating Station in Bristol (1899), which Historic England described as being the finest out of these commissions.
He also designed the building used for the Painswick Institute in 1907. He was elected fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) two years later.
In 1910, the same year in which he designed the Church of the Good Shepherd in Dockenfield on the Surrey/Hampshire border, Curtis Green went into partnership with London-based architects Dunn & Watson who frequently left him in charge of the practice. The same year, a request was made by the House and Cottage Exhibition Committee at Gidea Park, headed by the Liberal Member of parliament John Burns, for architects to take part in a new house-building competition. The object was "to provide families with a well-built, modern home, regardless of class or status", and "to bring the towns into the country, and the country into the towns", but it was also a chance for competing architects to showcase their talents. Curtis Green designed two properties for the competition; one, a Class II cottage, and a Class I house, 43 Heath Drive, for which he received £25 for the garden design. When his friend Edwin Lutyens went to New Delhi to build the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1912, he asked Curtis Green to take charge of his office while he was away. The opportunity allowed Curtis Green to build upon his understanding of how to conduct large works in a grand manner.
In 1927 Barclays Bank commissioned Curtis Green to design a series of buildings for them, starting with the conversion of 160 Piccadilly, which he had designed seven years previously for the Wolseley Motor Company, and for which, in 1922, he was awarded a RIBA bronze medal. At around the same time as the construction of 160 Piccadilly, Curtis Green was asked by the National Westminster to build them a new Piccadilly branch, which was to be located directly opposite. Situated on a corner plot, like his neighbouring project, it too was built of Portland stone. Other structures in Piccadilly followed, including the Westminster Bank in 1926, Stratton House (1929), 6 King Street, and the London Life Association building in King William Street.
In 1919 he established a partnership with his son, Christopher, and his son-in-law Antony Lloyd. Among their many buildings include the Church of All Saints in Shirley, Croydon, Their offices were based at 5 Pickering Place, St. James's Street, London.
Curtis Green was elected as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1923, and became a full academician ten years later.
