Walter Burley Griffin | |
|---|---|
 Griffin in 1912 | |
| Born | (1876-11-24)November 24, 1876 Maywood, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | February 11, 1937(1937-02-11) (aged 60) |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Years active | 1890s–1930s |
| Known for | Prairie School |
| Notable work | Design/plan ofCanberra, Australia and Griffith, Australia |
| Spouse | Marion Mahony Griffin(m. 1911) |
Walter Burley Griffin (November 24, 1876 – February 11, 1937) was an American architect andlandscape architect. He designedCanberra, Australia's capital city, theNew South Wales towns ofGriffith andLeeton, and (with his wife) theSydney suburb ofCastlecrag.
Influenced by the Chicago-basedPrairie School, Griffin developed a uniquemodern style in partnership with his wifeMarion Mahony Griffin. In 28 years they designed over 350 buildings, landscape and urban-design projects as well as designing construction materials, interiors, furniture and other household items.
Griffin was born on November 24, 1876, 1876 inMaywood, Illinois, a suburb ofChicago.[1] He was the eldest of the four children of George Walter Griffin, an insurance agent, and Estelle Burley Griffin.[2] His family moved toOak Park and later toElmhurst. As a boy, he had an interest in landscape design and gardening, and his parents allowed him to landscape the yard at their new home in Elmhurst.[citation needed] Griffin attendedOak Park High School. He considered studying landscape design but was advised by the landscape gardenerO. C. Simonds to pursue a more lucrative profession.[citation needed]
Griffin chose to study architecture, and, in 1899, completed his bachelor's degree in architecture at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[1] The University of Illinois program was run byNathan Clifford Ricker, a German-educated architect, who emphasized the technical aspects of architecture. During his studies, he also took courses in horticulture andforestry.
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After his studies, Griffin moved to Chicago and was employed as a draftsman for two years in the offices of progressive architectsDwight H. Perkins, Robert C. Spencer Jr., and H. Webster Tomlinson in "Steinway Hall".[1] Griffin's employers worked in the distinctivePrairie School style. This style is marked by horizontal lines, flat roofs with broad overhanging eaves, solid construction, craftsmanship, and strict discipline in the use of ornament.Louis Sullivan was influential among Prairie School architects and Griffin was an admirer of his work, and of his philosophy of architecture which stressed that design should be free of historical precedent. Other architects of that school includeGeorge Grant Elmslie,George Washington Maher,William Gray Purcell,William Drummond and most importantly,Frank Lloyd Wright.
In July 1901, Griffin passed the new Illinois architects' licensing examination and this permitted him to enter private practice as an architect. He began working inFrank Lloyd Wright's famousOak Park, Illinois, studios.[1] Although he was never made a partner, Griffin oversaw the construction on many of Wright's noted houses including theWillits House in 1902 and theLarkin Administration Building built in 1904. From 1905 he also began to supply landscape plans for Wright's buildings. Wright allowed Griffin and his other staff to undertake small commissions of their own. TheWilliam Emery house, built in Elmhurst, Illinois, in 1903 was such a commission.[1] While working for Wright, Griffin fell in love with Mr. Wright's sister,Maginel Wright. He proposed marriage to her, but his affections for her were not returned, and she refused.
In 1906, he resigned his position at Wright's studio and established his own practice atSteinway Hall.[1] Griffin and Wright had fallen out over events following Mr. Wright's trip to Japan in 1905. While Wright was away for five months, Griffin ran the practice. When Wright returned, he told Griffin that he had overstepped his responsibilities, completing several of Wright's jobs, and sometimes substituting his own building designs. Further, Wright had borrowed money from Griffin to pay for his travels abroad, and then he tried to pay off his debts to Griffin with prints he had acquired in Japan. It became clear to Griffin then that Wright would not make Griffin a partner in his business.
Griffin's first independent commission was a landscape design for the State Normal School atCharleston, Illinois, that becameEastern Illinois University. In the fall of 1906, he received his first residential job from Harry Peters. The Peters' House was the first house designed with an L-shaped or open floor plan. The L-shape was an economical design and easily constructed. From 1907 to 1914, several houses designed by Griffin were built on the far southwest side of Chicago in the city'sBeverly andMorgan Park, Chicago neighborhoods. In 1981, the city of Chicago granted landmark status to 13 of these Prairie-style bungalows in Beverly along the 1700 block of West 104th Place, 12 blocks of Longwood Drive between West 98th and 110th Streets, and three blocks of Seeley Avenue. With seven of these houses being located on West 104th Place—comprising the largest concentration of original prairie style homes built in Chicago—the street as it runs between Hale Avenue on the west to Prospect Avenue on the east was designated theGriffin Place Historic District, which comprises a part of the largerRidge Historic District.
In 1911, Griffin developed 'Solid Rock' house for William F. Tempel inWinnetka, Illinois. It was the first house built by Griffin in his mature style and of reinforced concrete.[1]
On June 29, 1911, Griffin marriedMarion Lucy Mahony, a graduate of theMassachusetts Institute of Technology in architecture. She was employed first in Wright's office, and then byHermann V. von Holst, who had taken over Wright's work in America when Wright left for Europe in 1909. Marion Mahony recommended to von Holst that he hire Griffin to develop a landscape plan for the area surrounding the three houses on Millikin Place for which Wright had been hired inDecatur, Illinois. Mahony and Griffin worked closely on the Decatur project immediately before their marriage.
After their marriage, Mahony went to work in Griffin's practice.[3] A housing development with several homes designed by Griffin and Mahony,Rock Crest – Rock Glen inMason City, Iowa, is seen as their most dramatic American design development of the decade and remains the largest collection of Prairie Style homes surrounding a natural setting.[4]
From 1899 to 1914, Griffin created more than 130 designs in his Chicago office for buildings, urban plans and landscapes; half of these were built in the mid-western states of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.[1]
The relationship between Griffin and Frank Lloyd Wright cooled in the years following Griffin's departure from Wright's firm in 1906. With Walter and Marion's wedding, Wright started to feel they were "against him". After the Griffins' win in theAustralian federal capital design competition, and resultant front-page coverage inThe New York Times, Wright and Griffin never spoke to each other again. In later years, whenever Griffin was brought up in conversation Wright would downplay his achievements and refer to him as a draftsman.[5]
In April 1911, theAustralian Commonwealth Government held an international competition to produce a design for its new, as yet unnamed, federal capital city. Griffin produced a design with impressive renderings of the plan by his new wife. They first heard about the competition in July, while on honeymoon, and worked feverishly to prepare the plans. On May 23, 1912, Griffin's design was selected as the winner from among 137 entries. This created significant press coverage at the time and brought him professional and public recognition. Of his plan, he famously remarked:
I have planned a city that is not like any other in the world. I have planned it not in a way that I expected any government authorities in the world would accept. I have planned an ideal city – a city that meets my ideal of the city of the future.[6]
In 1913, Griffin was invited by the Commonwealth Government to Australia to inspect the site that was to becomeCanberra.[7][8] He left Mahony Griffin in charge of the practice and travelled to Australia in July. His letters reveal his appreciation for the Australian landscape. The Griffins joined the Naturalists Society of New South Wales in 1914, where they enjoyed organized bush walks and field studies. The society facilitated their contact with the Australian scientific community, especially botanists. This appreciation for Australian flora was reflected in Griffin's 1914 town plan for the town ofLeeton in theMurrumbidgee Irrigation Area ofNew South Wales, and later in a design forNewman College at theUniversity of Melbourne.[9] He also used Australian flora botanical names as places names for suburbs and streets in Canberra, such as Grevillea Park, Telopea Park, Clienthus Circle and Blandfordia.[10]
Griffin was offered the position of head of the department of architecture at theUniversity of Illinois. At the same time he was negotiating a three-year contract with the Commonwealth Government to remain in Australia and oversee the implementation of his plan, which he felt had already been compromised. In October 1913, he was appointed the Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction.[1] In this role, Griffin oversaw the design of North and South Canberra, though he struggled with considerable political and bureaucratic obstacles. In May 1914, he and his wife left America for Australia along with architects Roy Lippincott and George Elgh.
With the outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914, Griffin was under pressure to reduce the scope and scale of his plans due to the diversion of funds towards the war effort. Several parts of his basic design underwent change. Plans to create Westbourne, Southbourne and Eastbourne Avenues to complement Canberra'sNorthbourne Avenue were eliminated, as was a proposed railway connecting South Canberra to North Canberra, and on toYass, 35 mi (55 km) away. A market area that would have been atRussell Hill in North Canberra was moved south toFyshwick, next to South Canberra.
The pace of building was slower than expected, partly because of a lack of funds and partly because of continued disputation between Griffin and Commonwealth Government bureaucrats. Many of Griffin's design ideas were attacked by both the architectural profession and the press. In 1917, aRoyal Commission determined that they had undermined Griffin's authority by supplying him with false data which he had used to carry out his work. Ultimately, Griffin resigned from the Canberra design project in December 1920 when he discovered that several of these bureaucrats had been appointed to an agency that would oversee Canberra's construction. TheCommonwealth Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Hughes had removed Griffin as Director of Design and Construction after disagreements over his supervisory role, and in 1921 it created theFederal Capital Advisory Committee, withJohn Sulman as chair. Griffin was offered membership, but declined and withdrew from further activity in Canberra.[11]
Griffin designed several buildings for Canberra, none of which was built. The grave ofGeneral Bridges onMount Pleasant[12] was the only permanent structure designed by him to be built in Canberra.
Aside from the city's design, Griffin's longest-living legacy is the plantation of Redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens andSequoiadendron giganteum) known as Pialligo Redwood Forest, that he and arboristThomas Charles Weston planted in 1918. It is onPialligo Avenue between Canberra andQueanbeyan, 1.8 mi (2.8 km) east ofCanberra airport.[13]
The Griffins' office in Chicago closed in 1917; however, they had successful practices inMelbourne and Sydney, which were a strong motivation for their continuing to live in Australia. The Griffins had received commissions for work outside Canberra since Walter first arrived in the country in 1913, designing town plans, subdivisions, and one of his highly regarded buildings,Newman College, the Catholic residential college of theUniversity of Melbourne while employed in Canberra.[14] While supervising activities in Canberra, Griffin spent much time in Melbourne and, in 1918, became a founder, with Royden Powell, of the Henry George Club, an organization devoted to providing a home for theSingle Tax movement.[15] The Griffins' first major commission after leaving Canberra was theCapitol Theatre in Melbourne; it opened on November 7, 1924. In 1964 architectural writerRobin Boyd described the Capitol as "the best cinema that was ever built or is ever likely to be built".
In 1916 and 1917, Griffin developed a patented modular concrete construction system known as "Knitlock" for use in the construction of Canberra. No Knitlock buildings were ever built in Canberra, although several were built in Australia. The first were built on Griffin's property inFrankston in 1922, where he constructed two holiday houses called "Gumnuts". The best examples of Knitlock include theS.R. Salter House inToorak and thePaling House.Frank Lloyd Wright designed a similar system and used Griffin's design to support the arguments for his design.
In 1919, the Griffins founded the Greater Sydney Development Association (GSDA), and in 1921 purchased 259 ha of land inNorth Sydney. The GSDA's goal was the development of an idyllic community with a consistent architectural feel andbushland setting. Walter Burley Griffin as managing director of the GSDA designed all the buildings built in the area until 1935.Castlecrag was the first suburb to be developed by the GSDA. The Redding House and several others in Castelcrag were also built in Knitlock. Almost all the houses Griffin designed in Castlecrag were small and had flat roofs, and he included an internal courtyard in many of them. Griffin used what was at that time the novel concept of including native bushland in these designs. He came to be referred to as "The Wizard of Castlecrag".
Other work the Griffins did during this time included the Melbourne subdivisions ofGlenard[16] (where the Griffins built their own Knitlock house"Pholiota") and Mount Eagle[17] atEaglemont, and the Ranelagh Estate in Mount Eliza Victoria 1924. The Ranelagh Estate was listed on the Victorian State Heritage Register (H01605) in 2005 as a significant example of a country estate. Prior to 1920 the Griffins also designed theNew South Wales towns ofLeeton andGriffith.[18] Griffin and architect J Burcham Clamp designed a large tomb built atWaverley Cemetery, Sydney, between 1914 and 1916 for James Stuart, which still stands as a good example of Griffin's sense of 'human-scale monumentality'.[19]
The Griffins participated in the celebrated ChicagoTribune Tower Competition in 1922. Having won one international competition, as architects who were both well acquainted with Chicago and recognized as practical visionaries, they offered a solution that was positive, forward-looking and elegant. Indeed, their non-winning entry appears to have been about a decade ahead of its time, with emphatic verticality along the lines of theArt Deco orArt Moderne. It anticipated, and would have been a near neighbor of, Chicago's333 North Michigan byHolabird & Roche (1928); with stylistic echos inJohn and Donald Parkinson'sBullocks Wilshire, in Los Angeles (1929), as well as Adah Robinson andBruce Goff'sBoston Avenue Methodist Church,Tulsa (1929).[20]
In the 1920s, the Griffins prepared plans for the Milleara Estate (also known as City View) atAvondale Heights and the Ranelagh Estate atMount Eliza, both inVictoria (Australia) in conjunction with surveyors Tuxen and Miller.
During the financial hardship of theGreat Depression, in the 1930s Griffin designed incinerators, collaborating with the Reverberatory Incinerator and Engineering Company (RIECo), in conjunction with his friend and business partner, Eric Nicholls.[21] He was responsible for twelve incinerator designs between 1930 and 1938, of which seven still survive. They are located at:
_in_1939_(City_of_Sydney_Archives).jpg)
TheWilloughby incinerator is a good example of this work. It has been listed by theNational Trust of Australia and theRoyal Australian Institute of Architects as a building of significance. In 1999 it was listed in the New South Wales State Heritage Register.[22] It has since been restored and converted to commercial use byWilloughby Council.
TheWalter Burley Griffin Incinerator, Ipswich, Queensland is listed on theQueensland Heritage Register and has been converted into a theatre.[23] Another incinerator was built in the suburb ofPyrmont, not far from the centre of Sydney. This incinerator was considered for heritage listing but was demolished in 1992 because it was in irredeemably bad condition.[24]
During their time at the GSDA, the Griffins became more involved inanthroposophy,[25] and in 1935 through contacts in the movement Griffin won a commission to design the library at theUniversity of Lucknow inLucknow, India.
Although he had planned to stay in India only to complete the drawings for the library, he soon received more than 40 commissions, including theUniversity of Lucknow Student Union building; a museum and library for theRaja of Mahmudabad; azenana (women's quarters) for theRaja of Jahangirabad; Pioneer Press building, a bank, municipal offices, many private houses, and a memorial toKing George V. He also won complete design responsibility for the 1936–1937United Provinces Exhibition of Industry and Agriculture. His 53 projects for the 160-acre (0.65 km2) site featured a stadium, arena, mosque,imambara, art gallery, restaurant,bazaar, pavilions,rotundas,arcades, and towers,[26][27] however, only part of his elaborate plans were fully executed.[28]
Griffin was inspired by the architecture and culture of India, modifying forms as "he sought to create a modern Indian architecture ... Griffin was able to expand his aesthetic vocabulary to create an exuberant, expressive architecture reflecting both the 'stamp of the place' and the 'spirit of the times'".[29] While in India, Griffin also published numerous articles for thePioneer, writing about architecture, in particular aboutventilation design improvements. Marion joined Walter inLucknow in April 1936 to collaborate on several projects.
Griffin died ofperitonitis in early 1937, five days aftergall bladder surgery atKing George's Hospital, Lucknow, inLucknow,Uttar Pradesh,India, and was buried in Christian Cemetery in Lucknow. Marion Mahony Griffin oversaw the completion of the Pioneer Building that he had been working on at the time of his death. She closed down their Indian offices before leaving their Australian practice in the hands of Griffin's partner, Eric Milton Nicholls, and returned to Chicago.[27]
Griffin was largely under-appreciated during his time in Australia, but, since his death, recognition of his work has steadily grown. In 1964, when Canberra's central lake was filled, as Griffin had intended, Prime MinisterRobert Menzies declined to have the lake named after himself. Instead he named itLake Burley Griffin, making it the first "monument" in Canberra dedicated to the city's designer ("Burley" was included in the name because of the ongoing misconception that it was part of Griffin's surname).Burley Griffin Way is a 276 km road linking Griffith, Temora, Harden, and Binalong to the Hume highway west of Bowning, 10 km northwest of Yass.
Architectural drawings and other archival materials by and about the Griffins are held by numerous institutions in the United States, including the Drawings and Archives Department ofAvery Architectural and Fine Arts Library atColumbia University; the Block Gallery atNorthwestern University; theRyerson & Burnham Libraries at theArt Institute of Chicago; and theNew York Historical Society, as well as in several repositories in Australia, including theNational Library of Australia,National Archives of Australia, and the Newman College Archives ofthe University of Melbourne. At the centenary of the Griffins' design work for Canberra, some believe they are owed a permanent memorial.[30]
In 1988 the Royal Australian Institute of Architects named its national Civic Design Award after Griffin. It is now known as theWalter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design and is awarded annually.
"I am what may be termed a naturalist in architecture. I do not believe in any school of architecture. I believe in architecture that is the logical outgrowth of the environment in which the building in mind is to be located".FromThe New York Times, Sunday June 2, 1912[31]
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Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence.Griffin, Dustin, ed., The Writings of Walter Burley Griffin (Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2008).
[Move this book from "Further Reading" to "General References."
National Library of Australia:
