Newman College, University of Melbourne, Australia, Perspective View

Walter Burley GriffinWW-1915-138305

1915·Ink on linen·62.5 × 149 cm (24 9/16 × 58 11/16 in.)

<p>Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin’s commission to design Newman College came soon after the couple moved to Australia in 1914 to work on the new federal city of Canberra. The architects’ scheme was modeled on a Gothic Revival quadrangle, with a central, domed administration building and two wings of student housing. The Griffins drew on eclectic sources for the building’s design, including a round dome and abstract towers that recall Gothic spires and crystalline forms found in ancient non-Western architectures from India and Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. This atmospheric drawing emphasizes the connection between the low, spreading form of the building and the lines of the Australian landscape, a feature celebrated in Marion’s landscape design for the project.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1915
Medium: Ink on linen
Dimensions: 62.5 × 149 cm (24 9/16 × 58 11/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Walter Burley Griffin

Artist

Walter Burley Griffin

Photography

Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and urban planner who designed the master plan for Canberra, Australia's capital city, in 1912. Working in the Prairie School tradition pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright, Griffin developed an organic architectural vocabulary that integrated landscape, geometry, and civic vision. His plan for Canberra, organized around water features and radiating avenues, remains one of the twentieth century's most ambitious urban designs. Griffin also designed residences and public buildings throughout Australia and the United States, emphasizing the integration of architecture with natural topography.

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