Capitol Theatre and Office Building, Melbourne, Australia, Interior Perspective

Walter Burley GriffinWW-1917-138106

1917·Pencil and pastel on paper·56.2 × 76 cm (22 1/8 × 29 15/16 in.)

<p>After moving to Australia to help build the new capital city of Canberra, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin designed a theater complex in downtown Melbourne. The heart of this office and retail building was the movie house itself, created to seat more than 2,000 people and host a viewing experience like no other: The grotto- esque interior included a ceiling covered with thousands of crystalline plaster elements with colored lights that could be synchronized to the theater’s organ. Furnishings in green silk and copper velvet embodied the fantasy and wonder of the cinema in the new urban landscape.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1917
Medium: Pencil and pastel on paper
Dimensions: 56.2 × 76 cm (22 1/8 × 29 15/16 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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