Soldiers' Club, Toowoomba, Australia, Perspective

Walter Burley GriffinWW-1919-089024

1919·Ink on linen·48.1 × 77.5 cm (18 15/16 × 30 1/2 in.)

<p>The Griffins created this unrealized project as part of a national competition for a club for military veterans who fought in World War I while they were living and working in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. This drawing sheet is characteristic of Marion Mahoney’s unique hybrid com- positions for architectural plans, combining floor plan, sections, and elevation in a highly decorative yet legible way. Throughout the drawing, lush vegetation weaves in and out of stonework, proposing a building fully engaged with the surrounding landscape of Toowoomba, a famous garden city. The gently curving building was organized around a central courtyard with a covered cloister for shaded walking and trellis to support flowering vines that gives access to the building’s rooms for dining and recreation.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1919
Medium: Ink on linen
Dimensions: 48.1 × 77.5 cm (18 15/16 × 30 1/2 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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