Frontispiece: MARION MAHONY GRIFFIN, VIEW from the REAR GARDEN COURTYARD, NEWMAN COLLEGE, AUGUST 1915 SCHEME & WALTER BURLEY GRIFFIN, VIEW from the REAR GARDEN COURTYARD, NEWMAN COLLEGE Drawing from David Van Zanten, Walter Burley Griffin, Palos Park, Illinois 1970, p 75 & photograph by David Callow Frontispiece VOLUME 1 THE ARCHITECTURE OF NEWMAN COLLEGE Jeffrey John Turnbull Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2004, amended May 2005 Faculty of Architecture Building & Planning 1 ABSTRACT This study engaged with the architecture of the ‘Initial Structure’ at Newman College, 1915-1918, so as to establish this building’s place in the oeuvre of Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937). Griffin’s architecture at Newman College was unparalleled in Melbourne yet it has never been the subject of a comprehensive study. Further, a measure for Griffin’s creative method and architectural style has not been developed to date although much scholarship has been devoted to the identification of events and works in Griffin’s career. Furthermore a substantive analysis of the architecture of Walter Burley Griffin was lacking that defined and distinguished his work from that of the so-called ‘Prairie School’, and of Frank Lloyd Wright. Walter Burley Griffin was the conceptual designer of Newman College, while Marion Mahony Griffin (1871-1961), his wife and architectural practice partner was its facilitator. An evaluation of Griffin’s university education, 1895-1899, drew out the compositional concepts of parti, types and architectonics, as his own preferred means of working. Griffin’s mature style in the college design was also indebted to his architectural practice and experiences in Chicago, 1899-1914. An initial assumption in this study was that Griffin was eclectic, as were the American predecessors he admired, Thomas Jefferson and Henry Hobson Richardson, as were Griffin’s contemporaries, Louis Henri Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Thus the sources of Griffin’s architectural ideas, elements, and methods of composition, have been traced in this study. American campus designs were surveyed and comparisons made with the other three late 19th Century college buildings at the University of Melbourne to distinguish Griffins’ innovations in college planning, construction and form at Newman College. The description of the commissioning, committee-work and program for the Newman College building revealed the social and political idealism that linked Griffin with his supporters among Melbourne’s Roman Catholic community. Griffin worked with ‘structure’ in mind, both compositional and constructional. Particular partis, typologies and architectonic patterns have been 2 identified in the compositional structures of the college building design. Similarly Griffin’s adaptations of new and exploratory building techniques were investigated. Griffin’s sources were not only American. He derived inspiration equally from seminal European and Asian precedents, which provided instances of an underlying compositional structure. In the architecture of Newman College the composite plans, mixed construction techniques and materials, and richly layered forms allowed Griffin scope to express ideal college purposes, spiritual universality, and organic wholeness. 3 CERTIFICATION This is to certify that (i) The thesis comprises only original work towards the Ph.D. except where indicated in the following preface. (ii) Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. (iii) The thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, chronologies, architectural images and their captions, bibliographies, and appendices. 4 PREFACE During 1988 I was the Griffin Memorial Visiting Fellow to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign inaugurating the Griffin Exchange Program between the schools of architecture at UIU-C and the University of Melbourne. A Griffin Exchange Program Committee was formed in 1993 to promote scholarship on the architecture, landscape architecture and town planning of Walter and Marion Griffin. Members of the Committee were drawn from the USA and Australia and included myself. The Committee determined to hold two international symposia of Griffin scholars. The first symposium took place at UIU-C in October 1997, with a reciprocal symposium held at the University of Melbourne in October 1998. By agreement the proceedings of the symposia were not published. The Committee had already determined in 1993 however to produce two companion catalogues of the Griffins’ works, in America, and in Australia plus India. The American volume has not as yet been published but the Australia/India volume has been published as: Turnbull, Jeff & Peter Y Navaretti (editors), The Griffins in Australia and India: the complete works of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 1998. I was also the author of “A Reading of the Griffins’ early Australian Work”, one of eight essays for the above volume. I also wrote citations for Newman College and other Griffin works. In addition I contributed an essay, “Dreams of Equity, 1911-1924”, in Anne Watson (editor), Beyond Architecture: Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin America Australia India. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 1998, pp 104-119. This submission is the result of further study and analysis of the architecture of Newman College, which eclipses my previous texts on the subject. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has been possible with the knowledge, enthusiasm, and patience of my principal supervisor Dr Angela Hass, for which I am very grateful. 'Myimbarr' is a welcome, peaceful and stimulating haven for writing, and I thank Angela Hass and Christopher Stewardson for their kindness and generosity. For the opportunities to discuss the research I thank my second supervisor, Professor Philip Goad, Deputy Dean and Head of Architecture, University of Melbourne. The Rector, Father Peter l'Estrange SJ, and the staff of Newman College are more than generous with their assistance and support. Jane Carolan, former archivist and librarian at Newman College gave me great encouragement and free access to the Newman College Archive. Herbert Eales and the administrative staff of Newman College have at all times provided access. Catherine Anderson, Gabrielle Moylan, Bryce Raworth, Kath Phelan and Tom Withers have given generous architectural advice and support. Steven De Witt, Rachel Naughton and staff of the Melbourne Diocesan Historical Commission kindly gave access and advice during my research of this archive. Fellow Griffin scholars in Melbourne, Peter Navaretti and Simon Reeves, have given invaluable expertise and encouragement. Kate Holmes has produced excellent drawings. She and Ken Edmonds have often discussed Griffin’s work with me. Colleagues within the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne have been supportive and encouraging, including retired Deans, Professors Ross King and Evan Walker, retired Head, Professor Peter McIntyre, and the late administrator, Elizabeth Bennett. Virginia and Mary Ellen Brook provided translations of Latin and 16th Century French texts. Professors Miles Lewis and Len Stevens advised on building technology aspects. Andrew Hutson, Tony Mussen, David O’Brien and Katrina Place were helpful advisors. Over the years my work with colleagues Haig Beck, Graham Brawn, Stephen Cairns, Kai Chen, Jacki Cooper, Peter Elliott, Susan Hunt, Lindy Joubert, Daryl Le Grew, Hugh O’Neill, David Watson and Zhu Jianfei has been instructive. The work of Tony Alexander, Frank 6 Fiorentini and Vivienne Mackley, Budi Hendropornomo, Peter Kohane, Corbett Lyon, Janet McGaw, Rina Mackley, Michael Markham, Otti Newhouse, Simon Shaw and David Wagner has been stimulating. Ann Rado and Michael Jorgensen have patiently listened. George and Di Tibbits gave strong encouragement. Carol Buchanan, Libby James and Janne Morison were supportive. Michele Burder, Mike Cutter, Sean Doyle, Andrew Lao, and Richard Todd of the Information Technology Unit gave substantial aid with computer services. I also thank John Maidment, Natalie Young, and staff of the Leighton Irwin Memorial Library, Architecture Building, and also Kay Gooding, Deidre Gregory, Vija Pattison, Vicki West and staff of the Inter Library Loans, Baillieu Library, and also Lee McRae and staff, Multi-media Education Photographic Unit. In Sydney substantial support was generously given by Marie Nicholls, daughter of Eric Milton Nicholls, a Griffin office partner from the mid-1920s, and by Anne Watson of the Powerhouse Museum. I also wish to thank Griffin scholars in Sydney, the late Paul Reid, Professors Anna Rubbo and James Weirick, also Meredith Walker and John and Adrienne Kabos. I also thank Donald Dunbar, Romaldo Giurgola, and Michael Grace of Canberra, and Christopher Vernon of Perth, Western Australia. Professor R Alan Forrester, while Head of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, invited me to Illinois in 1988, and again for a number of subsequent visits for teaching, public lectures and research on the Griffins. Professors Paul Kruty and Paul Sprague have been supportive colleagues, as has Professor Jane Block and the staff of the Ricker Library. I also thank Professor Mati Maldre of the Chicago State University, an excellent photographer of the Griffins’ works. The above have all made visits to Australia, as did Mary Woolever from the expert and helpful Ryerson and Burnham Libraries,