JOURNAL / MAY 2017 1 JOURNAL / MAY 2017 2

INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT DUNSTER FORMER DIRECTOR INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT DUNSTER FORMER BATES SMART DIRECTOR

“There was a prestige to this building. It was a feather in the cap project” Robert Dunster on the 1969 Australian Embassy

Melbourne Studio Director Tim Leslie sat down with Robert Dunster to reflect on some 1853 TO 2017 / of the firm’s history and the design of the 1969 Australian Embassy in FROM TO Washington D.C.

How did you come to work for Bates THE AUSTRALIAN EMBASSY Smart? I went to University and got a Bachelor of Architecture and Diploma of Town and Regional Planning and The history of Bates Smart dates In the 1960s the trio of McCutcheon, straight out of university Sir Osborn back to the 1850s and founder Dunster and Bass were reunited for McCutcheon asked me to join the firm. Joseph Reed, who was responsible the design and construction of the It was really quite moving that he was for many of Melbourne’s most Australian Embassy in Washington. interested enough to do that, and what iconic buildings, including the Royal McCutcheon as designer, Dunster is more the job he had in mind was officially involved in running the contract, original drawings were still in our files Exhibition Building and Wilson Hall as the on-site project architect Wilson Hall. but that didn’t happen initially, and so I we could have got them out and built at the . A and Bass providing the sculptural Tell us about Wilson Hall? started out doing it and by the time he it exactly as it was, but they wanted it shining example of Gothic Revival, bronze coat of arms. came along I was running it quite well, bigger, which was difficult to do. the hall was the epicentre of the Wilson Hall had already been designed, so it was really just a token role for a few With the next generation of Bates The artwork of Australian sculptor university until it was lost to flames so I wasn’t involved in the design. They months and then he dropped out and I Smart now having the opportunity Tom Bass provides a delightful in 1952. had already done the draft working went on. So basically I supervised the to work on the new Australian physical connection between Wilson drawings. So when I joined the firm they construction of Wilson Hall, which was a After great controversy, it was Embassy in Washington, it is a Hall and the Australian Embassy in were about to do the documentation. fascinating job to be involved with, and decided that a new building particularly poignant time to reflect Washington. How did this occur, did My first job was to draw all the drawings. in those days there was still very much would be designed. Bates Smart on our history. Bates Smart engage him for both or So when you see the drawings of a severe control of all building materials, was appointed to design the was it just serendipity? Wilson Hall, in the files, hand coloured and restrictions on what you could do. new hall which was completed prints, those were all done by me. So Os [Sir Osborn McCutcheon] would in 1956. Designed by Sir Osborn that was my first year’s work, drawing There was a concentration on housing, have been the one that picked him McCutcheon, the new hall was all that up, then it went to tender. At that factories, hospitals, offices, but nothing originally. In those days the architect completed under the supervision point the job captain left, so suddenly like a decorated Wilson Hall. Everybody was much more influential than they are of the firm’s emerging young star, there was nobody else to run the job did recognise that it was a tragedy that now. architect Robert Dunster. The except me. Now that was a bit startling the old one had burnt down and it was renowned Australian sculptor as an idea, even to the partners of the agreed that money should be spent Tom Bass was also engaged and day I think. One year out of university! rebuilding it. The original intention had provided the copper mural relief They did appoint someone else to be been to restore the original, and the over the entry tilted ‘Trials of PICTURED Socrates’. / Tim Leslie with Robert Dunster / The Chancery, Washington D.C., 1969 JOURNAL / MAY 2017 3 JOURNAL / MAY 2017 4

INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT DUNSTER FORMER BATES SMART DIRECTOR INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT DUNSTER FORMER BATES SMART DIRECTOR

What was Sir Osborn McCutcheon What are some of your lasting like to work with? memories of that time in Washington? Os he was a real character. He was very Obviously the opening of the building, down to earth. He got into the business Os came over and so did Robin Boyd of actually designing. He was working who had curated the opening exhibition with his pencil and sketching away like in the Chancery. mad, in between weird and wonderful memoranda of things. Good fun as Washington was an interesting place well. Always had a bit of humour, which to be. A broad cross section of people. was nice. We used to hover outside his This broad mix had a funny side too, office when we wanted to talk to him because things like snow created about something and he would look up real chaos. We had people who lived and say ‘three and a half minutes’, and next to us who came from Chicago three and half minutes later we would and they could never understand why come back and stand there. He would Washington was completely stopped probably let you in then. It was good fun. by half an inch of snow. They said He used to rush down the office with “try 30 feet”. But because of all the yellow trace [sketching paper] streaming strange mix of people living there for behind him, he would have had a new their embassies, including people from thought about something and wanted to tropical countries, there were lots of get it down. people who had no idea of how to go about driving on snow. One time he lost his voice which was a It is hard to comprehend today what What was the external design fun experience. He would write things Melbourne was like after the war can approach for the new embassy? Another memory is being trapped inside down and we would [cheekily] write you provide some insight? the Chancery during the riots after The building wasn’t going to be Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. back the answer to him [rather than Shortages of building materials. Things distinctly Australian in its architectural speak]. We had a colleague who has just arrived like steel. You had to adjust your design appearance, it was to be a building from and caught the bus in He was not in any way overbearing, but as you went along, depending on what that fitted into the public buildings of that day. Buildings were on fire, streets very much in control. steel sections were available that month. Washington. Hence the idea of the were filled with people and the National If you wanted to wait you could, but if marble cladding. A good friend to the Guard, and outside the Chancery the I suppose the practice set up after the you didn’t want to wait you had to make neighbouring buildings. [The marble was roads were at a stand still – it was quite war, was really his, he was always the substitutions. off-white Tennessee Marble, the same a first impression for him. dominant force and he was the big marble as used on the Smithsonian, shareholder. At this period at the practice, Os National Gallery of Art, the Jefferson Now Tim, show me what you are was building the firm’s skills. We had and Lincoln Memorials and many other doing to my Chancery? structural for a long while, but then he distinguished DC buildings] added mechanical, lifts, hydraulics so by the time the Chancery came along What did this project mean to Bates we were given everything, we designed Smart? everything in it. Everything was ours. There was a prestige to this building. It Not only the design, but the structure, was a feather in the cap project. services, furniture, paintings - everything was given to Os to do. It was an absolutely complete commission. PICTURED / Top Left: Robert Dunster / Top Right: Sir Osborn McCutcheon / Bottom: Wilson Hall, University of Melbourne / Following page: Original Wilson Hall, University of Melbourne