Page 520 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 February 2020
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Those familiar with the folklore of the city would know that when the time came in the early 1960s to name the new lake, an overwhelming number of the coalition parliamentary colleagues of Prime Minister Robert Menzies wanted the parliamentary zone’s prized addition to recognise their long-term leader. Of course, a zealous advocate for his adopted city and a keen student and mentor of Canberra’s progress, Menzies refused, insisting that the American designer of Canberra should be accorded the honour. As with most things back then, the PM got his way and Lake Burley Griffin was formally named in 1962.
I note that other commemorations to both Walter and Marion include being inducted into the ACT’s Honour Walk in 2012. The National Archives and National Library are recipients of numerous architectural drawings, Marion’s superb paintings and other documents.
Whilst Walter received accolades, Marion, on the other hand, would continue to be marginalised, forgotten, for many years to come. This was rectified in Canberra in our centenary year, when the viewing area atop Mount Ainslie was named Marion Mahony Griffin view. The placename celebrates the viewpoint taken for the magnificent triptych View from summit of Mount Ainslie drawn by Marion Mahony Griffin for the international competition for the design of the federal capital won by her husband, Walter Burley Griffin, in 1912.
Marion was the second-ever female to graduate as an architect at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the first to obtain a certificate to practise. The visionary Canberra plan was truly a collaborative venture. Peter Muller put it best in his memorable 1976 Walter Burley Griffin lecture when he said that the Griffins were:
… unique as individuals and as a couple, a fine mixture of Yin and Yang. He—primarily concerned with matters of principle, of origin, of form. She—their immaculate execution, of detail, of design. Both being interlocked, essential to each other’s personal fulfillment and individual creative spirit.
Walter and Marion moved to Lucknow, India, to design several new buildings for the university there. He died there on 11 February 1937. Marion lived until 1961 and is buried in Illinois. She was able to see a little of our fledgling capital’s development. In the centenary year, Robyn Archer, the artistic director, and Dr David Headon, our official historian, visited Walter’s gravesite in Lucknow.
In Canberra, I am pleased that the ACT Place Names Committee has been able to recognise a different aspect of Walter Burley Griffin’s architectural contribution by endorsing the naming of Knitlock Street in Taylor. The name commemorates the modular concrete construction system developed by Griffin comprising mortarless interlocking wall blocks and roof tiles. Two prototype Knitlock cottages, “Gumnuts” and “Marnham”, were built at Frankston, Victoria, in 1919.
I support the motion calling on the government to further acknowledge the significant contribution by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin to our capital.
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