Page 22 - Southen Exposure - August '22

Page 22, Southern Exposure

Travel from page 21

design of the capital city. The 6,000. Like so many other government buildings, it was
contract to develop the plan added because of necessity, until the new Parliament
for the city of Canberra was House was finished in 1988. The rest of the city didn’t
awarded to Chicago architect move as swiftly, being influenced by the Great Depression
Walter Burley Griffin. Griffin and World War II. Twenty years later after opening the
was born in Maywood, Ill., original Parliament House, the population had only
in 1876. He attended the grown to 17,000; Melbourne still housed the bulk of the
University of Illinois in Urbana, Australian government’s functions.
and after graduation he interned Canberra was looked at as being somewhat in “the
with Frank Lloyd Wright sticks” because of the provision of services. It just didn’t
in his Oak Park studio. He seem to be gaining momentum as a city until Prime
started receiving independent Minister Robert Gordon Menzies, who in his second
commissions in the first decade stint from 1949 to 1966 established the National Capital
of the 20 century, mostly Development Commission. It was then that the effort got
th
residential, that were influenced sufficient funding to progress, and as a result, the city grew
by Wright’s designs. His main rapidly from a population of 30,000 in 1954 to well over
interest then became directed to 400,000 today (Australian Bureau of Statistics).
landscape architecture. As the capital, Canberra is the site of the Australian
Griffin laid out Canberra National University, National Library of Australia, High
based upon the “English Court of Australia, Australian National Gallery, Australian
Garden City” concept of strict View of Canberra from atop Mt. Ainslie War memorial, both the Old and New Parliament House,
separation of functions within a
community. He also adopted a geometric formalism to the following the war, Griffin had a
city plan. He planned that the functions of various buildings dispute with then Prime Minister
became independent hubs, from which streets radiated. William Morris Hughes; Griffin
These main types of buildings form the Parliamentary was removed from the project.
Triangle, with the government buildings located within the He went on to design numerous
triangle and the Parliament House being one of the corners; other commissions throughout
the municipal center and the commercial district are the Australia, and two years before his
other two. Major roadways have been established on the death in 1937 he had relocated to
surrounding hills to provide lines of slight between these Lucknow, India. The water feature
functions that are contained in the Parliamentary Triangle. in Canberra has remained a tribute
Griffin utilized the prominent hills in the valley and a man- to him – it was named Lake Burley
made lake, which is a central water feature of the city, to Griffin.
cleverly accomplish all of this. Planned residential suburbs Construction of the new capital
such as Woden, Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin progressed rapidly in the 1920s,
have sprung up and surround the Parliamentary Triangle. with the first Parliament House
Each of the self-contained communities has been nestled opening in 1927. At the time, the
between hills and waterways that have been left as open population of Canberra was about The Parliament House’s sloped lawn roof helps it blend into the landscape.
space to separate these residential areas.
Griffin’s supervision of the city’s development
started in 1915, however, work was put on the back
burner during World War I. Shortly after work resumed

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Australian War Memorial
Canberra’s National Carillon on the shores of Lake Burley
Griffin Travel on page 23

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