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Canberra centenary celebrations Thursday 15 August to Saturday 17 August 2013

On the centenary of Walter Burley Griffin’s arrival in Australia, the Walter Burley Griffin Society is celebrating the Griffins’ Canberra as part of the Canberra 100 program of events.
Join us to celebrate in the following events:

Marion Mahony Griffin Lecture 2013
The Magic of Australia
Thursday 15 August 2013, 6.00pm

The Shine Dome, Australian Academy of Science
Gordon Street, Canberra

The Walter Burley Griffin Society invites you to the fifth annual Marion Mahony Griffin Lecture to be given by architect Caroline Pidcock.

Program and biography

Proudly supported by the ACT Government Community Centenary Initiatives Fund.
Tickets: WBGS Members $20 (earlybird bookings $15 until 30 June);
Non-members $25; Students $10
Bookings essential: http://www.trybooking.com/CHPJ

Canberra centenary celebrations Thursday 15 August to Saturday 17 August 2013 |

Marion Mahony (1871–1961), photograph courtesy Art Institute of Chicago

Bus tour – The Griffins' Canberra - Saturday 17 August 2013, 9.30am – 1pm

Professor James Weirick will give this guided tour which will include looking at the Griffins’ land and water axes, their plans for a railway line and central station, urban centres and suburban ideals.

Tickets: WBGS members $35, non-members $45
Bookings essential: http://www.trybooking.com/CHSW

Bus tour – The Griffins' Canberra - Saturday 17 August 2013, 9.30am – 1pm |

Symposium - The Griffins' Canberra: 100 years - Friday 16 August 2013

12.45pm – 4.30pm – The Shine Dome, Australian Academy of Science – Gordon Street, Canberra

Join three leading international experts on the Griffins as they talk about the influences and ideals that underpin the Griffin design for Canberra, and its international significance.

Professor Emeritus Paul Kruty
Professor Emeritus of Architectural History at the University of Illinois, USA
Walter Burley Griffin’s Ideas about Architecture, Landscape and Planning, 1901–1913

Professor James Weirick
Director of the Master of Urban Development and Design Course, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales
100th anniversary of Walter Burley Griffin – Griffin and Canberra

Professor Dr. Karl Fischer
Acting director of the Master of Urban Development and Design Course, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales; University of Kassel, Germany (2009 – 2012)
The Urbanism of the Griffin Plan – a 21st century international perspective

Program and biographies
Proudly supported by an Australian Government Your Community Heritage Grant.
Tickets: WBGS Members $75 (earlybird bookings $65 until 30 June);
Non-members $85; Students $30
Bookings essential: http://www.trybooking.com/CHQR

Symposium - The Griffins' Canberra: 100 years - Friday 16 August 2013 |

Heritage Guided Tours of the Capitol Theatre, Melbourne

In 2013 guided tours of the magnificent theatre interior, designed by the Griffins in 1922, were conducted on the third Friday of March, May, June, July, August, September, October and November on a continuous basis from 10am until 3.00pm (last tour start time).

Trained volunteer guides told visitors of the history of the Theatre, the changes that have been made over 90 years and show them through the foyers and the auditorium. There was a short audiovisual presentation on the screen at the end of the tour.

Since then the Griffins’ Capitol Theatre has been extensively restored and reopened by RMIT University in 2019.

2012 - 100 years since the Griffins won the Australian National Capital Competition

On 23 May 1912, the Australian Minister for Home Affairs, King O’Malley announced that the winner of the Australian National Capital Competition was entry 29, the entry by Mr Walter Burley Griffin, architect and landscape artist, Steinway Hall, Chicago, Illinois.

On that day at the official announcement, Mr O’Malley stated “What we wanted was the best the world can give us and we have got it”.1

For further information about the Griffins’ winning entry:
https://www.griffinsociety.org/index.html
http://www.idealcity.org.au/
1 Canberra 1912: Plans and Planners of the Australian Capital Competition, John W. Reps, Melbourne University Press 1997, p100.

2012 - 100 years since the Griffins won the Australian National Capital Competition |

Detail from ‘Section A–B Northerly Side of Water Axis: Black Mountain to Lake Park’ showing the central railway station and cathedral. Illustration by Marion Mahony Griffin, 1911. National Archives of Australia: A710 42

Marion Mahony Griffin LectureCelebrating the Griffins' contribution to Canberra as a modern planned capital city.Thursday 30 August 2012 at 6.00pm

Visions Theatre, National Museum of Australia, Canberra

The Walter Burley Griffin Society Inc invites you to the fourth annual Marion Mahony Griffin Lecture.

In the centenary year of the Griffins’ winning design for Canberra, join conservation planner Sheridan Burke as she reflects on Canberra in relation to recent listings of modern heritage places through the World Heritage Convention.

Sheridan’s commitment to the Griffins includes curating and conserving their first Castlecrag house for the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, and preparing the Heritage Assessment and Conservation Plan for Lake Burley Griffin for the National Capital Authority. She leads the Canberra office of heritage consultants Godden Mackay Logan and is the President of the International Council of Monuments and Sites Twentieth Century Heritage Scientific Committee, adviser to UNESCO.

Tickets: $20.00 (WBGS or NMA Members); $25.00 (Non-members)
Seating limited. Bookings essential: http://www.trybooking.com/BMNQ
Enquiries email info@griffinsociety.org

Marion Mahony Griffin LectureCelebrating the Griffins' contribution to Canberra as a modern planned capital city.Thursday 30 August 2012 at 6.00pm |

Marion Mahony (1871–1961), photograph courtesy Art Institute of Chicago

Book launch - Marion Mahony Reconsidered - Thursday 11 August, 6.00 for 6.30pm

Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, Sydney

After a long gestation David van Zanten’s Marion Mahony Reconsidered is out. Authors include Americans David van Zanten, Alice Friedman and Paul Kruty, and Sydney academics James Weirick (UNSW) and Anna Rubbo (University of Sydney).

According to the book cover, “the essays take us on an ambitious journey from Mahony’s origins in the Chicago suburbs, through her years as Wright’s right-hand woman and her bohemian life with her husband here (US) and in Australia – whose new capital city, Canberra, she helped to plan – up until her golden years in the middle of the 20th century”.

Anticipating the lead up to Canberra’s 1913 centenary, Marion Mahony Reconsidered provides new insights into the co-designer of Canberra. The Sydney launch at Gleebooks will be hosted by the Walter Burley Griffin Society. Professor Alec Tzannes, Dean of the Faculty of the Built Environment at UNSW, will lead a conversation with James Weirick and Anna Rubbo.

Marion Mahony Reconsidered, David Van Zanten (ed.), Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011, 176pp.

Book launch - Marion Mahony Reconsidered - Thursday 11 August, 6.00 for 6.30pm |

Walking tour - Walter Burley Griffin building for nature – Castlecrag, Sunday 10 April 2011

There are two walk times: 10.00am and 10.45am

As part of the National Trust Heritage Festival 2011 and its theme of “Amazing Stories”, the Society will take two guided tours of the Griffins’ Castlecrag. They will go past Griffin houses and through walkways and reserves. Hear how the Griffins planned the ideal suburb where dwellings were subordinate to the landscape and the Middle Harbour foreshore was dedicated to the community.
Wear walking shoes, hat and bring water. Duration approx 2 hours.

Bookings essential: tel 9958 4516
info@griffinsociety.org
Cost: $10 WBGS members; $15 non-members. Meeting place provided on purchase of ticket.