Griffin, Walter Burley

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Griffin, Walter Burley (1876–1937). Illinois-born American architect. He worked in Chicago (1899–1901) and for F. L. Wright (1901–5), before being appointed Director for the design and construction of the Federal Capital at Canberra, Australia, in 1913. The formal geometry of his plan was successfully imposed upon a natural landscape of great beauty, perhaps reflecting Griffin's interest in the Rudolf Steiner movement of Anthroposophy. Among his best designs are Newman College, University of Melbourne (1917), the Capitol Theatre, Melbourne (1924), and several houses in Australia. He designed and patented a system of construction involving interlocking components he called Knitlock. He produced an enormous number of designs for his adopted country, many of which were realized. Griffin's wife was Marion Lucy Mahony (1871–1961), who worked in Wright's Oak Park Studio, Chicago (1898–1909), and was responsible for many drawings in the influential Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright (Executed Buildings and Projects by Frank Lloyd Wright), published by Wasmuth (1910).

Bibliography

Birrell (1964);
H. Brooks (1972);
Kalman (1980);
D. L. Johnson (1977);
Kobayashi et al. (1996);
Maldre (1996);
Peisch (1964);
van Zanten (ed.) (1970)