Soldiers' Club, Toowoomba, Australia, Perspective

Architecture and Design

1919

Walter Burley Griffin (American, 1876-1937)
Marion Mahony Griffin (American, 1871-1961)

The Griffins created this unrealized project as part of a national competition for a club for military veterans who fought in World War I while they were living and working in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. This drawing sheet is characteristic of Marion Mahoney’s unique hybrid com- positions for architectural plans, combining floor plan, sections, and elevation in a highly decorative yet legible way. Throughout the drawing, lush vegetation weaves in and out of stonework, proposing a building fully engaged with the surrounding landscape of Toowoomba, a famous garden city. The gently curving building was organized around a central courtyard with a covered cloister for shaded walking and trellis to support flowering vines that gives access to the building’s rooms for dining and recreation.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Architecture and Design

Artist: Walter Burley Griffin (Architect)
Title: Soldiers' Club, Toowoomba, Australia, Perspective
Place: Soldiers' Club (Building address)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1919
Medium: Ink on linen
Dimensions: 48.1 × 77.5 cm (18 15/16 × 30 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Marion Mahony Griffin through Eric Nicholls
Reference Number: 1995.10.1

David T. Van Zanten, “Walter Burley Griffin: Selected Drawings,” (Palos Park, Ill.: The Prairie School Press, 1970), 87.

The Art Institute of Chicago, “Past Forward: Architecture and Design Collection at the Art Institute,” December 21, 2019–June 14, 2020.
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, Catalog Number 32.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Walter Burley Griffin / Marion Mahony Griffin,” 1981-82, Catalog Number 13.
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, “Beyond Architecture: Marion Mahony Griffin and Walter Burley Griffin,” 1998.

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