The annual meeting of our sister organisation, the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America, will be held on Saturday 17 June 2006, in Evanston and the North Shore, USA.

Events begin at 9:00am at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Avenue (Orrington & Church). Speakers include Mary Woolever, architectural librarian at the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, who will discuss the Griffin/Mahony collections at the Art Institute; Wilbert Hasbrouck, who will expound upon the creation of his magnificent history of the Chicago Architectural Club; and Betsy Downs, who will recount her restoration of Griffin’s J. B. Moulton house in Rogers Park, one of the buildings on the afternoon tour. Paul Sprague will present his findings about one of Griffin’s planning projects for Evanston, and Paul Kruty will provide background for the buildings to be seen on the tour. The morning session will end at noon.

Among the buildings included on the afternoon tour are Griffin’s Carter, Moulton and Schwartz houses, Wright’s Emil Bach house, and several buildings by Myron Hunt, one of the original Steinway Hall Four (that is, Perkins, Wright, Spencer, and Hunt). We will also be able to see three other Griffin houses from the street.
An evening reception will be held in the Emery house.

Reservations essential – go to:
www.wbgriffinsociety.org/index.html

A management plan for Lake Burley Griffin is being prepared by heritage consultants Godden Mackay Logan, and Context Pty Ltd who are assessing social significance, and undertaking focus groups for organisations and user groups who may have an interest in, or special associations with, the lake. An internet survey has been conducted and recommendations as to how the aspects of significance can be managed will be prepared.

Among the recently announced 92 projects receiving $2.73million in NSW Heritage Incentives Programme funding is a $20,000 grant to The Art Deco Society of NSW to identify and record Interwar Housing in New South Wales, assess its significance and prepare nominations for those of State significance to the State Heritage Register. The focus of the study is creating a typology of housing types and styles in this period and deducing urban design and protection policies arising from them, as a useful guideline to apply across NSW in suburban and country settings. The study has the potential to include works of Griffin and of his associates, such as Eric Milton Nicholls.

It builds on past studies the Heritage Office has funded in this area. These include: $14,000 in 2003 to the Art Deco Society for a study of the development of the highrise apartments of the Interwar period in the Kings Cross, Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay; $45,000 in 1993/4 to the National Trust of Australia (NSW) for a thematic study of interwar subdivisions and housing estates; and $10,000 in 2003 to Willoughby City Council to undertake a study of the work of the architect, Eric Milton Nicholls in the Willoughby area, to provide a register and intactness inventory.