Key 90: Architecture [ii] 1952-1983 / Centre for Environmental Studies 1974-1981

 

Overcrowding in the Architecture hut, 1958
Overcrowding in the Architecture hut, 1958
[Source: University of Melbourne Archives Image Catalogue, UMA-I-1310]

A new building for the Faculty of Architecture designed by Professor Brian Lewis was opened in 1968 though it was far from complete.

A second chair of Architecture was created in 1972. In the 1950s the Faculty had been expanded with the award of the first diploma in Town and Regional Planning in 1952. A full department was established in 1955 under Fred.W Ledgar who was appointed professor in 1970.

Atrium, Architecture Building
Atrium, Architecture Building
[Source: University of Melbourne Archives Media Photograph Collection, Photograph No 16966]

In 1958 the course in Building Science was inaugurated and Leo U. Simon appointed foundation professor in 1971.

A product of the trend to interdisciplinary studies and the growing interest in the environment and its management, the Centre for Environmental Studies’ aims were to ‘facilitate communication’ between workers in all fields related to human ecology, to co-ordinate and initiate programs of applied research in areas such as urban development, water resources, air pollution and regional development. Never well-funded it survived well for a time under its director, George Seddon, who secured short term funding through gifts and contracts, but in 1982 it was absorbed by the Faculty of Architecture and Planning as a School of Environmental Planning.

The courses in Landscape Architecture developed within the centre and the support networks cultivated by Seddon were consolidated in 1983 with the appointment of M. M. McCarthy as foundation Elisabeth Murdoch Professor of Landscape Architecture. Leading practitioner Peter McIntyre became Professor of Architecture in 1987.

George Seddon (left), Lord Mayor Leckie Ord and Peter McIntyre
George Seddon (left), Lord Mayor Leckie Ord and Peter McIntyre
[Source: University of Melbourne Archives Media Photograph Collection, Photograph No 16052]