Harvard Design Press has launched the publication John Andrews: Architect of Uncommon Sense by architectural historian and ACAHUCH member Professor Paul Walker.
The book, a sweeping account of the work of Australian architect John Andrews (1933–2022), examines his most important buildings from a career that spanned nearly 30 years. Andrews was the architect of a remarkable series of buildings, from Scarborough College in Toronto’s outer suburbs in 1965 to the Intelsat Headquarters in Washington, DC, in 1988. In between came a bright and prolific career, with buildings completed across Canada, the United States, and Andrews’s native home of Australia. In addition to several chapters authored by Walker, the book features contributions from Mary Lou Lobsinger, Peter Scriver, Antony Moulis, ACAHUCH Co-Director Philip Goad, and Paolo Scrivano, along with nearly 100 new photographs of existing buildings designed by Andrews in North America and Australia from visual artist Noritaka Minami.
Though Andrews’s work garnered global praise at the peak of his career, which lasted from 1960 to 1990, Andrews faced waning fame as postmodern cultural transformations challenged modernist design values, and as wider social and economic changes led to a withdrawal of government-funded institutional commissions. Yet his body of work is a remarkable achievement that deserves to be better known. Throughout his career, as Andrews assumed wider public roles and took appointments that allowed him to shape architectural education, his influence on design culture extended far beyond his own personal portfolio as well
About the Author:
Paul Walker is a Professor of Architecture in the Faculty of Architecture Building & Planning. Walker was educated at the University of Auckland (BArch (Hons) 1981; PhD 1987).
He worked in architectural practices in Auckland & Wellington 1987-1991, and as an academic at Victoria University of Wellington 1989-1999. Walker served as Deputy Dean 2008-2013 and Associate Dean (Research) 2016-2019. He was promoted to Professor in 2011. Walker’s teaching focuses on architecture history, theory, and design. He coordinates ABPL90288 Architectural Cultures 1, a critical survey of the modern movement in architecture for incoming students in the 300-pt MArch. Recent research has encompassed contemporary museum architecture and colonial museum buildings in Australia & elsewhere, and mid-twentieth century architecture in Australia & New Zealand.
He is also working on a project examining the architecture of trading networks in Australia and the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. A further current undertaking is an ARC Discovery-funded project 2019-2021, Australia’s new cities: past, present and future, led by AProf David Nichols. Walker is also leader of the design precedents lens of the Affordable Housing Hallmark Research Initiative. Walker was co-editor of Fabrications, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia & New Zealand 2007-2012, and is currently Chair of the SAHANZ Editorial Board. He was made a life member of SAHANZ in July 2019.