Roy Grounds

Sir Roy Burman Grounds (18 December 1905 – 2 March 1981) was an Australian architect, based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is noted as often being at the forefront of the development of Modernism in Victoria; his work in the 1930s included buildings that were amongst the earliest influenced by the Modern movement, an influence continued in his 1950s houses, some based on pure geometric shapes. He was a member of the highly regarded partnership of Grounds, Romberg & Boyd from 1953 to 1963. His later work of the 1960s, such as the National Gallery of Victoria and the adjacent Victorian Arts Centre, cemented his legacy as a leader in Australian architecture.

Artist Marr Grounds was his son.

Early life and education Born on 18 December 1905 in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, Grounds was educated at several schools, including Scotch College Melbourne and Melbourne Church of England Grammar School.

In the mid 1920s, he began his articles with the architectural firm of Blackett, Forster and Craig, where Geoffrey Mewton was doing the same. By 1928 they were both studying at the University of Melbourne Architectural Atelier, where they won first prize in an Institute of Architects Exhibition for a house costing under £1000, in a New England Colonial style. They both also won scholarships to further their studies later that year.

After graduating in 1928 they travelled to London together with another student, Oscar Bayne, where they all shared digs. After a brief time in London, Grounds worked in the United States for some time, including working in Los Angeles on set designs for the movies.

Career On his return to Australia in 1932, Grounds shared an office with Mewton, who had already set up a solo practice the previous year, where they worked on projects separately, but published under "Mewton & Grounds". One of their first projects that is attributed to Grounds was radically modern for Melbourne - located in the hills of Upper Beaconsfield, Wildfell, built in 1933, was a long flat roofed rectilinear composition of white painted brick, with red and cream brick details and corner windows. This was followed in 1934 by the Milky Way Cafe in Little Collins Street, a venture of the United Milk Producers Society to encourage milk consumption, with modern tubular steel furniture and flush recessed lighting panels. While Mewton produced many designs in a Modernism combining the brick volumes of Willem Dudok with European Bauhaus starkness, Grounds also designed a number of houses influenced by the simple, rough modernism of US West Coast architect William Wurster. The most notable expression of this influence are a series of houses including Portland Lodge, Lyncroft, and the Ramsay House, all on the Mornington Peninsula, the Fairbairn House in Toorak and the house for the Chateau Tahbilk winery. were both 'minimum' studio flat developments, while Quamby and Clendon Corner were one bed flats. All shared similar, sometimes matching, tightly laid out kitchenttes and bathrooms, with fold down elements, simple but sturdy finishes, built-in cupboards and wardrobes, and in some cases furniture designed by Grounds was also used. Much of the theatres' interior designs were completed by John Truscott after Grounds' death.

One of his last designs was Hobart's 18-story octagonal tower and Wrest Point Hotel Casino complex.

Recognition and honours 1959: RAIA Meritorious Architecture Award 1959: Sir John Sulman Medal for Architectural Merit 1961: Canberra Medallion 1968: RAIA Gold Medal, Royal Australian Institute of Architects 1969: Knighted as a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II 1969: elected a life fellow of the RAIA 1998: ACT 25 Year Award for Vasey Crescent Houses, Campbell 2001: ACT 25 Year Award for Australian Academy of Science 2018: ACT Award for Enduring Architecture renamed the Sir Roy Grounds Award for Enduring Architecture

Death and legacy

Grounds died on 2 March 1981.

His early work included buildings influenced by the Moderne movement of the 1930s, and his later buildings of the 1950s and 1960s, such as the National Gallery of Victoria and the adjacent Victorian Arts Centre, cemented his legacy as a leader in Australian architecture.

In 2011, with the opening of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, two houses designed and built there by Grounds in 1957–1958 for Claudio Alcorso on the Moorilla Estate—the Courtyard House and the Round House—became respectively the entrance and the library of Australia's largest private museum.

Family and personal life While he was overseas in the early 1930s, Grounds married Regina Marr, an American divorcee (previous married name Lammers). Their son, artist Marr Grounds, was born in Los Angeles in 1930. They came to Australia in 1933, and lived in Frankston, but returned to the United States in 1939.

After 1953, the family lived in a remarkable house he designed in the affluent suburb of Toorak, known as the Roy Grounds House. (adjacent to Henty House ) Fairbairn House, 236 Kooyong Road, Toorak (1935–1936) Flats, 2-6 North Road, Brighton (1936) Altered. House, 493 Kooyong Road, Elsternwick (1936) Attributed to Grounds: Rosanove House, 12 Gould Street, Frankston , demolished Lyncroft, 410 Tucks Road, Shoreham (1935) Chateau Tahbilk homestead, 254 O'Neils Road, Tahbilk (1935) Thomas House, 12 Reid Street, Balwyn, , demolished Ramsay House, 2 Rendelsham Avenue, Mount Eliza (1937) Second Milky Way Cafe, 175 Collins Street, Melbourne (1937) Roy Grounds Clendon Flats, 13 Clendon Road, Armadale (1940) Second stage, Clendon Corner, 16 Clemdon Road (1941) Moonbria Flats, 68 Mathoura Road, Toorak (1939—1941) Quamby Flats, 3 Glover Court, Toorak (1939—1941) Leyser House, Kew (1952), altered Roy Grounds House and flats, 24 Hill Street, Toorak (1953) Henty House (Round house), 581 Nepean Highway, Olivers Hill, Frankston South (1953) Grounds Romberg & Boyd Currawong Ski Lodge, 13 Jack Adams Pathway, Thredbo, New South Wales (1957) Mirrabooka, 30-34 Moore Road, Vermont, Melbourne The Courtyard House (1957) and The Round House (1958), Moorilla Estate (both now part of The Museum of Old and New Art), 655 Main Rd, Berriedale, Hobart Masters Lodge, Ormond College, Melbourne University (1958) Vice Masters Lodge (alterations), Ormond College, Melbourne University (1958) Forrest Townhouses, 3 Tasmania Circle, Forrest, ACT (1959) Vasey Crescent Houses, 42, 44 and 46 Vasey Crescent, Campbell, ACT (1960) McNicoll House, 19 Gordon Grove, South Yarra, Victoria (1962—1963) Roy Grounds & Co. Pty. Ltd.' CSIRO Phytotron Building, Clunies Ross Street, Acton, ACT (1963) Botany Building (D.A. Brown Building), Australian National University, Acton Campus, Canberra, ACT (1968) National Gallery of Victoria, 200 St Kilda Road, Melbourne (1959—1968) National Gallery Art School and West Garden for outdoor sculptures, Nolan Street, Melbourne (1968—1969) Medley Building, University of Melbourne (1968—1971) Frankel House, 4 Cobby Street, Campbell, ACT (1969—1970) Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University (1968—1971) Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement and Folk Museum expansion, Swan Hill (early 1970s) Nicholas families homes, 22 Hill Street, Toorak , much altered Wrest Point Hotel Casino, Hobart, Tasmania (1973) Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne (1969—1984)

Gallery of works