Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin
Biography History Gender Studies Design Urban Planning Architecture Environmental Design
Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin is the first full-length, dual biography to give equal credit to the husband-and-wife team who changed the face of modern city planning. In 546 lavishly illustrated pages, Alasdair McGregor traces their journey from Chicago’s Prairie School to the international competition that won them Canberra, Australia’s master-planned capital. Readers discover how Marion Mahony Griffin’s stunning architectural renderings—once attributed solely to her husband—became the visual argument that clinched the prize, while Walter Burley Griffin’s radical landscaping ideas turned a sheep paddock into a garden city that still wins “most livable capital” awards today.
Beyond Canberra, the book follows the Griffins to India, where their last collaborative projects fused Modernism with Mughal motifs. McGregor’s meticulous research, drawn from previously unseen family papers and 300 archival photographs, floor plans, and color plates, shows why Mahony Griffin is now hailed as one of America’s first licensed female architects and a pivotal ecological thinker. Collectors prize this 2011 Penguin hardcover for its oversized, 7.9-inch format that allows the intricate drawings to breathe, while the sturdy dust jacket and 3.8-inch spine ensure the volume stands tall on design-library shelves. Young adults and adults alike come away with a richer understanding of how two visionaries married architecture to landscape, gender equity, and democratic ideals—insights that resonate in today’s green-building movement.
A used copy in good condition offers an affordable entry point into this definitive portrait of a power couple whose “grand obsessions” produced UNESCO-recognized heritage sites on three continents.
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