Current Redmond Barry Fellowship Recipient - 2009

The following Fellowship has been funded for a period of six months.

Andrew Dodd
Unknown Genius: the architecture of John James Clark
Biography

This project will result in a biography of the Victorian colonial architect John James Clark, who arrived in Melbourne at the age of 14 during the Victorian gold rush and immediately began designing the colony’s important public and civic buildings. In a long career lasting until World War I he mastered Renaissance Revival styles with works as diverse as the Royal Mint, the City Baths and, at just 19 years of age, the remarkable Melbourne Treasury. He worked in four colonies and became the country’s leading health architect. He also became colonial architect for Queensland.

The biography will reveal the stories behind the person who became a genius at stylistic synthesis, and who, after his death in 1915, was hailed as 'Australia’s greatest architect'. For this project Andrew Dodd will also produce a La Trobe Journal article on Clark’s role in the development of the public libraries of Sydney and Melbourne.