John's winning designs
“Architecture is a great deal of common sense,” says John Andrews, sitting in the sunlit open loungeroom of his Orange home.
Dominating one wall of the living room is a large photograph showing an internal view of the vast glass, steel and concrete Intelsat Headquarters in Washington DC, a landmark building John won the contract to design in 1980. On other walls you’ll find photos of other building from John’s long career: the CN Tower in Toronto, once the world’s tallest building; Scarborough College, Gund Hall at the Harvard Graduate College of Design, Boston; and the 30-story NRMA Tower in Sydney — complete with the original sun shades that were later removed, much to John’s obvious annoyance, even after 20 years.
“That was incredibly successful as it was one of the first buildings ever designed that took sun control as a factor… That building was monitored and it only ever used 65 per cent of the energy a normal building used — almost reduced it by half, but nobody could see the sense of that 20 years ago when they took them off,” said John.
Understanding the function of a building, how people would use it has been key to John’s approach to design and he is dismissive of the idea of following styles or a tradition.
“I have no time for this business of doing something in such a way, because somebody else did it that way, or it’s a style— I can't stand that! It is more problem solving and common sense,” he says.
“I just like to find the answer to the problem. First of all, to define the problem, when clients really don't know the size of their own living room and you've got to find that out it is really terribly important to understand somebody's needs.”
Growing up in Sydney’s northern suburbs, John found himself drawn to architecture although at school he was actually pushed towards studying the Law.
“I had not done very well in high school and they said you can't do architecture, you have to do law,” said John.
“When it came time, I did well enough in my leaving certificate that I matriculated which meant I could go to university anyway in those days, so I went and enrolled in architecture, with physics and chemistry, which you supposedly needed.
“I learnt later on that it is far more important to be able to write the English language. Physics and chemistry have to do with engineering, and you can always get an engineer to do it.”
He says it is something that always stood him in good stead and later in his career, while Chairman of architecture at the University of Toronto, John actually made changes to the course to focus more on humanities than to science.
After graduating from the University of Sydney in 1956, he left Australia and entered into a Master of Architecture program at Harvard University, where he studied under Jose Louis Sert.
While at Harvard, John and a team of his fellow student came second in a competition to design the new Toronto City Hall, which set him up for a career in Canada, where he would remain until 1969.
“It was an incredibly good time in Canada,” says John. “Canada's attitude was to get behind young people… and a lot of the government work was given to young architects including me and that was a real good start.”
John’s first major project, at just 29 years of age, and one that remains one of the most well-known of his career, is the massive concrete megastructure at Scarborough College — still known today as the Andrews Building.
Upon completion, the building received wide publicity, thanks in part to John stubbornly holding out for Time Magazine to feature it in their international edition.
“I remember, Time magazine wanted to publish it and I wouldn't let them until they put it in the colour edition,” says John.
“There were two; one North American edition and one was the world edition. I said not until you put it in the big one, which they would do eventually. It took about six months, but I knew the value of Time magazine internationally and not just in Canada and I got a lot of work out of it.”
Another iconic building in John’s career was Gund Hall at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.”
“I knew there were a whole lot of people who wanted to do it and thought they should do it… but they didn't,” says John.
“And that was probably the most significant building that I ever did... to me, the most important building I ever did.”
John returned with his family to Australia in 1969, to work on the Cameron Offices in Belconnen, then the largest building ever constructed in Australia and home to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and other government departments for decades.
John spent the rest of his career in Australia and his buildings can be found scattered across our state capitals and cities around the world.
“My life hasn't been all success I have to tell you, There have been some low points and that Sydney Convention Centre was one,” said John, referring to the controversial demolition of the Darling Harbour landmark seven years ago.
“Something you put everything into, to see it get knocked down doesn't go easy. I don't recommend it.”
“There's also places where you didn't leave your mark and you could have… I would have liked to have built one of the public buildings for Australia.”
Still at work at 86, John Andrew is considered to be one of the most significant Australian architects of the past half century.
