Walter Abraham (town planner)
Encyclopedia
Walter Victor Abraham, BArch, DipTCP, ARAIA
, FAPI
(1923 — 2006) was an Australian architect and town planner, noted for designing the layout of the campus
of Macquarie University
, Sydney
, Australia
, as well as overseeing the first 20 years of its development.
, Japan
, and was descended from a prosperous Jewish family of merchants based in London
, United Kingdom
.
His paternal grandfather travelled from England
to Japan in 1868, where he established an import-export business in Kobe and eventually settled permanently, marrying a Japanese woman. Walter's father was born in Japan, but was educated at Dulwich College
in London and, on his return to Japan to join the family business in Kobe, married a German
woman from Hamburg
.
Walter initially followed in his father's footsteps, completing part of his education at Dulwich College. Mindful of the perils of being foreigners from an enemy state during wartime, in 1941 his parents moved from Japan to Australia and he completed his secondary education at Sydney Boys' High School.
and was seconded to a small intelligence unit which became known as AIRIND, composed of five Australians who could both speak and write Japanese
. Their duties involved collecting and examining engines and parts from crashed Japanese aircraft, in order to deduce when and where they had been made. In the latter part of the war
, the intelligence produced by AIRIND guided long-range bombing raids to attack factories involved in military production and thus hamper the Japanese war effort. In mid-1944 the unit was transferred to the control of the Pentagon
, and was absorbed into the US war effort.
After the war, Abraham studied architecture and town planning at the University of Sydney
. He then accepted a post with the now defunct Cumberland County
Council. He later returned to Sydney University, where he lectured for five years on town planning. He also assisted with planning Sydney University's post-war expansion, until 1965.
on the establishment of a new university
at North Ryde
. He had previously written a report entitled Proposed University Site at North Ryde. Dated 5 June 1962, this is the first written record of his advice on the 135-hectare
site, which was to be located around the intersection of Balaclava and Waterloo roads.
As part of his preliminary work in 1964, Abraham conducted a comprehensive photographic survey of the proposed campus site, which at that time was farmland. He wrote how he found In October 1964 it was decided that the university would open for teaching in early 1967, and would have a growth target of 1,000 new students each year for the following decade. The new Macquarie University Council decided that the planning of the campus would be conducted internally, rather than by consultants, and as such, an architect-planner's office was established.
Abraham was one of the first three staffmembers appointed to the university, and was also one of its first six administrators. He was appointed Architect Planner to the university in April 1965 and was given professorial status so that he could negotiate the university's development on an equal footing with the academic staff.
and United States
to study the works of contemporary university campus planners. Rejecting the perceived inflexibility of "master plans", a concept current at the time, he decided to aim for a balanced and flexible approach to developing the constructed and natural environments of the Macquarie site.
Abraham established a grid of lots of 300 square feet (approximately 28 square metres) each, aligned to points of the compass, split into three main divisions: West (W), Central (C), and East (E). Most of the principal buildings were to be constructed along or within easy reach of the campus's main west-east pedestrian way, which became known as University Walk. The measure of 300 feet was chosen as it was seen to represent a 1-minute walk, and Abraham wanted to aim for a design where no two points on campus were more than a maximum 10-minutes' walk from each other.
Sizeable parking areas were created on the outskirts of the academic core to the west, south and east, with traffic zones and bus routes running along the north and south of the main southern parking areas W1, C1, C2, and E1. Use of both natural hilly landscape and artificial mounds was made to ensure that the noise of cars and buses did not intrude into the academic area of the campus.
A valley on the north side of the academic area which overlooks the Lane Cove National Park
was landscaped and kept free of buildings. The panorama was enhanced with the creation of a lake, and carefully designed planting programmes were commenced across campus. The beautiful grounds of Macquarie University today are essentially a product of Abraham's devotion to the art of landscape development.
Abraham remained in the employ of Macquarie University for 19 years, overseeing its development and enhancing the development's consistency. He retired in 1983, but remained a regular visitor and observed the continuing development of his creation with great interest.
, which was being resisted by the local residents. Abraham added his professional weight to the argument, supporting the residents. This led to the proposal being scrapped.
In 1974, he wrote a report for UNESCO
on physical planning at the University of the Philippines
, which resulted in that university receiving loans for infrastructure development from the World Bank
.
, 120 kilometres south of Sydney. Here he designed their house, which was sited on the eastern side of Saddleback Mountain. He became a local identity in the Illawarra
region, often giving advice to the local authorities and was a constructive critic of the planning policies of the Kiama Municipal Council.
Macquarie University honoured Wally Abraham in 1991, when he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science
honoris causa
.
In 2004 he attended the opening of the "Making it New" photographic exhibition, a part of Macquarie University's 40th anniversary celebrations which detailed the development of the campus. For a 40th anniversary article in Macquarie University's alumni magazine, Sirius, Abraham wrote
Wally Abraham died around September 2006, aged 82 (his wife Felicity had predeceased him in 1994). They are survived by their children Philip Abraham and Michaela Russell, Michaela's husband Terry Russell, and grandsons Nick and Ben. A motion put by the mayor of Kiama resulted in Wally Abraham being honoured in Council with a minute's silence on 19 September 2006.
In early 2006 it was announced that the main west-east pedestrian spine of the Macquarie University campus, formerly known as University Walk, and which had been undergoing extensive renovation and repaving would be renamed "Wally's Walk" in recognition of Dr Abraham, when it re-opened in April 2006.
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, FAPI
Australian Property Institute
The Australian Property Institute is a professional industry body representing residential, commercial and plant and machinery valuers, analysts, fund managers and property lawyers....
(1923 — 2006) was an Australian architect and town planner, noted for designing the layout of the campus
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
of Macquarie University
Macquarie University
Macquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, as well as overseeing the first 20 years of its development.
Early life
Walter Abraham was born in KobeKobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and was descended from a prosperous Jewish family of merchants based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
His paternal grandfather travelled from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to Japan in 1868, where he established an import-export business in Kobe and eventually settled permanently, marrying a Japanese woman. Walter's father was born in Japan, but was educated at Dulwich College
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...
in London and, on his return to Japan to join the family business in Kobe, married a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
woman from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
.
Walter initially followed in his father's footsteps, completing part of his education at Dulwich College. Mindful of the perils of being foreigners from an enemy state during wartime, in 1941 his parents moved from Japan to Australia and he completed his secondary education at Sydney Boys' High School.
World War II and early career
After leaving school, he joined the Royal Australian Air ForceRoyal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
and was seconded to a small intelligence unit which became known as AIRIND, composed of five Australians who could both speak and write Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. Their duties involved collecting and examining engines and parts from crashed Japanese aircraft, in order to deduce when and where they had been made. In the latter part of the war
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, the intelligence produced by AIRIND guided long-range bombing raids to attack factories involved in military production and thus hamper the Japanese war effort. In mid-1944 the unit was transferred to the control of the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
, and was absorbed into the US war effort.
After the war, Abraham studied architecture and town planning at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. He then accepted a post with the now defunct Cumberland County
Cumberland County, New South Wales
Cumberland County is a county in the State of New South Wales, Australia. Most of the Sydney metropolitan area is located within the County of Cumberland....
Council. He later returned to Sydney University, where he lectured for five years on town planning. He also assisted with planning Sydney University's post-war expansion, until 1965.
Macquarie University's Architect-Planner
In 1964, Abraham was nominated as Architect Planner by a committee appointed to advise the New South Wales State GovernmentGovernment of New South Wales
The form of the Government of New South Wales is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1856, although it has been amended many times since then...
on the establishment of a new university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
at North Ryde
North Ryde, New South Wales
North Ryde is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Ryde is located 15 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde...
. He had previously written a report entitled Proposed University Site at North Ryde. Dated 5 June 1962, this is the first written record of his advice on the 135-hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
site, which was to be located around the intersection of Balaclava and Waterloo roads.
As part of his preliminary work in 1964, Abraham conducted a comprehensive photographic survey of the proposed campus site, which at that time was farmland. He wrote how he found In October 1964 it was decided that the university would open for teaching in early 1967, and would have a growth target of 1,000 new students each year for the following decade. The new Macquarie University Council decided that the planning of the campus would be conducted internally, rather than by consultants, and as such, an architect-planner's office was established.
Abraham was one of the first three staffmembers appointed to the university, and was also one of its first six administrators. He was appointed Architect Planner to the university in April 1965 and was given professorial status so that he could negotiate the university's development on an equal footing with the academic staff.
Abraham's campus design
At the time of his appointment, very little local information was available in Australia regarding the design and planning of universities, and so Abraham travelled to the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to study the works of contemporary university campus planners. Rejecting the perceived inflexibility of "master plans", a concept current at the time, he decided to aim for a balanced and flexible approach to developing the constructed and natural environments of the Macquarie site.
Abraham established a grid of lots of 300 square feet (approximately 28 square metres) each, aligned to points of the compass, split into three main divisions: West (W), Central (C), and East (E). Most of the principal buildings were to be constructed along or within easy reach of the campus's main west-east pedestrian way, which became known as University Walk. The measure of 300 feet was chosen as it was seen to represent a 1-minute walk, and Abraham wanted to aim for a design where no two points on campus were more than a maximum 10-minutes' walk from each other.
Sizeable parking areas were created on the outskirts of the academic core to the west, south and east, with traffic zones and bus routes running along the north and south of the main southern parking areas W1, C1, C2, and E1. Use of both natural hilly landscape and artificial mounds was made to ensure that the noise of cars and buses did not intrude into the academic area of the campus.
A valley on the north side of the academic area which overlooks the Lane Cove National Park
Lane Cove National Park
Lane Cove National Park is a small national park located within metropolitan Sydney. The park islocated about ten kilometres north-west of the Sydney CBD...
was landscaped and kept free of buildings. The panorama was enhanced with the creation of a lake, and carefully designed planting programmes were commenced across campus. The beautiful grounds of Macquarie University today are essentially a product of Abraham's devotion to the art of landscape development.
Abraham remained in the employ of Macquarie University for 19 years, overseeing its development and enhancing the development's consistency. He retired in 1983, but remained a regular visitor and observed the continuing development of his creation with great interest.
Other career highlights
While he was still working at Macquarie, Abraham was involved in other significant projects. In 1968, he was appointed to report on a controversial proposal to widen Jersey Road in Paddington, New South WalesPaddington, New South Wales
Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...
, which was being resisted by the local residents. Abraham added his professional weight to the argument, supporting the residents. This led to the proposal being scrapped.
In 1974, he wrote a report for UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
on physical planning at the University of the Philippines
University of the Philippines
The ' is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No...
, which resulted in that university receiving loans for infrastructure development from the World Bank
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
.
Retirement
After retiring from Macquarie University in 1983, Abraham and his wife Felicity moved to Kiama, New South WalesKiama, New South Wales
-Transport:The town is served by Kiama Station on the South Coast Line. It is served by road in the form of the Princes Highway and the Kiama Bypass.-Attractions:...
, 120 kilometres south of Sydney. Here he designed their house, which was sited on the eastern side of Saddleback Mountain. He became a local identity in the Illawarra
Illawarra
Illawarra is a region in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a coastal region situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the Shoalhaven or South Coast region. It encompasses the cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and the town of Kiama. The central region contains Lake...
region, often giving advice to the local authorities and was a constructive critic of the planning policies of the Kiama Municipal Council.
Macquarie University honoured Wally Abraham in 1991, when he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...
honoris causa
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
.
In 2004 he attended the opening of the "Making it New" photographic exhibition, a part of Macquarie University's 40th anniversary celebrations which detailed the development of the campus. For a 40th anniversary article in Macquarie University's alumni magazine, Sirius, Abraham wrote
Wally Abraham died around September 2006, aged 82 (his wife Felicity had predeceased him in 1994). They are survived by their children Philip Abraham and Michaela Russell, Michaela's husband Terry Russell, and grandsons Nick and Ben. A motion put by the mayor of Kiama resulted in Wally Abraham being honoured in Council with a minute's silence on 19 September 2006.
In early 2006 it was announced that the main west-east pedestrian spine of the Macquarie University campus, formerly known as University Walk, and which had been undergoing extensive renovation and repaving would be renamed "Wally's Walk" in recognition of Dr Abraham, when it re-opened in April 2006.
External links
- Obituary in Macquarie University News (October 2006) (PDF document), contains photograph of Dr Abraham in 2004.
- Macquarie University 40th Anniversary article in Sirius (Summer 2004) (PDF document), contains some of Wally Abraham's pre-construction photographs of North Ryde in 1964.
- Image of Wally Abraham climbing over a dry stone wall on his property at Kiama, in 2001
- Macquarie University Library FAQ: "What is Wally's Walk?"