The Legacy of the Griffin Plan
The Griffin Legacy project assesses the ongoing relevance, vitality and potential of the original design for the National Capital in the 21 st century. Since winning the world wide competition in 1912 for the design of Australia's new federal capital, the Griffin Plan has been the city's foundation plan. The Griffin Legacy project has brought together for the first time an extensive archive of historic plans by Walter and Marion Griffin (and early plans of Canberra by other designers) to analyse the intent and evolution of the Griffin Plan from its origins to the present day.
Viewing the city from the summit of Mount Ainslie today, it is easy to believe that the Griffin Plan has been completed. In fact, only a part of the original Griffin design has been realised and much has been altered. In his own words, Walter Burley Griffin planned 'the ideal city', a city that met his 'ideal of the future'. Somewhere in this contested territory between the ideal and the reality we can locate the substance of the Griffin Legacy. A unique city design and a brimming set of ideas about a new democratic nation comprise this Legacy – cultural heritage of the highest value handed down from the past for the benefit of present and future generations.
Yet the Legacy of the Griffins' design for Canberra is more than a set of architectural documents for building the capital city of a young nation keen for a place on the world stage. It is also a statement of ideals addressing the political, cultural and community well-being of Australians. The Griffins knew that a National Capital had to express, through the grandeur of its buildings and commemorative malls, a dignity befitting its elevated status.
For nearly a century, the Griffin Plan has supplied the unifying concept for the development of some of the nation's most significant memorials and cultural institutions – features which give expression to the heart and feeling of the capital.
[Canberra] is all exceedingly grand, dignified, elegant, yet ... reposeful; it will soon rank with Washington as one of the world's great monumental capitals ... Canberra achieves the difficult feat of being one of the last Cities Beautiful, and also the world's biggest Garden City.
Peter Hall, Cities of Tomorrow, 2002
Canberra ... conceived of and shaped as a work of art ... [remains] one of the treasures not only of Australia but of the entire urban world.
John W Reps, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, 1995
Strategies [for Canberra] should encourage innovative design solutions; develop an ACT cultural identity; link Civic more positively to an enriched range of nearby national capital uses; build on existing asset base; reduce dependence on the car; and encourage increased use of public transport.
OECD's Urban Renaissance study of Canberra, A Sustainable Future, 2002
In Canberra, we have an asset in 2004 that is internationally recognised. This puts a particular responsibility on this and future generations to look after this asset and to be clever custodians. The Propositions and Strategic Initiatives of the Griffin Legacy address contemporary issues while building on the past. These Initiatives preserve and enhance the Griffin Plan.
The Griffin Legacy asserts the role of government not only as a leader but also as a partner and catalyst for change. Canberra can be the model city that Griffin imagined, and that a growing number of world authorities has predicted.