THE TIMELINE OF THE NEWCASTLE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

19th CENTURY

Anyone with professional experience could become an architect. Experience was the only requirement and that was gained by working in an architect’s office.
No registration under legislation was required.
Sydney Technical College and its ancestors offered public education courses in:

Carriage Building
Electricity
Phonography
Wood carving
Elocution,
Drawing: Ladies Morning and Ladies Afternoon
Applied Mathematics and Steam Engines
Simple Surgery
Field naturalists Club (?)
Natural Philosophy and . . .
Architecture

The stage was set.

The 1888 course in architecture included:

Use of drawing instruments
Drawing to scale
Copying of Drawings
Enlarging and altering
Orders and Styles
Working out complete designs from sketches, with partial assistance
Specifications
Colouring and neatly finishing of drawings
Perspective drawings
Finishing with pen and Ink
Sanitation and ventilation

The classes for Quantities met every Friday! The rest was learned in the office over a 6 day week with pay at about 5/- per week. Time off at Tech was to be made up on Saturday afternoons at the board.

1921
The Architects Act was implemented in NSW.
The Associated Architects of Newcastle and District called for a school to be established in Newcastle at the Technical College, Wood Street and Hunter Street. The Associated Architects later became the Newcastle Division of the R.A.I.A. in 1953 and was the single driving force behind the establishment of an architecture school in Newcastle. That pattern of support was to repeat over the many decades that followed.

1924
The first Roll of Architects was published in NSW. This showed William Dobell, amongst others, as architects registered in New South Wales. Les Reedman’s discovery.

1925
Bill Jeater (Jeater and Rodd) and Nigel Pitt (Pitt and Merewether) were appointed as teachers of the Sydney Technical College course in Newcastle.

1928
Years 1 and 2 of the Tech College course were underway.
32 students enrolled.

Bob Lees (Lees and Valentine) enrolled and was employed by Pender and Lee. He paid £100 to be articled. He received 5/- per week in Year 1 and an increase of 2/6 in Year 2. This meant an increase of 50% each year, for the 4 years of his indentureship. Who can get an employer to give a 50% rise each year in today’s economy. Who can get parents to pay for their kids’ employment!
Others in 1928 included Max Hoskings, Max Pilgrim, Frank Rodd, Norm Parkinson and Frank Scorer all well known names in the Newcastle profession.

1932
11 students were enrolled.

1933
First Newcastle qualifications were conferred on Norm Parkinson, Frank Rodd, Frank Scorer, Merv Smith as well as B A Litchfield. Total: 5 diplomats.

1935
2 students were enrolled. Things looked grim.

1937
1 student was enrolled. Was the end of the profession close?

1939
Nigel Pitt retired from teaching.
Bill Jeater went into active war service.
Enrolled students included Syd Morton, Rowan Pitt and Norm Valentine in 1940.

1942
0 students were enrolled as all had entered active military service or essential industry.
Assigned to essential engineering industry, Syd Morton completed his engineering course at Newcastle Tech before returning to Architecture in 1946.

1946
7 students were enrolled included Syd Morton, Tim Mayo, Rowan (Posh) Pitt and Norm Valentine.

1947
9 students commenced Year 1 including Ross Deamer, Don McKenzie, Bill Benson.

1948
No students commenced and those interested had to wait until at least 3 could be found to form a class.

1949
5 students commenced including Boyd Atkinson, Mal Ebbeck and Don Morris.
Morton Herman began his long association with the school by travelling from Sydney one day each week to hold lectures, field trips and Design Studios.

1951
Bob Armstrong enrolled to ensure that there were at least 3 starters including Bob Scorer and Laurence Kubany who was already qualified but did not have the papers from Hungary to prove it. They arrived just as he finished the course.
Newcastle University College was established but taught only Arts under James Auchmuty.
The Architecture programme was taken over by the NSW University of Technology but offered only diplomas in Architecture. Degrees were not popular in the 1950s and were not offered in Newcastle.

1953
The school was variably administered by Morton Herman and Frank Sanderson. Both taught at the school until well into the 1970s.

1957
Eric and Ruth Parker arrived in Newcastle and Eric became the first full time teacher and lecturer in charge.

1958
First degree in Architecture available in Newcastle. Diploma course continued.
NSW University of Technology became the University of New South Wales but kept ownership of Newcastle College. Enrolment in diploma courses ended.

1960
First woman to enrol was Barbara Miller.

1961
Les Redman completed the first conversion programme from diploma to degree.
Don Morris joined the staff of the school as the first locally trained architect to enter academia. He came from Rodd and Hay’s office.

1962
Brian Suters won the first University Medal awarded to a Newcastle architecture student.
20 full time students were enrolled in the B Arch course.
16 were part time students.
9 were still enrolled in the diploma.

1963
The school doubled in size when 22 students enrolled in Year 1, full time. Space was at a premium in the W. E. Clegg building at Tighe’s Hill.

1964
Eric Parker took on the establishment to ensure Architecture was a foundation faculty of the new University and that it had the same status as the “intellectual” disciplines. This was against considerable opposition which resisted professional disciplines being in a University – properly a place of learning.
Today, the establishment is founded on its professional disciplines such as Architecture, Engineering, Medicine, Law and Nursing.

1965
The autonomous University of Newcastle was established.
Frederick Romberg was appointed foundation Professor of Architecture and set up a his “small prestige school of architecture”.
Eric Parker became the University Planner and continued to teach Professional Practice.

1966
First woman to graduate in Newcastle was Sue Park.
6 students graduated.

1967
38 Newcastle students had completed a diploma between 1954 and 1967.
2 students graduated with a B Arch.

1969
There were 50 full time students and 7 full time staff members. The best staff/student ratio ever known at 1:7.

1972
The school was closed by student boycotts and major restructuring of the academic programmes commenced.

1974
Eric Parker was appointed 2nd Professor of Architecture a year before Frederick Romberg’s retirement in August 1975.
Calm returned and the school began to reconsolidate.
A typical Year 1 intake was 45 students. 13 graduated that year.

1978
The computer age dawned in the school. There was computer-based word processing, computer modelling of acoustics, lighting and thermal dynamics as well as the early attempts at computer graphics. Desk-top computers with in-built printers were purchased but soon upgraded.

1984
Barry Maitland was appointed as the 3rd Professor of Architecture after Eric Parker’s retirement.
The introduction of an untried and unique course in Architecture occurred. It was called Integrated Problem Based Learning.
This took the “small prestige school of architecture” from being a tiny regional school to being an internationally recognised centre considered one of the best in the world.

1990
The Department of Building was established with the appointment of Professor Denny McGeorge. There remained 1 department until 1994 when 2 came into being. Architecture and Building.

1999
The new Faculty of Architecture, Building and Design was established. It contained 40 full time staff and almost 1000 students.

2000
280 students were enrolled in the Architecture course.
72 students in Year 1, 49 graduated B Arch

2001
Semesterisation of all subjects occurred. Subjects became programmes.
Courses became subjects, thanks to American management software.

2002
Dr Michael Ostwald was appointed as the 4th Professor of Architecture. He is a graduate of the Newcastle school.

2003
Full re-accreditation by the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia (AACA), the Architects Registration Board of NSW (ARB) and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA). The programs were also the first in the world to be assessed for accreditation by the International Union of Architects (UIA).

2006
Full Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) accreditation. Professor Steffen Lehmann appointed to the newly established Industry funded Chair in Architectural Design.

2007
Full re-accreditation by the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia (A.A.C.A), the Architects Registration Board of NSW (A.R.B.) and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (R.A.I..A.).

2008
Professor Steffen Lehmann was appointed to the first UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and the Pacific.

2009
Several appointments of senior academic staff from commercial practice were made to re-profile the professional programme in Architecture.

2010
The Eric Parker Travelling Scholarship was renamed The Parker Fellowship.
The story continues . . .

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