Eric Nicholls’ Life and Work with the Griffins

Episode 1

Genre:                 Mini series documentary

Duration:             58.56 minutes

Synopsis:             A biography of Eric Milton Nicholls (1902-1965), Australian architect who became partner with renowned American architects Walter and Marion Griffin in Australia.

Director:              Glen McClelland B.Sc. B. Arch.

Producer:            Marie Nicholls B.Arch.

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Episode one delves into Eric Nicholls early career, and we follow him growing up in the rural town of Linton in Victoria, Australia, where his father, Edgar Nicholls, and mother, Henrietta Beament, owned the local general store. Edgar was a lay preacher for 20 years, and Eric’s parents imagined he would continue this Wesleyan religion.

After the family moves to the suburb of Kew, Melbourne, Eric commences technical drawing at the Swinburne Technical College Kew and his parents supported his articled internship and training under the British firm Haddon & Henderson Architects & Engineers. This was during world war one and Edgar unexpectedly passes away, Eric only seventeen.

Through the fellowship of the Church in Kew, we are introduced to Molly, who becomes Eric’s lifelong partner, and they marry in 1928. Meanwhile Walter Burley Griffin and his wife and professional partner Marion Mahony Griffin were busily setting up the Greater Sydney Development Association (GSDA) in Castlecrag. The GSDA was a complex new virgin Greenfield foreshore subdivision with majestic Sydney Harbour and natural bush views and speculation houses not seen before in Sydney for a group of shareholders. One of the Griffin homes in Castlecrag, “The Moon House,” was purchased by the Nicholls and became their Sydney home and the home of their daughter Marie Nicholls, the story's narrator.

Marie, compelled to tell her father’s story she never got to hear and became interested in finding out about her father’s accomplishments before she was born, has prepared this documentary with her son Glen McClelland.

 

The Young Men’s Bible Study Group in Kew, Melbourne was Eric’s first designed building with unique furniture. It is here we find a connection with Eric’s uncle and renowned landscape painter James Beament who painted local landscape scenes onto the four interior gables in 1921.

Eric finds new employment with Walter Burley Griffin’s Melbourne firm and works on The Capitol Theatre drawings, now owned by RMIT, and designs the Joseph Lyddy Polish Manufacturers factory (1922-1923). Walter designs his office at St. Kilda, a beachside suburb of Melbourne, where Eric becomes a partner of the firm in 1923. This partnership was also known as the Reciprocal Co-operative Agreement. Eric passed his Victorian Architects registration that same year. Eric and Molly took to skiing at Mt. Buffalo.

Leonard House, for Leonard Kanevsky, later became Griffin’s office between 1924 and 1942. The Griffin-designed Leonard House incorporated the first curtain wall in an office building in Australia.

Beament House, Kew, was built in 1924, the same year the Griffins returned to the US for 3 months, and is listed on the National Trust. Marie considers the design and construction of this building, while done in the Griffin office, should be attributed to Eric Nicholls, as James Beament was his uncle.

Langi Flats, Toorak 1924, involved both Walter and Eric design and site supervision. Marie has interviewed who was working in the office at the time and said Eric had done the design.

In 1925, the Griffins having moved to Sydney chose Eric to be in charge of the Melbourne office.

Mullion residence, Toorak 1927-1928 is a gem of Eric’s rustic prairie style.

Eric and Molly’s own designed new home, North Baldwin, 1928. The design somewhat imitates Eric’s mentor Walter Burley Griffin’s stylistic design at the time, now demolished.

Clendon Lodge Toorak Vic. This building having been sighted as produced in the Griffin office with the Heritage Council, has now been contributed to Eric Nicholls as the main designer.

Essendon Incinerator 1929 marks a turning point for Eric’s career as only his name is seen on the drawings. It was also the time of the great depression and there was little work around. Griffin offered Eric full partnership, and we see Eric’s name used alongside Griffins on the drawings produced in the office from this point onwards.

Herborn House, East Hawthorn 1929 was the synergy of Eric’s building design and Molly’s landscaping plan. Marie interviews Professor Philip Goad, head of Melbourne school of design and owner. Marion returns to US for almost two years. Around this period the Nicholls family move to Sydney at the request of Walter.

YMCA Camp Manyung, Vic. 1931, Eric, having led the young men’s Bible study group with Ivor Burge attending. Ivor Burge, who later became a YMCA leader by studying in America, introduced basketball to Australia upon his return. Ivor asked Eric to design a cabin module and outdoor chapel, reflecting on his Bible study days with Eric. Marie interviews renowned historian of the Griffins and author Peter Navaretti.

Anthroposophy became the driving force for Eric in his later life, introduced to the Nicholls by Marion Mahoney Griffin in the early 1930s.

Marion’s Haven amphitheatre in Castlecrag (1934) was originally for plays put on by the Anthroposophical Society. The plays drew on a wide Sydney audience.

Eric studied Rudolf Steiner and was part of the St John’s Group, Sydney, later becoming the General Secretary. This led Eric to help set up the first Rudolf Steiner School in Gordon, and then the school moved to Middle Cove. Developments from Anthroposophy included eurythmy, biodynamics, Inala, Weleda products, and more. Eric designs the Williams home in Castle Cove, now considered the birthplace for biodynamic agriculture, a precursor to organic farming.