Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

,. I -- -- 8 March 19 8 3 The Courier-Mai 1 Tribute to a top architect THE INAUGURAL Gertrude Langer Lecture, organised by the Queensland Art Gal• lery Society on Sunday, had appropriately as its subject, the life and works of the late Dr Karl Langer. Ian Sinnamon, head of the Department of Architecture, University of Queensland, gave the lecture. Most people would remem• ber Dr Langer for his designs of Lennon's Broadbeach Hotel (mid 50s) and the Main Roads Department in Spring Hill in 1965. However, he achieved inter– national fame much earlier than this, in fact soon after he qualified in Vienna in 1926. His artistic talents helped him to explain easily his design ideas which were based on a much wider training than ar– chitects receive today. II also hel~ him in the many com– petitions he entered. The late DR KARL LANGER In I934 he started his own practice in Vienna having wed Gertrude in 1932 and gained his Ph.D. with her in 1933. The famous firm of Peter Behrens took him on as chief designer in 1928, the firm that also had Mies Vandcr Rohe, Le Corbusier and Richard Neutra on the staff. . Behrens went on to ingritiate himself with Hitler and the Langers subsequently moved to Australia. At lirst Dr !anger could find work only as a draftsman with the Queensland Railways De– partment, but gradually his tal– ents were used in lecturing, cli– mate studies and designing a few houses. In a curious twist of fate, he was appointed to the Brisbane ; City Council's town planning department under Lord Mayor Sir John Chandler but was refused permission by the Queensland Railways Depart· ment to take up the job until : 1946. ~ Dr Langcr's enormous tal• ;· ents were soon recognised, and ~ he went on to advise on the ~ town plans for Perth, Mackay 1 Sydney and Woden Centre irJ Canberra for the N.C.D.C. Way ahead of his time, h1 urged a greater use of the Bris ' bane River and published vi sionary sketches of how Anza and King George Squares coul, be, and arc, developed. Some of his better known de signs were for the Mackay Su1 ar Laboratories Chapel. Probably his most spectac1 lar design was for St John' Church in Bundaberg with i massive facadc psalm-lctterit and fanciful textured bricl work. - JAMES R. STEWAll \ ,