Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin

Walter Burley Griffin, architect, and Marion Mahony Griffin, delineator, G.B. Cooley Dwelling, Monroe, Louisiana, 1910 (built 1926), pen and black ink and brown ink over graphite. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, 1985.1.112.

Among the diverse holdings of Northwestern's Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art are 120 original drawings by architects Marion Mahony Griffin and Walter Burley Griffin. Marion was the second woman to graduate with a degree in architecture from MIT and the first woman licensed to practice architecture in Illinois. For 14 years, she worked alongside Frank Lloyd Wright as his chief draftsperson and designer, before marrying Walter, a fellow Prairie School architect from Wright's office. Together, Marion and Walter embarked on a career designing many homes in the mid-west. In 1914 their career gained international status after winning the competition to design the Australian capital of Canberra.

In 1950, Marion donated works from the Griffin collection to Northwestern's art department. These objects were among the first works transferred to the Block when it opened in 1980. Ranging from elegant architectural presentation drawings, schematics and floor plans to rich botanical studies, the Block Museum's Griffin collection constitutes one of the largest American public archives of their work, a distinction that is shared with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University.

Click on the picture to see selected works by the Griffins in the Block collection. (Requires Adobe Flash Player)

Click here to watch a story on the Griffins from WTTW's Chicago Tonight program featuring Block Museum senior curator Debora Wood.

The catalogue from the 2005 Block exhibition Marion Mahony Griffin: Drawing the Form of Nature is available through Block in Print, the Museum's gift shop. Work by the Griffins is currently not on display at the Museum. However, you may make an appointment to view works by the Griffins from the Block's collection. To do so, please contact eniors curator Debora Wood at 847.491.8016.