Bruce Rickard b. 1 December 1929

  • Architect
Bruce Rickard (1929-2010) was a Sydney and US-educated architect who created some of Sydney's outstanding 'organic' houses (mainly timber and brick) from the late 1950s to the 1990s. He was insprired by Frank Lloyd Wright's principles of harmony between buildings and landscapes. Rickard also designed furniture suites for selected domestic commissions.

Bruce Rickard (1929–) graduated with a Diploma of Architecture from the Sydney Technical College in 1953 and worked for H. Ruskin Rowe from 1947 to 1949, Sydney Ancher from 1949 to 1954, and Fowell Mansfield and McLurcan, 1952, before setting up a private practice designing houses. In 1954, he went to Britain to study landscape architecture at the University College, London, then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was taught by Ian McHaag. During his time overseas, he worked as an assistant with Wallis Gilbert & Partners, London (1954-55) and, in Philadelphia, Garner and White (1956), George Patton (1956), Haberson, Hough, Livingston and Larson (1957). He graduated with a Master of Landscape Architecture in 1957 and returned to Sydney in 1958. While studying town planning and lecturing part-time in architecture at the University of Sydney, he began promoting and interpreting the Usonian architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. In practice as Bruce Rickard & Associates, he has designed many houses, medium-density housing, car wash facilities, gardens and four youth refuges. From 1962 to 1972 and 1974-1976, he was a part-time tutor at the University of NSW.
Sources
—Emmanuel, Muriel. 1980 and subsequent editions. Contemporary Architects. London: Macmillan.
—Bruce Rickard’s project listing compiled for a 2004 RAIA bus tour of several of his north shore houses.
—Taylor, Jennifer. 1990. Australian Architecture Since 1960. Canberra: Royal Australian Institute of Architects.

Writers:

Davina Jackson
Date written:
2015
Last updated:
2015