Eric Daniels (1924–) was born in Sydney, served as a sub-lieutenant in the Navy during the Second World War and graduated from Sydney Technical College in 1949, also registering with the NSW Board of Architects and joining the RAIA that year. He had been working since 1946 as a trainee with the NSW Government Architects Office. In 1951, after travels to Europe and London, where he worked with Raglin Squire, he joined Sydney Technical College as a lecturer, and continued his career there after it was renamed the University of Technology and later the University of NSW. From 1952 to 1959, he was an associate with Clifford Johnson and Colin Smith – working alongside John Andrews, Peter Kollar, Eric Parker and Peter Smith at various times. In 1961, he was appointed a senior lecturer; in 1964, he gained an M.Arch; in 1968, he became an associate professor, then professor in 1973 and head of the school of architecture, 1980-84. His overseas appointments included visiting lecturer with Bristol University, 1966; visiting critic at Colombia University, 1967; design tutor at Pennsylvania University, 1967; visiting scholar at MIT, 1967, and visiting professor at California Polytechnic State University, 1974. From 1976 to 1978, he was president of the NSW RAIA and he later served terms as a Councillor of the National Trust, 1976-1978; a councillor of the Sydney College of Advanced Education, 1984-85; A councillor of the Alexander Mackey College of Advanced Education, 1973; Chair of the Board of the City Art Institute, 1974-1975; Chair of the Advisory Committee to the Queensland Institute of Technology in the late 1970s. In 1985, he retired from the University of NSW as Emeritus Professor, retaining a continuing role as the university’s Mace Bearer. He was awarded one of the university’s 50th anniversary commemorative medals in 1999 and his name is given to a student prize for residential design. From 1981 to 1987, he was an expert witness in 10 planning appeal cases and was a consultant on architecture and civic design.
Projects included a competition scheme for the Sydney Opera House (with Cliff Johnson), 1954; the Daniels house, Nicholson Avenue, Thornleigh, 1954; the Schliemann house, 8 Waratah Street, Denistone, 1959; the White house, Nicholson Avenue, Thornleigh, 1962; the Ness house, Lot 5 Wolseley Road, Coogee, 1964; the Steward house, Lot 21 Bambara Crescent, Beecroft, 1965; the Congregational Church, Great Western Highway, Lawson, 1965, and various residential alterations and additions.
Sources
—Daniels, Eric. 2005. Notes prepared for Davina Jackson, February.
—Johnson, Paul Alan and Susan Lorne. Since 1996. Interview for the University of NSW’s Architects of the Middle Third program.
—Information Australia. 1995. Who’s Who in Australia, 31st edition. Melbourne: Information Australia.
- Writers:
-
Davina Jackson
- Date written:
- 2015
- Last updated:
- 2015
