Professor Jennifer Taylor b. 1935

  • Academic/Author/Historian
Professor Jennifer Taylor (1933-) was a leading teacher of architectural history at the University of Sydney, then University of Queensland, and the author of the first notable books and articles summarising Australian and Sydney architecture during the 1950s and 1960s.

Jennifer Taylor (1935–2015) born in Sydney, educated at schools in Queensland, studied nursing in Sydney. After leaving Sydney for the United Kingdom in 1957, she studied architecture for 18 months at Headington Polytechnic, Oxford, then completed her B.Arch degree (cum laude) at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1967; winning the AIA Gold Medal for best student. Two years later, she gained her M.Arch in architectural history from the same university, then returned to Australia in 1969 to take up a teaching contract with the University of Sydney. She became a senior lecturer in 1980 and Associate Professor in 1983. Although only linked to the Sydney School during the early 1970s, she is the first scholar to research and write about post-war Sydney architecture as an entity known as ‘the Sydney school’. Her key books include An Australian Identity: Sydney Houses 1953-63, Sydney: University of Sydney, 1972, and Australian Architecture Since 1960. Canberra: RAIA, 1990. She has written numerous articles on Sydney architecture for Architecture Australia, Transition and Architectural Theory Review, along with other journals. She won Japan Foundation Professional Fellowships in 1975 and 1994, then an Australia Council research grant in 1980; a University of California Pan Pacific Exchange Fellowship in 1991, and an Australian International Development Grant (with Adrian Snodgrass) in 1995. She has been on numerous juries for RAIA architecture awards and has been a visiting professor with numerous international schools of architecture and at various conferences. She is a member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics, the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the Art Association of Australia and many other organisations. She was a Life Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. In 1998, she won the inaugural RAIA Marion Mahony Griffin Award for architectural teaching; in 2001, she won the inaugural RAIA education prize.
Sources
—Taylor, Jennifer. 2004. Conversations recorded by Davina Jackson, November.
—Taylor, Jennifer. 2004. Jennifer Taylor Curriculum Vitae.
Also see:
—Nield, Lawrence and Andrea. 2016. 'Architect and historian Jennifer Taylor encouraged curiosity and creativity.’ The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 January, http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/architect-and-historian-jennifer-taylor-encouraged-curiosity-and-creativity-20160115-gm6hai.html (accessed 5 February 2016).

Writers:

Davina Jackson
Date written:
2015
Last updated:
2016