AJC last month celebrated its 70th birthday alongside esteemed guests, team members, clients and friends, toasting a “proud history and a bright future,” in the words of Director Michael Heenan.
Heenan paid tribute to Founders John Allen, Russell Jack and Keith Cottier for their work in laying the foundations for what has become one of Australia’s foremost architectural practices. He says the company has thrived under their vision and leadership.
“With 60 architectural awards and counting by the time of founder John Allen’s retirement in 1993, including the coveted Sir John Sulman Award for Public Architecture, the Professor Leslie Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture, the Francis Greenway Award for heritage, and the Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design,” he says.
Directors John Whittingham (Sports & Community), Brian Mariotti (Multi-Residential & Mixed use), Dua Green (Education), and Duncan Corrigall (Urban Design) all stepped up to speak of great partnerships and client collaborations to a crowd of over 100, including Australia’s only Pritzker Prize winner Glenn Murcutt AO. A closing address by Co-Founder Keith Cottier reflected on the night and work of AJC, praising relationships with other built environment professionals that have assisted in the practice’s growth.
The evening was held in the Dining Room of the H C Coombs Centre for Financial Studies, a seminal project for AJC completed in 1985. Commissioned by the Reserve Bank to create new off-site staff training spaces, the practice created accommodation within the site’s Federation house for workers to utilise when needed.
Over 30 years later, the Reserve Bank came back to AJC for a major upgrade, completed in 2021, expanding the centre’s capacity as a business events venue and shining a light on the legacy of its namesake, H C Coombs – a patron of First Nations Australians – through material and artwork curation.
