Arthur Baldwinson

Modernist architect Arthur Norman Baldwinson (1908-1969) designed houses for many artists and prominent individuals in the North Shore and across Sydney. His designs included a house for graphic designer and artist Douglas Annand (1903-1976) and his wife Maida, for a wild site on Lady Game Drive, Killara, in 1949. A studio was later added in 1963.

Annand made his artistic mark on the new home, adding murals and graffito drawings to the interior and exterior of the house. He would regularly host large dinner parties, inviting his artist friends (including Russell Drysdale, Donald Friend and Lloyd Rees) who famously decorated the toilet door with their drawings as a memento of their get-togethers. 

Baldwinson’s designs took full advantage of the beautiful, natural setting of his North Shore locations. The wild, rocky terrain of some of the sites however made building work difficult.

The house he designed in 1957 for Geelum Simpson Lee, a Dean of Economics at Sydney University, is thought to represent the culmination of many of the modernist concepts Baldwinson was developing in his residential design during the period. The house, built in a densely wooded block in Wahroonga, is still owned by the family and is largely unaltered.

Living Room & North Facade, House for Douglas Annand, Killara, 1949, by Arthur Norman Baldwinson. Architectural plan. PXD 356 f. 1531

> Learn more about architect Arthur Baldwinson and the arrival of modernism 

> Search the Library's catalogue for more collections relating to Arthur Baldwinson