STORY - "Caught in the Web of Architecture"

“So what do you want to be?” said a father to his twelve year old. Having already given this some thought, the boy was able to answer fairly easily, “I’d like to be an architect.” His father’s reply was, “Well, you’d better do something about it”.
So it was at the ripe old age of twelve that Barney Collins began work in an architect’s office. He is now one of the directors of EJE Architecture in Newcastle.

How did that early ‘apprenticeship’ begin? Well, there were hours after school, time at weekends and school holidays when he could be introduced to many of the basic skills of drawing, drafting, colouring and plan printing – and this long before computers did the bulk of such work.

An early career influence on Barney was the experience of watching his father’s skill with his hands and wondering how he could improve on his methods! With the encouragement of his art teacher at Marist Brothers Hamilton he pursued Art and Technical Drawing, with additional lessons at Hamilton Evening College.

Barney has an unchallenged claim to be the first student from Marist Brothers to sit and pass Art in the Higher School Certificate. He admits to being a less than great achiever at Mathematics but was relieved to find that this was not a disadvantage in studying Architecture. He found Architecture at Newcastle University very much according to his hopes, and then proceeded to his Masters degree at Sydney University.

Proposal echoed earlier plan
You may recall a newspaper article concerning the “Stairway to Heaven” project, which Barney had developed as a possibility for the centre of Newcastle. The vision foresaw a giant stairway climbing several levels from Hunter Street up to Christ Church Cathedral. Unfortunately, with the intended restructure of those central city blocks, this project could not come to fruition. Interestingly, original surveyor Mr Dangar’s earliest plans for Newcastle envisaged the cathedral overlooking a Market Square, a plan long lost to other developments in that area.

Barney’s informed reflections on other aspects of the architecture of Newcastle are valuable. He believes that “The city is for the people,” and so finds some developments less than appropriate. Markets in the Mall were a mistake, he believes, in that they took space from what should have been a pedestrian precinct. He feels that the preservation of old buildings is not always a valuable function. He argues strongly that mere age is not sufficient reason for preservation. Nevertheless, the preservation of facades of some older buildings is worthwhile, since quite substantial and valuable buildings may be built behind them. Barney sees how fine a line must be argued over what is and isn’t preserved - but he feels strongly that such a building as the old Post Office should remain.

Earthquake not all bad news
Barney sees the 1989 earthquake as a real source of renewed energy in building and reminds me that some such occurrence happens every sixty or so years in this area. That none of the city centre’s main buildings was seriously affected was largely due to the Mines Subsidence Board’s insistence that before construction in the vicinity of a mine site can proceed, the mine must be filled with concrete. This may involve hundreds of thousands of dollars and makes developers’ pleas for extra height in their buildings understandable.

Barney holds many and varied hopes for the future of the city. Since EJE Architecture was one of the developing companies involved with Honeysuckle, he is pleased with the success of that rejuvenation. One of his dreams is for the construction of a tunnel from Carrington to Stockton, which would have an enormous effect on traffic flow north.

As for the rail corridor, Barney would argue for its retention with light rail being the final link. He regrets that our connections to Sydney are so limited; once one could travel by train from Cessnock to Central, while at present a serious accident on the F3 can paralyse the traffic flow. He even speaks of a ‘spider web’ with its multiple connections as being a worthwhile model to keep in mind…

Barney Collins continues to enjoy a very fulfilling career. Although he finds it disappointing that a project’s outcome is often a ‘watered down’ version of what the architect dreamed, he hopes that people may become more willing to “allow things to happen without tempering them to mediocrity” and remember that “God is in the details”.

Br Gerard Williams FMS

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