Tim

1950

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As a ‘third generation’ partner, Tim Shannon played a key role in shaping the design practice HASSELL into an award-winning, international, multidisciplinary collaborative, spanning architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, planning and urban design.

Born in 1950 in Melbourne, Tim is the son of Jon and Joan Shannon. His father worked for the Australian Department of Defence in Adelaide as a rocket scientist. Educated at Saint Andrews Day School and Pulteney Grammar School, he studied architecture at the University of Adelaide and worked part-time as an architectural cadet for the Commonwealth Department of Works, Adelaide (1970–73). Graduating with First Class Honours in 1973, he received the SA Gas Company Prize for coming first in his class. He gained employment in Sydney with Edmund Dykes Coward and Chaplin, Architects and Interior Designers (1973–74). In 1974 he joined Sydney-based firm John Andrews International Architects. Working for Andrews, Australia’s foremost exponent of Brutalism (Drew, 2000), was a major influence on Tim’s practice of architecture.

In 1975, guided by Andrews, Tim commenced a Master’s Degree in Urban Design at the University of Toronto in Canada. He was also awarded an Assistantship with the University’s Dean, Peter Pragnell, who was Andrew’s successor at the University. Assisting Pragnell in the undergraduate first year design studio introduced Tim to the work and teaching of Aldo van Eyck, Le Corbusier, and later Louis Kahn.

On completion of his Degree in 1976, Tim moved back to John Andrew’s Sydney office, but after six months, he and his wife Jill returned to Adelaide to be closer to their families. In 1977 an opportunity arose for Tim at Hassell and Partners. The firm was established in 1938 as Claridge, Hassell & McConnell when Jack McConnell and Colin Hassell joined Philip Claridge’s architectural practice. It later became Hassell McConnell & Partners. In 1970, John Morphett, a ‘second generation’ partner of the firm, spearheaded the introduction of new concepts focusing on a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to design. Morphett had acquired these ideas through his Master’s Degree studies at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and working with prominent modernist Walter Gropius at TAC (The Architects Collaborative) in the United States of America from 1956 to 1961 (Morphett, 2010; Cosgrove, 2012: 92; Cosgrove, 2014: 267, 275). The firm was renamed after founding partner, Colin Hassell, who supported Morphett’s proposals and, as Managing Director, steered their implementation. This Bauhaus influence would continue to fuel Hassell and Partners’ development over the next three decades, transforming the firm from a conservative partnership into a design collaborative (Shannon, 2018).

In 1983 Tim became a Director of the firm, by then named Hassell Architects, Interior Designers, Landscape Architects. Impressed with Tim’s performance, Morphett, by then Managing Director, suggested he move to Melbourne, where the firm had been lagging since the departure in 1970 of Jack McConnell, one of the founding partners, who originated from Melbourne. Tim was on the design proposal team that worked on the firm’s winning entry in 1984 in a competition for Melbourne Central, a major commercial project that ‘put us on the map in Melbourne’ (Morphett, 2010).

By 1990, to strengthen the viability and stability of the firm, Hassell’s Directors had realigned it to become a single entity. Known as the Hassell Group, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Auckland, it comprised four design disciplines, which, although owned by the parent corporation, operated independently: Hassell Architects; Hassell Planning Consultants Pty Ltd; Land Systems EBC Pty Ltd; and Hassell Interiors.

On the strength of the Melbourne Central experience, Hassell Architects in Melbourne, with Tim as Director, became favoured for working on projects in association with other firms. For example, in 1992, in association with Daryl Jackson Pty Ltd, Hassell completed an award-winning 54-level office tower at 120 Collins Street. Working with other design firms in this way enabled Hassell to expand its client base. Together with its collaborative team approach, and spreading its location, this method distinguished Hassell as a ‘new breed’ of architectural practice in Australia, later followed by two other firms originating in Adelaide: Woodhead Australia and Woods Bagot (‘Hassell Architects’, 1990: 45–47).

Tim succeeded John Morphett as Managing Director of Hassell in 1993 and continued to drive the firm on the basis of the collaborative multidisciplinary approach engendered by John (Morphett, 2010). Through a combination of Tim’s and John’s leadership, the practice expanded significantly, particularly due to the increase in major commercial and institutional commissions in Melbourne (Powell, 2003:16–17).

In 1994 Tim initiated a significant restructure of the firm, bringing the four disciplines that had been operating as separate companies into a unified group under one management. To set up the transition, Tim hired Geoff Collinson from Coopers and Lybrand Accountants. There was concern among the landscape section that they would no longer obtain work through other architects once they were again identified with HASSELL architects (Hassell, 2010). However, the greatest challenge was the progressive implementation of cultural change, which meant overcoming inter-professional jealousies, a task for which Tim engaged industrial psychologist and change management specialist, Clint Whyte.

The transformation necessitated the difficult process of replacing a number of senior people with others better suited to the firm’s new aspirations. Selecting HASSELL as the new name, Tim employed the renowned graphic designer, Garry Emery, to develop a marketing design for the new model in modernist orange, reflecting the Bauhaus collaboration model. Implemented in 1995, the restructure led to the firm’s transformation from a partnership to a collaborative model. It was facilitated by the success of the Melbourne office, the firm’s mainstay through the 1980s and 1990s, both commercially and through its growing reputation.

To gather evidence of the design collaborative as a successful model for architectural practice, in 1995 Tim undertook a tour of design studios in Europe and the UK, including those of Alfa Romeo, Braun, Foster and Partners, Philips, and Pentagram. This led to HASSELL’s ambition to compete internationally, requiring, in addition to Melbourne, a strong presence in Sydney, which took some years to achieve (Shannon, 2018). HASSELL opened its first permanent international office in Hong Kong in 1991. It also opened offices in Brisbane (1993), Bangkok (1995), Shanghai (2003) and Perth, Western Australia (2004).

Tim’s career spanned a variety of design commissions. In his early years at Hassell and Partners, Tim became involved in law court design when the practice won a commission for the Sir Samuel Way Courts in Victoria Square, Adelaide (1980–83). Awarding this type of commission to a private practice, instead of the state government, was unusual (Shannon, 2018). Before working on the design, Tim participated in a study tour of Australian law courts in 1980. The project, entailing the conversion of the early 1900s Charles Moore department store, incorporated a central atrium and a dome for light and ventilation, whilst retaining its original grand marble staircase; in 1984 it received a RAIA (SA) Commendation Award. The design modernised the contemporary approach to Court House design in Australia and was a bench mark for court house design for the next twenty years.

Continuing in law court design, Tim led the design team for the Commonwealth Law Courts in Melbourne (1995–98), presenting the concept design at an American Institute of Architects Court House Design Biennial Conference at San Francisco in 1995. Comprising 42 court and hearing rooms and 60 chambers for the High Court, the Federal Court, the Family Court and the former Industrial Relations Court, sustainability was again a feature, with the central atrium providing natural light. The project won a number of awards for architecture, urban design, interior design, and landscape architecture. A landmark achievement in gaining peer recognition of a successful design collaborative, it was Tim’s most fulfilling project (Shannon, 2018).

Tim also led the design team for the award-winning Roma Mitchell Commonwealth Law Courts in Adelaide (2000–05). In 2003 he presented a paper, ‘The influence of the Australian landscape on court house design’, to the Australian Law Court Design Conference in Canberra. The Chief Justice of the Federal Court asked him to personally undertake the design of the Federal Court of Australia’s Ceremonial Court Room, Sydney (2008–09).

Airport design was another area in which Tim specialised, participating in a study tour of international airport passenger terminals in 1993. He was project leader for the International Airport Passenger Terminal in Christchurch, New Zealand (1995–98) in collaboration with Sheppard & Rout, and also for the award-winning projects: QANTAS Domestic Passenger Terminal, Sydney (1992–99), and the Melbourne International Airport Terminal redevelopment (1997).

Some of Tim’s other major Melbourne projects include joint ventures: he led the architectural and interior design teams for the award-winning St Vincent’s Public Hospital redevelopment (1991–95), collaborating with specialist health planner, Geoff Driscoll; he also led these teams, together with a consortium known as MCG5, for the Northern Stand redevelopment (2001–06) at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground).

In addition to his assistantship in First Year Design Studio at the University of Toronto’s Architecture School (1975–76), Tim had teaching appointments while at HASSELL, as a tutor in Final Year Design Studio at the University of Adelaide (1976–83) and at the University of Melbourne (1985–92). He chaired the RAIA (Vic) Awards Jury in the category ‘Institutional New’ in 1985 and in 2003. In 1980 he was invited to present the Sir Samuel Way law court design to the RAIA National Next Wave Conference in Canberra. In 1982, together with a select group of young Australian architects, he was invited to submit his design proposal for the ‘completion of an historic Sydney house’ to the RAIA National Conference in Sydney.

During his time as Managing Director of HASSELL, Tim led the practice from having some two hundred staff located across four Australian offices, to some one thousand staff located across thirteen Australasian and Chinese offices. He remained Managing Director until 2008 and left the firm in 2009, having worked there for 32 years, including 15 as Managing Director. In July 2009, wishing to continue his career without the strain of his position as HASSELL’s Managing Director, he established his own practice, Tim Shannon, Architecture, Urban Design.

In 2010 Tim became a Director of the building and construction company, Hansen Yuncken. He was a Board member of the state government-owned development agency, Places Victoria (2011–2013) and a director of the Australian Tapestry Workshop (2008–2012). In 2013 he commenced a four-year term as Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. He was appointed to the Board of Billard Leece Partnership, architects in 2015.

Tim’s wife, Jill, has been an important influence on his work, providing inspiration through her visual arts studies. Tim and Jill have three children, Benjamin, Nicholas and Emily.

Caroline Cosgrove

Citation details
Cosgrove, Caroline, 'Shannon, Tim', Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2018, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=154]

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Honours), University of Adelaide, 1973
Master of Architecture (Urban Design), University of Toronto, 1976
Study tours:
Australian law courts, 1980
International airport passenger terminals, 1993
European and North American International Design Houses, 1995

WORK
Architectural Cadet, Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Works, Adelaide, 1970–73
Edmund Dykes Coward and Chaplin, Architects and Interior Designers, Sydney, 1973–74
John Andrews International, Architects, Sydney, 1974–75, 1976
Hassell and Partners, Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects, Adelaide, 1976–83
HASSELL, Architects, Interior Designers, Planners, Landscape Architects, Melbourne, 1983–2009
A Director of HASSELL, 1983–2009
Managing Director of HASSELL, 1993–2008
Architectural consultant (sole practitioner): Tim Shannon, Architecture, Urban Design, 2009–

PROFESSIONAL
RAIA (now Australian Institute of Architects) member since 1977; appointed Fellow of AIA, 2015;
Chair, RAIA Award Jury: Institutional New, 1985 and 2013;
Director, Hansen Yuncken, 2010– ;
Board member, Places Victoria (Victorian government-owned development agency), 2011–2013;
Director, Billard Leece Partnership, Architects 2015–

ACADEMIC/SCHOLARLY
Professorial Fellow, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, 2013–2017
Compilation, with Professor David Saunders, of article ‘Modern Australian Architecture’ for the Japanese magazine, Process Architecture, Number 22, 1981
A series of 10 Essays on the theme of ‘Delight in Architecture’, published in on-line magazine, The Bass Coast, 2014; these formed the basis of two Master’s Design Studios led by Tim at the Architecture School, Melbourne University, first semester, 2016 and 2017.

PUBLIC PROFILE
Vice President, Cowes Community Committee, 2012-2015; the Committee galvanised community support, resulting in the agreement of Bass Coast Council to fund and implement a much-needed new master plan for the township of Cowes;
Contributor to the Bass Coast Post on-line magazine of essays focused on architecture and urban design.

WORKS
Law courts
Sir Samuel Way Courts in Victoria Square, Adelaide (1980–83); (adaptive reuse):
Award: RAIA (SA) Commendation Award, 1984.
Commonwealth Law Courts, Melbourne (1995–98); RAIA (Vic):
Awards: RAIA (Vic) Award of Merit, Urban Design 2000;
RAIA (Vic) Marion Mahony Award, Interior Architecture, 1999;
RAIA (Vic) Commendation Award, Institutional New, 1999.
AILA National Projects Awards: Project Award of Merit, Design, Public Spaces, 2000.
AILA (Vic and TAS): Awards: Commendation Award, Building Settings, 1999.
Dulux Colour Awards: Winner, Commercial interior, 1999.
Roma Mitchell Commonwealth Law Courts, Adelaide (2000–05):
Awards: RAIA (SA) Commendation Award, New Buildings.
Sydney Ceremonial Court Room, Federal Court of Australia, part of the redevelopment of Sydney’s Queen’s Square Commonwealth Courts, NSW (2008–09)

Airports
QANTAS Domestic Passenger Terminal, Sydney, NSW (1995–99):
Award: RAIA (NSW) Commercial Building Architecture Award, 2000
Melbourne International Airport Terminal redevelopment, Melbourne (1997):
Awards: PCA (Property Council of Australia) (Vic) Awards – Overall Winner, 1997 PCA Awards – Public Buildings Award, 1997
Christchurch International Airport Passenger Terminal, Christchurch, New Zealand; collaboration with Sheppard & Rout (1995–98)

Other
Australian Ballet Centre, Melbourne (1983–88);
Swinburne College of TAFE, Melbourne, Social Services and Learning Centre (1995–98);
Northern Metropolitan College of TAFE, Heidelberg, new campus (1990–98);
Office Tower, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, in association with Daryl Jackson Architects (1992):
Awards: Master Builders association of Victoria, Excellence in Construction Award, Office Accommodation and/or Public Buildings Over $5m, 1994
BOMA Awards – National Award, 1993
BOMA (Vic) Awards –Award, 1993
RAIA (Vic) Award of Merit, Commercial New, 1992
St Vincents Public Hospital redevelopment, Melbourne; joint venture with specialist Health Planner, Geoff Driscoll (1991–95):
Awards: RAIA (Vic) Commendation Award: Institutional New, 1996
Master Plan, Mirvac Yarra’s Edge residential development, Melbourne (2008)
MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) Northern Stand redevelopment; joint venture with Daryl Jackson Architects and others (MCG Group) (2001–06):
Awards: AIA (Vic) Architecture Award for Public Architecture New, 2008
AIA (Vic) National Awards: National Commendation for Public Architecture, 2008

Design and tender competition wins (all led by Tim)
Bourke Junction, Melbourne Docklands, mixed-use commercial development, Vic (2008);
140 William Street, Perth, WA (2007);
Waterfront City, Melbourne Docklands, mixed-use redevelopment, Vic (2002);
Adelaide International Airport, SA (2002);
QANTAS Domestic Passenger Terminal, Sydney, NSW (1995);
Melbourne Central, mixed-use railway/commercial development, Vic (1985)

HASSELL Studio