Jack Denyer Cheesman was born in Adelaide on 2 January 1905 to Henry Cheesman, an accountant with the Adelaide Steamship Company and Margaret Jane (nee Andrew). Jack (his registered birth name) had two brothers, Charles (elder) and Rex (younger). He attended primary school at Rose Park from 1911 to 1918 and then at the Adelaide Technical High School from 1919 to 1921. He also attended St Theodore’s Anglican Church at Rose Park. Jack was a talented sportsman, he enjoyed athletics and golf. He married Catharine Mary Davies (Mollie) daughter of Professor and Mrs E. Harold Davies on 18 November 1933 at Kent Town Methodist Church. They lived at Prospect when first married and had four children, Andrew, John, Robert and Margaret.
Cheesman was an active member of the YMCA since 1932, and was a 1936 Foundation member of the SA Rostrum Public Speaking Club, Foundation President of the SA Apex Club in 1937, and, between 1966 and 1971, a member of the Standing Committee of Synod, of the Church of England, in the Diocese of Adelaide.
Called ‘JDC’ by some who knew him, Cheesman was described by colleague Keith Neighbour as ‘open and friendly’ (Memo Vale 1994: 83) while his son Robert, also an architect, wrote that ‘he painted, he drew, he analysed and rationalised and designed and achieved with influence’ (Memo Vale 1994: 83). Described as ‘an exceptionally energetic and hard-working man’ (Freeland 1971: 263) Cheesman was particularly interested in education and the professionalisation of architecture. He died on 8 July 1994.
From 1922 to 1926 Cheesman studied architecture at the SA School of Mines and Industries and School of Arts. Concurrently, from 1923 to 1926, he worked as an articled pupil for the Architect-in-Chief’s Department under George Gavin Lawson an important influence on some of the younger generation of architects including Cheesman, who was described as one ‘of his brilliant young juniors’ (Obituary, The late George Gavin Lawson 1953: 15). Following his graduation, between 1927 and 1928 Cheesman worked for McMichael and Harris (Cheesman 1981), taking the place of Dean Berry who was travelling overseas at that time. The practice became one of the largest offices of the time (Cheesman 1984) and McMichael was remembered by Cheesman as a ‘friendly “boss” – something of a paternal figure’ (Cheesman 1984).
Cheesman was heavily influenced in his ideas about architecture by the journal Pencil Points and he even wrote to the editor Ralph Reinhold in the United States to organise some work in New York. From 1929 to 1931, Cheesman travelled to the USA, working in the large office of York and Sawyer in New York and studying architecture at the New York University and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design at Atelier Hirons. Without doubt his ‘Beaux-Arts training would have been of great interest to the small, close-knit Adelaide architectural community’ (Collins and Collins 2006: 5). During his time in New York he ‘was able to watch some of the construction of the Empire State Building’ (Page 1986: 162). But due to the Depression he found he had to leave York and Swayer travelling to the U.K. to try to get work but to no avail.
In 1931, following a further six months study and sketching in Europe, where he saw ‘the work of the Moderns in France, Holland and Germany’ (Page 1986: 165) Cheesman returned to Adelaide. He became a partner in the firm of Gavin Lawson and Cheesman in January 1932. In 1933 Cheesman worked for six months at the Department of Works on the working drawings of the Commonwealth Bank in Adelaide (Cheesman 1981) before returning to the partnership.
During World War Two Lawson continued the practice which also represented the practices of Dean W. Berry, and Barrett, Glover and Pointer while their members were on active service. Cheesman worked as Architect-in-Charge of the Drawing Office on the buildings for the Munition factories at both Salisbury and Cheltenham (Freeland 1971: 263). In 1942 Cheesman became the Superintendent Architect and then the Assistant Deputy Director of the Allied Works Council in the Northern Territory based at Darwin from 1943 to 1945 (Cheesman 1981).
The successful collaboration of Lawson and Cheesman continued following the war and expanded in 1946 when they took on another partner, Maurice Doley to become Lawson Cheesman and Doley and practised as both an architectural and engineering practice. Lawson retired in 1952 and in 1954 Keith Neighbour joined Lawson Cheesman Doley and Partners, ‘starting his long association with his great friend Jack Cheesman’ (President’s Medal 1994: 7). In 1956 Keith Neighbour and three of the senior architects, R.A. Brabham, A.L. Brownell and Newell J. Platten were offered and accepted partnerships.
Following the death of Brownell in 1959 the firm, specialising in architecture and town planning, became Cheesman Doley Brabham and Neighbour in 1960 with four senior and six junior partners, with Barnes and Associates as a Structural Engineering firm of which Cheesman acted as a Director. In 1963 the firm established an office in Sydney with Brabham as Director. With the death of Brabham in 1970 the practice became Cheesman Doley Neighbour & Raffen Pty. Ltd. with Doug G. Raffen as Director in charge of the Sydney office. ‘By 1973 the firm employed over 100 people in their Adelaide and Sydney offices. It was the largest architectural firm in South Australia and the third largest in Australia’ (Page 1986: 265).
1973 marked the retirement of Jack Cheesman and Maurice Doley as directors however they continued an association with the firm as special consultants. In 1975 there were seven directors and six associates in the Adelaide office and two directors and two associates in the Sydney office with a branch office opened in Canberra. At this time Cheesman Doley Neighbour and Raffen employed over 100 people in Adelaide and Sydney, including more than 80 technical staff, architects and draughtsmen. In 1979, ‘by amicable arrangement they separated into three new firms’ (Page 1986: 268), Raffen Maron Architects, Haddrick, Harris & Wyman and KMH Neighbour & Lapsys Architects Pty. Ltd.
Cheesman was an extremely active member of Institutes of Architects. He joined the South Australian Institute of Architects (SAIA) in 1926 as an Associate and became a Fellow in 1939. He was a member of the SAIA Council from 1932 to 1952 during which time he was Treasurer in 1932 and Honorary Secretary from 1937 to 1940 when he was active in initiating regular lunches for members with prominent speakers. During his time with the SAIA Cheesman started the SAIA Quarterly Bulletin in 1945, a regular publication detailing the institute’s activities (Freeland 1971: 263). Cheesman was elected President of the SAIA in 1945 serving in this role until 1947. In 1950 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Cheesman was behind the SAIA initiative to create the Small Homes Service of South Australia (SHS). The dissemination of this idea spread to Australia from such a scheme operating in the USA, and despite having difficulty gaining support for the service initially, by 1953 the SHS was up and running. The aims of the SHS were to provide designs of houses by South Australian architects to the public for a nominal fee. Articles were published in the weekend newspaper as well as in brochures which showed the plans of houses and illustrated principles of good residential design.
With the federation of the state based institutes and the formation of a national body, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA), Cheesman became a Federal Councillor from 1946 to 1952 and served as Federal President from 1948 to 1950. During which time ‘He conferred with Chifley, then Menzies about architecture and planning and a responsible industrious future for post war Australia’ (Memo Vale 1994: 83). Cheesman travelled extensively in 1962, visiting eighteen countries representing the RAIA at the 2nd International Congress of the CIB, Cambridge, UK to partake in discussions on innovations in the building industry (Cheesman 1981). In 1968 he was awarded a Life Fellowship of the RAIA (Freeland 1971: 263).
In 1930, together with Hubert H. Cowell, Cheesman drafted the South Australian Architects Act, which brought about the registration process for Architects in 1939. He was one of the inaugural members of the Architects’ Board of SA in 1940. As Vice President of the SAIA Cheesman, together with Dean Berry initiated action to form a Town Planning Institute in 1948. He was made a Life Fellow of the Royal Australian Planning Institute. Cheesman also served on advisory committees for both Commonwealth and State governments including the Canberra Siting Review Committee, the SA Town Planning Committee and the SA Planning Appeal Board. In 1970 Cheesman was made an Affiliate of the Australian Institute of Building. He was a Foundation and Life Member of the National Trust of SA and held various company Directorships throughout his life.
During 50 years in the profession, Cheesman was closely involved in the changing role of the architect, in both the professional and academic spheres. This was evident when, after the war ‘he was among the first to organise his office in accordance with modern techniques of time and cost control. He used methods which he had observed in use in New York in the 1930s’ (Page 1986: 232).
Prior to travelling overseas in 1929 and while employed by McMichael and Harris, Cheesman worked on the Holden’s administration building at Woodville (1926). On his return to Adelaide and on joining with Lawson the partnership designed the Ridley Memorial Entrance, Wayville Showgrounds for the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society for the cost of £700 and for which Cheesman designed a shell concrete structure, a type of construction he’d seen in Germany in 1931. It was constructed by Fricker Brothers builders.
Residential works by Cheesman included a stone house at Warooka, Yorke Peninsula (1932) for Mr Lindsay Croser and a stone cottage for Dr Jack Edwards at Bridgewater (‘A Stone Cottage in the Hills’ 1934). By 1936 Cheesman was designing residential projects in the modern style with a block of flats at Millswood and a two storey dwelling at the corner of Narinna Avenue and Goodwood Road, Cumberland Park for Dr Hughes displaying the new style. Cheesman also advocated this style in articles he had published in 1932, stating ‘The “modern” or “international style” … is practical, straightforward, and really in elevational treatment a truthful expression of the plan’ (‘Domestic Architecture in America’ 1932: 6). The Tostevin residence, Herbert Street, Medindie (1935) was ‘typical of the new horizontal note in domestic architecture’ (‘New note in home architecture’ 1935), while a ‘modernist’ seaside residence at Somerton featured flat roofs and ‘open-air living’ (Advertiser, 3 January 1940). Cheesman’s own family house at Port Noarlunga (1949) was ‘energy efficient, [with] low thermal inertia, cross ventilations, cool in summer, solar gains in winter’ (Memo Vale 1994: 83).
Commercial buildings by Lawson and Cheesman included an office block at McLaren Parade, Pt Adelaide for Adelaide Steamship Company in 1934, for which he liased with Hurren, Langman and James Engineers to design the footings, and an office building in Bentham Street, Adelaide, for Co-operative Insurance Company of Australia also in 1934. In 1935 Cheesman worked on the conversion of an existing building in Waymouth Street, Adelaide for Thomas H. Webb Ltd. to the Moderne style, featuring glass blocks and making ‘a stylish contribution to Modernism, probably one of the first buildings designed in this idiom in Adelaide’ (Brine 1990: 34). Also during the 1930s, when Doley joined the firm, they designed Greater Union cinemas in Perth, Sydney and Townsville.
During World War Two and on secondment Cheesman supervised the design of munitions factories constructed of brick at both the Salisbury and Cheltenham munitions works. Between 1943 and 1945 while Cheesman was the Assistant Deputy Director of the Allied Works Council (AWC) in the Northern Territory based in Darwin under Deputy Director W. Haslam, he supervised 700 staff including architects, engineers, surveyors, clerical, technical and supervisory staff. The AWC had responsibility for constructing airstrips, aircraft hangars camps, temporary hospitals, and underground oil storage which they did using mainly timber frame construction.
Returning to Adelaide in 1945 and re-joining Lawson in partnership, Cheesman worked on the H.H. Tandy confectionary factory on Angas Street, Adelaide, as well as offices, laboratories and a factory for Drug Houses of Australia at Kilkenny. Cheesman worked on many buildings for large industrial organisations including those for Australian Consolidated Industries, Commonwealth Industrial Gases, and Pope Products.
Educational facilities with which Cheesman was involved included various Flinders University buildings, such as the halls of residence and social sciences building. While at the University of Adelaide the practice designed the Physics Annexe building, Medical Science block, building B of the Library, the Napier Building, Ligertwood Law building, and the Engineering building. Two churches of distinction designed by Cheesman are St Saviours Church of England at Glen Osmond with its contemporary spire and Colonel Light Gardens Church of England (1958).
In association with Bates Smart McCutcheon, Cheesman supervised the construction of the MLC building, Victoria Square, Adelaide. Later, the multistorey Highways Department headquarters at Walkerville (1959)was constructed of cream coloured off-form concrete. Other commercial buildings in the central business district included BP House, the Guardian Insurance building, General Accident, Fire and Life Assurance Building and the IMFC building, at 33 King William St Adelaide in 1964 which ‘specified precast concrete load-bearing panels’ (Page 1986: 232).
Cheesman will be remembered as being among leaders in the trend to modernism in South Australia and for his role in the professionalisation of architecture in the 1930s and 1940s.
Julie Collins
Citation details
Collins, Julie, ‘Cheesman, Jack Denyer', Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2008, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=65] | 
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