Schumacher, Colin Stephen
| Schumacher, Colin Stephen |
| History | Colin Schumacher (born 1931) dedicated himself to public service and practised as a government architect for four decades from the mid-twentieth century. He endeavoured to raise the standard of South Australian government architecture and played an active role within the wider profession.
Educated at Blackwood Primary School and Unley High School, Schumacher commenced his architectural studies in 1949. He won many awards and graduated in 1954 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Architectural) from the University of Adelaide in addition to a Fellowship Diploma in Architecture from the South Australian School of Mines.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s local architectural education underwent a canonical change when the more mature ex-servicemen who became students after World War Two encouraged their younger colleagues to explore modernism rather than follow the Beaux-Arts tradition. Schumacher embraced the new style and, when head of the Architectural Students Association, helped organise the Drawing Exchange Scheme that toured student drawings around Australia, effectively disseminating this change. In 1957 he was awarded the Albert Kahn Memorial Fellowship for postgraduate study at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA and in 1958 received his Master of Architecture from that university.
While still a student Schumacher became a cadet with the Commonwealth Department of Works where he remained for most of his career. After graduating, he was predominantly involved in the design development and documentation phases of projects and from 1960 he focused on contract administration. When the Department was restructured in the 1970s, with more emphasis being placed on project management, he became the first resources manager and subsequently acted as project manager, technical services manager and, from 1989 until his retirement in 1992, Principal Architect.
Schumacher’s work includes some projects of national importance and massive scale: the development of Woomera Rocket Range and township (c.1950); the Adelaide Airport developments at West Beach (1955–85) – one of Schumacher’s first projects after graduating; the design and documentation of two large laboratory complexes for the CSIRO Division of Soils at Urrbrae (1956–60); contract administration of the Reserve Bank building – the then tallest building in Adelaide (1963–7), including underground extensions (1976); a widespread program of new telephone exchanges, lighthouses, post offices and regional office buildings (1955–85); restoration of the Adelaide GPO Postal Hall (1986); and the Garden of Remembrance, Pasadena (1987).
Schumacher was active in the profession. In 1952 he joined the South Australian Institute of Architects (later Royal Australian Institute of Architects) as a student member, in 1955 he became an Associate and in 1970 a Fellow. He served on the SA Chapter Council for 13 years, the last four of which he was Vice-President. In recognition of his service to the profession he was made a Life Fellow in 1987. His public activities included illustrated lectures on world architecture and civic design for the South Australian Libraries Board and guest lectures at the University of Adelaide on subjects including the architectural philosophies of Louis Kahn, and project management. He published several articles in local architecture journals. |
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