Inappropriate Solicitations

Abstract

The architectural profession, by definition, distinguishes itself from the trades, and a conservative attitude to advertising is symptomatic of this hesitancy with popular engagements and the commercial realities of making money. Advertising was, hence, discouraged and mediated by euphemisms such as “education” and “collective advertising”, which promoted the profession, rather than an individual architect or practice. This paper examines the progressive business practices of one New Zealand architect (Edmund Anscombe) in this context, with particular reference to both his advertising practices and the parallel trajectories of his architectural practice and the business of a patented building product. It examines Anscombe's advertising practices, with a particular focus on the way he advertised the O.K. Block, and how it contrasted with the dominant discourse within the New Zealand architectural profession about advertising and challenged the ineffective legislative and regulatory framework supposed to restrict such activities and perpetrate a specific notion of the profession and the architect.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

For assistance with this paper, thanks are due to Janet Mitchell, Food Science, University of Otago; Chris Scott, Dunedin City Archives; staff at Archives New Zealand (Wellington and Dunedin); and staff at the Hocken Library, Dunedin.

Notes

^1. “Drunken Charge,” Architecture New Zealand (July/August 1990): 96; “Pete's Public Profile,” Architecture New Zealand (May/June 1990): 120.

^2. Paul Hogben, “Edward Bernays, Public Relations Consultancy and Architectural Discourse,” Audience: Proceedings of the XXVIIIth SAHANZ Annual Conference, eds. Antony Moulis and Deborah van der Plaat (Brisbane: SAHANZ, July 7–10, 2011) 12pp., CD Rom.

^3. “General Regulations Made By the New Zealand Institute of Architects (Incorporated),” The New Zealand Gazette (October 7, 1915): Appendix G, 16, 3456.

^4. “General Regulations,” 3456.

^5. November 29, 1917, NZIA 00003 Minute Book 1916–18, p. 147, Box 676/1, J. C. Beaglehole Room, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington.

^6. Andrew Shanken, “Breaking the Taboo: Architects and Advertising in Depression and War,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 69, no. 3 (September 2010): 406, 407.

^7. George Maher, “A Campaign of Publicity and Education,” The American Architect (February 13, 1918): 175.

^8. Maher, “A Campaign of Publicity,” 177.

^9. Reginald Ford, “Advertising in Relation to the Profession of Architecture in New Zealand,” NZIA Proceedings, no. 1 (1917–18): 48.

^10. “The exhibition upon a building in course of construction of the name of the architect responsible for the design… is neither undignified nor unprofessional.” Ford, “Advertising,” 48, 49.

^11. Ford, “Advertising,” 49.

^12. “Report of Sub-Committee on the Code of Ethics,” Journal of the New Zealand Institute of Architects VI, no. II (May 1927): 44.

^13. Howell Taylor, “Publicity for the Architect,” Architectural Forum 39 (October 1923): 185. Later, he notes: “Systematic publicity is business insurance.”

^14. Taylor, “Publicity for the Architect,” 185 (emphasis added).

^15. Taylor, “Publicity for the Architect,” 185.

^16. Shanken, “Breaking the Taboo,” 408.

^17. Taylor, “Publicity for the Architect,” 186.

^18. Taylor, “Publicity for the Architect,” 187, 188.

^19. Daniel Vivian, “‘A Practical Architect’: Frank P. Milburn and the Transformation of Architectural Practice in the New South,” Winterthur Portfolio 40, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 17.

^20. Vivian, “‘A Practical Architect’,” 23. Vivian notes that Milburn published five of these promotional booklets between 1899 and 1906.

^21. Vivian, “‘A Practical Architect’,” 29.

^22. Vivian, “‘A Practical Architect’,” 24.

^23. For example, Edmund Anscombe letter to General Manager (June 16, 1948) SAC 1 102 24.5.1 Pt 1 R20053666, Archives New Zealand, Wellington.

^24. Vivian, “‘A Practical Architect’,” 33.

^25. Vivian, “‘A Practical Architect’,” 36, 38.

^26. Christine McCarthy, “Against ‘Churchianity’: Edmund Anscombe's Suburban Church Designs,” Architectural History 50 (2009): 169–200.

^27. For example, “The Civic Centre: Open Space Plea: Deputation to Council,” Evening Post (October 14, 1943): 7.

^28. For example, “‘English-Speaking Union’,” Evening Post (August 14, 1935): 15.

^29. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting: Homes Constructed with O.K. Concrete Building Blocks (a.k.a. The O.K. Dry Wall System of Building Construction: An Illustrated Treatise for the Enterprising Owner and Builder Featuring this Modern System of Building and the Ideal O.K. Block-Making Machine) (Dunedin: O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, 1921), cover photograph; Edmund Anscombe, “The History of the O.K. Dry Wall System of Building Construction,” (December 1947): 1, CA00391/001/0001, Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa Collected Archives, Wellington; “Applicants for Letter Patent for Inventions for the Year 1918,” New Zealand Patent Office (September 5, 1918): 368; “Applicants for Letter Patent for Inventions for the Year 1918,” New Zealand Patent Office (September 19, 1918): 395; “Patents Sealed,” New Zealand Patent Office Journal (March 11, 1920): 105. See also “Building Construction – A Patent No. 40,562,” New Zealand Building Progress (March 1920): 751–52. The name of this entity is unusual as Proprietary (Pty) is not a company form used in New Zealand, but is an Australia limited company type.

^30. Christine McCarthy, “The Making of an Architect: Anscombe in America, 1902–1906,” Fabrications: the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand 16, no. 2 (December 2006): 60–82.

^31. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 13. For a longer discussion of the block, see Christine McCarthy, “Concrete Passions: Anscombe's Material Politics,” ‘Good Architecture Should Not Be a Plaything’: New Zealand Architecture in the 1920s: A One Day Symposium, ed. Christine McCarthy (Wellington: Centre for Building Performance Research, Victoria University, 2011), 49–55.

^32. “Building Construction,” 752. Arnold Alanen, Morgan Park: Duluth, U.S. Steel, and the Forging of a Company Town (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 88–90.

^33. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 2.

^34. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 14. Rice notes: “the desirability of providing a large hollow space by making face-sections as thin as consistent with safety.” Harmon Rice, Concrete-Block Manufacture: Processes and Machines (New York: John Wiley & Sons; London: Chapman & Hall, Limited, 1906), 6.

^35. The Building Progress' description of the block system noted that “the outer and inner shells are tied together by wall-ties along which water will not travel”. See “Building Construction,” 752.

^36.Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 756.

^37. Edmund Anscombe, H. McDowell Smith and Associates, letter to Town Clerk, Wellington (March 22, 1920): 2, Wellington City Archives 00233:369:1920/571. It is important to note that while Anscombe promotes the O.K. system as an additional free service, it was contrary to the 1915 NZIA Code of Ethics for him to charge for this.

^38. The postal address given (“The Secretary, O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, P. O. Box 486, Dunedin) is the same as Anscombe's office post box. Edmund Anscombe, H. McDowell Smith and Associates, letter to Town Clerk, Wellington (March 22, 1920); also Edmund Anscombe, H. McDowell Smith and Associates, letter to [R. W. McVilly] General Manager of Railways (March 27, 1920), “Construction of Buildings and Houses in Concrete” (1908–84), Archives New Zealand ABJP W4098 52/ 08/612 pt 1.

^39. Edmund Anscombe, “The History of the OK.[sic] Dry Wall System of Building Construction” (March 1946): 1, CA00391/001/0003, Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa Collected Archives, Wellington. Anscombe refers to Stanley Bros & Palmer, although Stanley Bros do not appear to have been in partnership with Charles Samuel Palmer. Stone's Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Taranaki… Directory only lists Stanley Bros for the years from 1917 to 1932, after which it appears that Alfred Stanley retired, at the age of seventy-two years. His brother Richard had died in 1930.

^40.Stone's Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Taranaki… Directory (1921–23); Stone's Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Taranaki… Directory (1931–32).

^41.City of Dunedin Departmental Reports for Year 1918–1919 (Dunedin: City Corporation, 1919), 75, Dunedin City Council Archives, Dunedin.

^42. “Great economy in material… Speedy construction… [and] Rough Cast on exterior may be thrown on direct, thus saving the usual cost of rendering, while the face of the interior Blocks is made of a fine mixture in order to finish off with one skim coat of finish plaster.” E. Anscombe & H. McDowell Smith, letter to Town Clerk (March 5, 1920), TC33 1920, Public Works W/1 2553, Dunedin City Council Archives.

^43.City of Dunedin Departmental Reports for Year 1919–1920 (Dunedin: City Corporation, 1919), 46, Dunedin City Council Archives.

^44. “Workers' Homes,” Ashburton Guardian (July 24, 1919): 5.

^45. Gael Ferguson, Building the New Zealand Dream (Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1994), 84; “Local and General,” Evening Post (December 31, 1919): 6; cf. “Local and General,” Wairarapa Times (December 31, 1919): 4.

^46. Edmund Anscombe, H. McDowell Smith and Associates, letter to Town Clerk (March 22, 1920).

^47. Edmund Anscombe, H. McDowell Smith and Associates, letter to Town Clerk (March 22, 1920).

^48. “Hastings Municipal Women's Rest, 201 Russell Street South, Hastings,” New Zealand Historic Places Trust Register of Historic Places, Historic Areas, Wahi Tapu and Wahi Tapu Areas (January 2007): 26pp.; also see E. Anscombe, “The O.K. Dry Wall Building Construction,” CA000391, Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa Collected Archives, Wellington.

^49. Anscombe, “The History of the OK.[sic] Dry Wall System of Building Construction,” 2.

^50. Staff Reporter, “An Astounding Instance of Departmental Conceit: Inexplicable Turn Down of Plan to Aid Housing Crisis,” Freedom (July 7, 1948): 3. Aside from this newspaper reference, evidence of Anscombe's involvement with this project is yet to be found.

^51. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 1.

^52. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 2.

^53. “Everlasting” was a term used by other authors to fashion concrete as a permanent material. For example, Myron Henry Lewis & Albert Hotchkiss Chandler, Popular Handbook for Cement and Concrete Users (New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1911): 28, 157, 273, and “everlasting concrete” is used in two newspaper articles relating to the O.K. Blocks: Edmund Anscombe “Walls for Houses: The Timber Famine: A Concrete Solution,” Evening Post (March 27, 1946): 11; “Housing Methods: Described as ‘Tragic’: An Architect's View,” Evening Post (October 15, 1946): 9.

^54. Pamela H. Simpson, Cheap, Quick, & Easy: Imitative Architectural Materials, 1870–1930 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999), 23.

^55. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 2.

^56. C. Stanley Taylor, “The Architect of the Future: Part IV. An Advertising Policy for the Architect,” Architectural Forum 30 (1919): 148.

^57. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 4.

^58. Hogben, “Edward Bernays,” 6.

^59. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 6, 10.

^60. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 6, 10.

^61. O.K. Dry Wall System Proprietary, The House Everlasting, 11, 12, 14, 15–16.

^62. John Sadar, “The Healthful Ambience of Vitaglass: Light, Glass and the Curative Environment,” Architectural Research Quarterly 12, no. 3/4 (2008): 275.

^63. These letters were from F. C. Gentry (manager of the government factory in Miramar, May 10, 1921), Stanley & Palmers (builders, May 23, 1921), S. B. Dodge (Hastings Borough Engineers Office, May 24, 1921), George Ebbett (Past Mayor of Hastings, June 20, 1921), H. J. Wardell (owner of O.K. house, June 23, 1921), P. H. Graham (Chief Housing Architect, June 25, 1921), R. Williams (blocklayer, June 28, 1921) and G. Wardell (owner of O.K. house, July 9, 1921).

^64. “Houses should be built as fire-resisting as possible. This is a vital matter, not only from the point of view of safety and economy, but from the absolute necessity of conserving timber. There is no necessity… to use our scant supplies of timber. Every effort should be made to conserve timber, and, whenever materials as above can be utilised at about equal cost, timber construction should not be permitted.” See “The Housing Problem: A Workable Scheme, Suggested by Local Architects,” Evening Star (July 29, 1920): 4.

^65. “Code of Ethics,” Journal of the New Zealand Institute of Architects III, no. 1 (March 1924): 22. “Report of the Practice and Discipline Committee,” Journal of the New Zealand Institute of Architects VII, no. 1 (April 1928): 7.

^66. February 1, 1925, NZIA 00004 Minute Book, Council Minutes 1922–30, p. 64, Box 676/1, J. C. Beaglehole Room, VUW, Wellington.

^67. February 10, 1926, NZIA 00004 Minute Book, Council Minutes 1922–30, p. 112.

^68. February 10, 1926, NZIA 00004 Minute Book, Council Minutes 1922–30, pp. 111–12.

^69. February 10, 1926, NZIA 00004 Minute Book, Council Minutes 1922–30, pp. 111–12.

^70. “Discussion at the Annual General Meeting,” Journal of the New Zealand Institute of Architects X, no. 2 (June 1931): 34.

^71. February 10, 1932, NZIA 00005 Council Minute Book 1930–46, p. 65, Box 676/2, J. C. Beaglehole Room, VUW, Wellington.

^72. February 10, 1932, NZIA 00005 Council Minute Book 1930–46, p. 65.

^73. Presidential Address, Mr H. Mandeno, “Architects' Publicity,” February 10, 1932, NZIA 00005 Council Minute Book 1930–46, p. 73.

^74. October 30, 1933, NZIA 00035 Minute Book, Executive and Finance Committee 1928–35, p. 269, J. C. Beaglehole Room, VUW, Wellington.

^75. “Experiments in Building: Architect's Views on System and Costs: Housing Retarded,” Dominion (August 22, 1945): 8.

^76. “Experiments in Building,” 8 (emphasis added).

^77. Edmund Anscombe, “Concrete for Houses: Favourable Views in the Trade,” Building Progress XI, no. 4 (August 1, 1946): 3.

^78. Anscombe, “Walls for Houses,” 11; Edmund Anscombe, “Walls of Houses: Why Not Concrete?: Cost and Quality (Letter to the Editor),” Evening Post (May 15, 1946): 10.

^79. “Returned Soldier Builds His Own Miramar Home,” Evening Post (February 26, 1946): 10.

^80. Anscombe, “Walls for Houses,” 11; Anscombe, “Housing Methods,” 9; Edmund Anscombe, “Housing Here and In Australia [Letter to the Editor],” Evening Post (June 3, 1947): 6. Meachen was described as having had “a long and varied experience in building construction work in many parts of New Zealand before his election to Parliament in 1935… [and] a co-opted member of the Ministry of Public Works”. “M. P. Enlists: Mr. E. P. Meachen,” Evening Post (March 23, 1940): 6. The Meachen speech was reported on in “Home Building: Timber Shortage: Alternative Materials,” Evening Post (November 30, 1944): 9.

^81. Anscombe, “Housing Methods,” 9; Anscombe, “Housing Here and Australia,” 6.

^82. There is no explicit evidence in the article that the blocks are O.K. Blocks or that Anscombe was involved in the building, yet images of the house and Jacobsen building it are included in Anscombe's O.K. Block folder at Te Papa (E. Anscombe, “The O.K. Dry Wall Building Construction,” CA000391/001/002), and Archives New Zealand files refer to Jacobsen's application for government assistance, with Kitchingham, another ex-serviceman who built a house of O.K. Blocks. See “Building Materials – Concrete and Concrete Blocks,” 1944–59, SAC 1 102/24.5.1 Pt 1, Archives New Zealand/Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington.

^83. Ferguson, Building the New Zealand Dream, 172.

^84. Anscombe, “Walls of Houses,” 10.

^85. Anscombe, “Housing Methods,” 9.

^86. Anscombe, “Housing Here and in Australia,” 6; “‘Far Ahead’: N.Z. Housing: Australia Outstripped,” Evening Post (May 29, 1947): 9.

^87. Alexander Bruce Black was the son of Agnes Emily Black (nee Anscombe) and Alexander Calder Black, born 1910. See “Births, Deaths & Marriages Online,” Department of Internal Affairs, accessed December 17, 2011, https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/home/. Application for registration of design by Edmund Anscombe for Building Block Class 4 (1946) A1337, 24155, National Archives, Canberra, Australia.

^88. Staff Reporter, “An Astounding Instance of Departmental Conceit,” 3.

^89. Staff Reporter, “An Astounding Instance of Departmental Conceit,” 3.

^90. Staff Reporter, “An Astounding Instance of Departmental Conceit,” 3.

^91. Anscombe wrote two versions of his “History of the O.K. Dry Wall System”, dated March 1946 and December 1947.

^92. “Returned Soldier Builds His Own Miramar Home,” 10; Anscombe, “Walls for Houses,” 11; Anscombe, “Walls of Houses,” 10; Anscombe, “Housing Methods,” 9.

^93. Anscombe, “Housing here and in Australia,” 6; Anscombe, “Walls of Houses,” 10.

^94. Christine McCarthy, “Partial Architectures: Post World War II New Zealand Government Housing,” Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand 13, no. 1 (June 2003): 33–62.

^95. August 11, 1948, NZIA 00037 Executive Committee Minute Book 1946–58, p. 94, Box 678/1, J. C. Beaglehole Room, VUW, Wellington.

^96. September 8, 1948, NZIA 00037 Executive Committee Minute Book 1946–58, p. 100.

^97. September 22, 1948, NZIA 00037 Executive Committee Minute Book 1946–58, p. 102.

^98. October 6, 1948, NZIA 00037 Executive Committee Minute Book 1946–58, p. 106.

^99. October 20, 1948, NZIA 00037 Executive Committee Minute Book 1946–58, p. 110.

^100. Shanken, “Breaking the Taboo,” 410.

^101. Shanken, “Breaking the Taboo,” 419.

^102. Shanken, “Breaking the Taboo,” 421.