Dover Building from Ground Level Alleyway

Hugh Ralston Crawford (1876–1954), practiced both as an engineer and architect in Australia and the United States in the first half of the 20th century.

Biography

Crawford was born in the United States in 1876, and moved to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia as a child. He was articled to the

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

civil engineers and architects Eyre & Munro, and joined the Queensland Government's Bridge Department as a designing engineer in 1896, later becoming engineer in charge of railway construction. He also appears to have been in India for a time.Miles Lewis, Australian Building: A Cultural Investigation 7.05 Cement & Concrete: Reinforced Concrete:04
Crawford held the Australian patent rights for the Turner Mushroom flat slab system. This system was so called due to the peculiar formation of rods around the column head and the rapidity with which they could be erected. It was first described in the US in Engineering News in 1905 by C.A.P. Turner and his first flat-slab building was the Johnson-Bovey building of 1906. Some of these buildings still exist and at least one, the 1906 Hoffman (a.k.a. Marshall) building was designated an ASCE

National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark __NOTOC__ The following is a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers since it began the program in 1964. The designation is granted to projects, structures, and sites in the United State ...

in 2002. Between 1906 and 1909, at least eighteen other buildings of this type were built in the U.S.A. Crawford was involved in applying the Turner system to the design of

Dovers building Dovers Building is a heritage building in Melbourne, Australia. Built in 1908 by architect and engineer, Hugh Ralston Crawford,

in Drewery Lane, Melbourne in 1908. This was the 1st flat slab building in Australia using the system and Crawford subsequently designed a large number of other buildings using the Turner system. Crawford was granted an Australian patent in 1907 for a monolithic reinforced concrete cavity wall, and built a number of Melbourne houses on this system. From 1906 to 1914 Crawford conducted a private practice in Melbourne specialising in steel and reinforced concrete building. From 1914 to 1919 he was employed by the John S. Metcalf Company Limited of Chicago-Montreal, Canada to construct bulk handling wheat silos for the New South Wales Government in Australia. In 1919 he was appointed Consulting Engineer for concrete to the Commonwealth Government. The means by which Crawford obtained the Australian rights to the patent, have not been discerned. Crawford died at a Nursing Home near his Lansell Crescent, Camberwell home, aged 80, on 24 October 1958, survived by his wife Catherine, and children Dorothy, Colin, Gilbert, Max and Alan.

Legacy

The locality of

Crawford Crawford may refer to: Places Canada * Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia * Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario United Kingdom * Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England * Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...

in Queensland and its railway station were named after him.

References

Bibliography

* Exporting American Architecture, 1870–2000, by Jeffrey W. Cody * Miles Lewis d ''Two Hundred Years of Concrete in Australia'' (North Sydney 1988), pp 26–7. {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Hugh Ralston 1954 deaths American civil engineers Australian civil engineers Engineers from Melbourne 1876 births