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Edmund Anscombe (8 February 1874—9 October 1948) was one of the most important figures to shape the architectural and urban fabric of New Zealand. He was important, not only because of the prolific nature of his practice and the quality of his work, but also because of the range and the scale of his built and speculative projects. These extended from conventional essays to monumental urban schemes informed by his international travel, especially in America. His influence was specifically felt in Dunedin, Wellington and Hastings, yet he also realised projects in Alexandra, Invercargill, Palmerston, Palmerston North, Rotorua, Waimate North and Wanaka. His key works include the 1925-26 NZ and South Seas International Exhibition, the 1940 New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, the Herd Street Post and Telegraph building, Anscombe Flats, the Empire Deluxe theatre and his work on the clocktower complex - including specifically the Archway Building and Marama Hall - effectively re-conceiving the design of the University of Otago's historical core.(University of Otago Clocktower complex) == Biographical background == Anscombe was born on 8 February 1874 in Lindfield, Sussex, England. His parents Edmund and Eliza Anscombe (née Mason) emigrated on 27 June 1874 to New Zealand on the ''Christian McAusland'' in the assisted immigration scheme. They arrived in Dunedin with seven-month-old Edmund and his two-year-old sister Eliza. His father is described as a carpenter aged 25 years old from Sussex. His mother was 28. They arrived in Otago, New Zealand on 30 September 1874. His sister Edith Violet was born in Dunedin on 1 April 1885. Edmund attended Caversham School (from 1879–1885) and in 1888, as a 14-year-old boy, he left New Zealand on what, in most accounts, is seen to be a prophetic visit to the 1888 Melbourne exhibition. In his own words:
This lifelong interest in the design of exhibition buildings was furthered by: his attendance at the 1889-90 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin, involvement in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St Louis (1904), his appointment as architect to the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition Company (1924–25), attendance at the Chicago World's Fair (1933) and the New York World's Fair (1939), and his appointment as the architect of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition (1940). Whether the exhibition was the primary reason for his visit to Melbourne cannot be known for certain, but on his return Anscombe became an apprentice carpenter in Waiwera South, Otago, and worked for his father as a builder. This experience perhaps influenced his later architectural work which he approached with an entrepreneurial pragmatism. He married Douglas Watt in 1898 after which they lived with Edmund's parents. His first child, Ruby, was born 1899. In 1911 his second daughter, Marjory, was born. In 1901 Anscombe travelled to America. This 1901-1906 trip is the most written about of his travels. He visited St Louis Purchase Exposition where he "received ... practical training in exhibitions in 1904" and it is during this time that he is said to have studied architecture, an idea first asserted in an obituary but something Anscombe himself does not refer to. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edmund Anscombe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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