Basic Biographical Details Name: | Robin Smith Dods (or Robert Smith Dods) | Designation: | | Born: | 1868 | Died: | 23 July 1920 | Bio Notes: | Robert Smith Dods (generally known as Robin) was born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1863, the eldest son of Robert Smith Dods, a wholesale grocer and his wife Elizabeth Grey Stodart, through whom there may have been a distant family connection with his lifelong friend from 1890, Robert Stodart Lorimer. In the earlier 1870s the Dods family returned to Edinburgh where Robert Smith Dods senior died in 1876. His widow then returned to her mother in Brisbane where she married Dr Charles Marks, a surgeon in 1880. Dods was educated at Brisbane Grammar School and returned to Edinburgh in 1886 to be articled to Hay & Henderson, perhaps because of the latter's Australian links. While at Hay & Henderson's he attended the Edinburgh Architectural Association of which he was a member of the work class committee in 1890.
In the same year Dods went to London to work first in the War Office fortifications branch, and then for Aston Webb and Ingress Bell, the latter of whom was consultant to the War Office. While in London Dods either met or more probably renewed acquaintance with Lorimer in Oxford, becoming his closest friend and executing some of his exhibition drawings. Dods passed the qualifying exam in 1891 and was admitted ARIBA on 8 June that year, his proposers being Frederic Richard Farrow, Arthur Cates and Aston Webb. In the same year he travelled in Italy where he first met his future wife Mary Marian King. He won a special award in the Tite Prize competition in 1893 and was runner-up in the Soane Medallion competition of 1894, by which date he had become a senior assistant in the office of Dunn & Watson. In 1895 Dods returned to his mother in Brisbane and formed a connection with Francis Richard Hall, whose father had been Dr Charles Marks's architect, to enter the competition for the nurses' home at Brisbane General Hospital. When their design won this competition in December of that year, Hall dissolved his partnership with Edward Myer Myers and took Dods as his partner in August 1896. This enabled Dods to marry Mary King in March 1899, the marriage taking place in Sydney, and for her he built the fine timber house on Abbot and Sydney Streets, New Farm in 1900. Prior to his marriage Dods twice visited her in the USA and doubtless studied developments in contemporary American architecture although his designs for public buildings remained faithful to Aston Webb's free classical manner.
In 1900 Dods supervised the construction of the Edwards Dunlop Building in Brisbane for the Sydney architects Slayter & Cosh. Lacking commissions for major public buildings in Brisbane, Dods maintained a connection with this firm, which became Alfred Spain & Thomas F Cosh, designing the Daily Telegraph Building in Sydney for them in 1912. This induced him to become a partner in that firm, which took the practice name of Spain Cosh & Dods, when he moved to Sydney in 1913, Hall then merging his practice with that of the Sydney architects J F and B J Hennessy as Hennessy & Hennessy & F R Hall.
During the First World War Dods's health failed and a return to Scotland as Lorimer's partner was discussed in letters written in 1916, when their practices were both in severe recession, but this was not implemented and Dods died on 23 July 1920 in Sydney. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | Brisbane, Australia | Private | 1876 | 1886 | | | Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | 1886 | 1890 | | | London, England | Private | 1890 | 1895 | | | Brisbane, Australia | Business | 1895 | 1913 | | | Sydney, Australia | Business | 1913 | 1920 | |
Employment and TrainingEmployersEmployees or PupilsThe following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | Hall & Dods | | | Partner | |
RIBARIBA ProposersThe following individuals proposed this for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date proposed | Notes | | Arthur Cates | 8 June 1891 | for Assocateship | | Frederic Richard Farrow | 8 June 1891 | for Assocateship | | Aston Webb | 8 June 1891 | for Assocateship |
RIBA ProposalsThis proposed the following individuals for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date proposed | Notes | | Edwin Evan Smith | 20 July 1911 | for Licentiateship |
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Anon | 2006 | Nindooinbah | | Country Life, 7 September 2006, pp110-114 | | | Lund, Neville H | 1958 | Robin S Dods: the life and work of a distinguished Queensland | | | | | Placzek, Adolf K (ed) | 1982 | Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects | | New York: The Free Press/Macmillan Publishing Company | | | Royal Academy exhibitors | | | | | | | Savage, Peter | 1980 | Lorimer and the Edinburgh Craft Designers | | Edinburgh: Paul Harris Publishing, 1980 (also paperback ed, London & Edinburgh: Steve Savage, 2005) | | | Watson, Donald and McKay, Judith | 1994 | Queensland Architects of the 19th Century | | Brisbane: Queensland Museum | |
Periodical ReferencesThe following periodicals contain references to this : | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | Brisbane Courier | 4 January 1896 | | | p3 | | Builder | 17 September 1920 | | | Obituary | | Building | 12 August 1920 | | | Obituary | | RIBA Journal | 4 December 1921 | XXVIII | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | p78 | | Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Journal | July 1920 | | | |
Archive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this : | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | National Monuments Record of Scotland/NMRS, RCAHMS | Drawings Collection | | Copied of drawings in NMRS | | RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum | RIBA Nomination Papers | | A v11 p81 (microfiche 48/F1) |
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