David Surrey Littlemore
Open-knowledge reference entry
David Surrey Gibson Littlemore (24 June 1910 – 10 September 1989) was one of Australia's most distinguished architects. Littlemore was one of the first life fellows of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. He was head of construction supervision in the consortium Hall Todd & Littlemore appointed by the NSW Government Architect to complete the Sydney Opera House in April 1966 when Mr Jørn Utzon resigned his commission from the NSW Government. Peter Hall was design architect and Lionel Todd was responsible for contract documentation.
Career
Littlemore's career began with the design of a sugar mill in his home town of Bundaberg when he was 14, followed by study and design work with Sydney architect Mr Emil Sodersten.
He became a partner in Rudder, Littlemore, and Rudder, which won a Royal Institute of British Architects' Bronze Medal for the Qantas Building located at 1 Chifley Square in Sydney's CBD. "Qantas House" was added to the New South Wales Government State Heritage Register.
Improvisation and design skills
Littlemore was known for his ability to improvise solutions and to resolve complex design problems. In New Guinea in the 1950s he built aircraft maintenance hangars by stringing cables between trees and suspending roofs from them.
Design and construction of the Sydney Opera House
Littlemore was in charge of construction in the Hall Todd & Littlemore consortium that was responsible for the design and construction of Stage 3 of the Sydney Opera House from 1966 until the building was completed in 1973.
Later years
Littlemore served for 10 years on the Council of Macquarie University and was made an officer of the Order of Australia in 1979 for services to architecture.
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This entry incorporates text from “David Surrey Littlemore” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.