oon after the commission
in Mason City, Iowa, Griffin would take on the largest challenge
of his career. On May 23, 1912, the Griffins received a telegram
in their offices at the Monroe Building in downtown Chicago.
It came from Melbourne Australia and read, "Your design awarded first prize." The telegram from Australia would prove to
be the defining point in Griffin's career.
he Griffins' plan
for the Federal Capital of Australia was the first test of their
marriage. The call for designs occurred shortly after they were
married. But it was only through Marion's insistence that Walter
sat down at the drawing board three months before the deadline.
His design allowed him to fully integrate his ideas on landscape,
town planning and most importantly democracy.
arion's drawings
of Walter's plans were immense in scope. Eight feet wide and
thirty feet long, they unfolded like Japanese screens. 
They
were so beautiful and impressive that the judges had miniature
copies made so as to not be swayed by their presence. Griffin's
win made him an instant celebrity. He was asked to give lectures
around the country. His design was hailed internationally for
its creativity in layout, and its ability to incorporate the
natural setting.
imultaneously with
the announcement of the Griffin's win came a claim from Frank
Lloyd Wright that Griffin was nothing but a draftsman. Wright
and Griffin would never speak again after the Canberra competition
was announced. For the next 45 years Wright made it his mission
to disregard Griffin as an architect. He claimed that all his
former employees including the Griffins were simply stealing
his ideas, or as Wright put it, "sucking his eggs."
riffin was invited
to visit the Canberra site in July of 1913. There, too, he became
a celebrity. One press article swooned, "There resides under the fair billowing
locks some of the finest ambitions that a person can cultivate
for the service of his fellow creatures."
nknown to Marion,
who was still in Chicago minding the store, Griffin was falling
in love with the Australian landscape, and the Australian people
were taken with him. He returned to Chicago after three months
restless about his future. In short time, he received a letter
from his alma mater, the University of Illinois, offering him
the position as the head of the Department of Architecture. He
would succeed his former teacher, Nathan Clifford Ricker. But
the lure of Australia won Walter heart and soul.
riffin hurriedly
made plans to move to Australia. with many projects still up
in the air. The Mason City development was under construction,
the Anna Library was incomplete, as well as his own house north
of Chicago. 
He
would have to find someone to manage the Chicago office and finish
his commissions.Less than one week before their departure Griffin
introduced Barry Byrne to his clients as his new American partner.
n the years ahead, Griffin would
not only face criticism in Australia, but he would be discredited
in America as well. Unbeknownst to Griffin, Byrne began changing
his designs. Plans were altered at Mason City and also for an
important commission for the University of New Mexico. When Griffin
sent plans from Australia, Byrne would substitute his own drawings
of that project, then write back to Griffin that all was well.
It took Griffin three years before he realized what Byrne was
doing in his absence, and before they parted company.
hile his Chicago
practice was slipping from his grasp, Griffin's experience in
Australia was proving to be no less frustrating. He spent years
battling to see his ideas executed in Canberra. But city planners
who had no intention of actually building his design. The outbreak
of World War I was the final nail in coffin of both the Canberra
project and Griffin's American practice.
riffin's constant
battles with politicians and finally his public outcry of Australia's
involvement in the war caused him to be removed from the Canberra
project.
he next time Americans
heard any news of Walter Burley Griffin it was the announcement
of his death. 
In 1937 Griffin died of peritonitis in Lucknow, India.
He was barely 60 years old. By comparison, when Wright was 60,
he had a full 30 years of his career ahead of him. Most of the
buildings that he is famous for were not designed at that point.
There would be no Fallingwater if Wright had died when Griffin
died, nor would there be a Guggenheim Museum.
fter Walters's death,
Marion returned to America to visit her family. She intended
to return to Australia but the outbreak of World War II prevented
a trip to the south Pacific. Marion Griffin died in Chicago in
1961. Her ashes remained in an unmarked grave in Graceland Cemetery
before they were re-interred there in 1997. Instead of lying
beside her husband who is two continents away, she rests alongside
some of America's greatest architects. In death, Marion has finally
carved a place for herself and her husband in architectural history.
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