The curious case of Laura Lee
It was touted as an auspicious occasion – the evening of Wednesday, October 14, last year.
Town Hall was well-filled by the public, the design community, a sprinkling of MPs, local government members, assorted intellectuals and other Adelaide VIPs. According to several present, Premier Mike Rann was standing at the back.
One local professor of architecture described it as an eagerly awaited event he hoped would be “a defining moment for the state”.
On stage, the director of the Adelaide Thinkers-in-Residence program, Gabrielle Kelly, spoke glowingly about it and the guest speaker, Professor Laura Lee, before her end-of-residence speech. Ms Kelly said that since March, Lee had attended more than 100 meetings, led seven partner workshops and met more than 1000 people. These included six ministers and the Premier. Lee visited Adelaide three times in 2009: in March during the Fringe Festival, in June during the Cabaret Festival and in September-October.
Planning Minister Paul Holloway then introduced Lee, describing her as “highly regarded internationally as a leader in integrated design education, practice and research in architecture”.
Indeed, the curriculum vitae of this 40-something Canadian runs to many pages. Apart from prestigious jobs overseas, the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon professor is an also honorary fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects and was appointed to the national Built Environment Industry Innovation Council by federal Innovation and Industry Minister Kim Carr.
For almost 50 minutes, Lee gave the expectant crowd a potted history – with slides – of her “journey through the residency”. It ranged from discovering the Central Market’s “theatre of life” to the Jam Factory (“one of the most recognised environments and attributes of South Australia”), the Fringe and Womadelaide; from walking in the Botanic Gardens and enjoying “exquisite” dining experiences, to visiting the Barossa and a housing development at Noarlunga (“one of our greatest adventures and one of my favourite days in the residency”).
She was at pains to suggest that although she was an architect, the cap she was wearing was that of Thinker. She would not be talking about buildings, but the “spaces in between them”.
“I will be speaking about building in terms of building confidence, building knowledge and, particularly, building culture,” she said.
There was a great deal more, and she broadened her concept of integrated design to embrace politics and the importance of leadership. The Premier may have been pleased to hear her say that SA has advanced policies on environmental sustainability and very admirable targets “so that there’s leadership in this regard coming from the top down”. She described SA’s early childhood development programs as “emulated on a national basis and recognised internationally”. She praised the state’s Strategic Plan – around which her Thinking was formulated – and even picked out the Labor Government’s new Royal Adelaide Hospital project as an example of vision.
At the end of her speech she recommended the Government introduce a “multi-disciplinary integrated design commission at the level of the Department of Premier in Cabinet”. The role of the commission, she said, would be to advocate for good design, to advise at the highest levels of government and also to communities and individuals, and to “do a review that would have to do with quality-of-life issues”. She also recommended the appointment of a government architect.
Response to her speech was mixed. Some described it afterwards as brilliant and inspirational. Others were less impressed, suggesting it was all theory and “a mish-mash of personal first impressions”.
“I expected an inspirational delivery and stimulating subject matter,” wrote a suburban newspaper correspondent. “I got a tedious blow-by-blow account of her Residency predicated on the SA Government’s Strategic Plan, validating the Government’s policy directions. Professor Lee even managed to include the magic word ‘Dunstan era’ to warm the hearts of any Labor faithfuls in the audience, and also claimed the process of arriving at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital on the railyards proposal to be a shining example of an integrated design strategy. Premier Mike Rann must have been very pleased.”
Fast forward to April 30, 2010. A couple of small paragraphs in the little-read Government Gazette announced that Lee had been appointed to head her own visionary Commission for Integrated Design, which the Premier had announced in December. Neither Planning Minister Holloway nor the Premier sent out a media release about the appointment. When questioned, Mr Holloway said the job was not advertised but that Lee was “best suited for it”.
The Minister went on: “I don't think anyone would challenge the credentials of Professor Lee in relation to this matter. Professor Lee is not only the professor of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in the USA, she’s an internationally renowned authority. When we announced that there would be an integrated design commissioner for Adelaide, we pointed out that we wanted someone of international stature to take this position.”
The Australian Institute of Architects, which gave Lee an honorary fellowship, was quick to praise the appointment as “the right choice”. The institute’s SA president, Tim Horton, said the appointment “re-positions SA at the centre of the national debate on sustainable cities, population and lifestyle”.
On May 5, Carnegie Mellon announced Lee would be leaving her job to take up the Adelaide position.
But in one month all that changed, and the reason for her decision not to come to Adelaide remains something of a mystery.
Lee met the Premier overseas, but Rann had made no mention on his now-famous Twitter feed of meeting her over dinner in London and strolling along the Highline, the Manhattan above-ground garden project in New York.
- An early sundeck rendering of the Manhattan Highline, which Laura Lee suggested Rann visit in New York. Photo: Courtesy the City of New York
- sundeck.jpg (44.59 KiB) Viewed 8525 times
After his meetings became public, his subsequent parliamentary travel report mentioned their London encounters, though not the one or more in the United States. The Premier says that while in London, Lee argued for the Government to work with Adelaide City Council to redesign Victoria Square, and that the components of the Riverbank precinct – hospital, research centre, convention centre and stadium – must be closely co-ordinated and “embrace world’s best practice”.
Rann’s report, dated June 23, says Lee was in London to promote her husband’s new book. The report also mentions that Lee indicated she may not be able to start on July 1 as planned, but it gives no indication that this later starting date would be a problem. “Officers within the Department of Premier and Cabinet are currently discussing with Professor Lee her request to delay taking up her appointment,” he said. It is not clear from the report whether this was discussed with the Premier during or after his London trip.
So how has the story of Laura Lee developed so quickly from that of eagerly sought-after international architect heading up a key design position in Adelaide to her not coming at all?
The progress through June makes subsequent developments more intriguing.
Lee met Rann in Covent Garden on June 3. They were photographed by a South Australian, who thought Lee was Rann’s wife. The Premier told ABC local radio he had dinner with her. There was no mention in the interview that Lee might be having second thoughts.
On June 13, Lee was still expecting to come to Adelaide. An Adelaide journalist emailed her asking for an interview to be done after she arrived on July 1. She replied: “I would be pleased to meet with you when I am next in Adelaide. There are several exciting developments in South Australia — the RAH, the Research Institute, the Riverbank development including the convention centre extension, Victoria Square, Bowden, and the potential of the former Tonsley-Mitsubishi site. I am aware of these projects through the partners in my Thinker’s residency and have maintained a keen interest. We are in the establishment phase of an Integrated Design Strategy for Adelaide City, having received $1 million in federal funding for this work. When my diary is being set for my time in SA, I will be sure to make contact and arrange a time to meet. Kind regards, Laura.”
Just five days later, on the morning of Friday, June 18, The Independent Weekly reported exclusively that Rann had met Lee in New York. Later that same day, a staffer for the Premier said Lee had requested a delay to the start of her job “due to changed family and professional circumstance” and this was being “considered” by the Government.
There was little to suggest, officially, that Lee’s short delay would be a major problem, given her contract was for three years.
The Government staffer also said Lee would be working part-time, and at a lower rate than the rumoured $250,000 a year.
But on Thursday, June 22 – the day the news was dominated by Julia Gillard’s ascension in Canberra – Paul Holloway told the Legislative Council the Government had declined Lee’s request for a delay to September 1. His stated reason was that there were too many projects the Government had to get on with. Not only that, he said, but the Government had already moved to appoint the Institute of Architects’ Tim Horton to fill the post.
Some might suggest Lee’s replacement in the position was handled with even more alacrity that Kevin Rudd’s removal as Prime Minister.
Efforts to contact Lee to discuss her apparently sudden change of heart have so far proved unsuccessful.
But some observers might be forgiven for thinking we have not heard the whole story from the Government and there are now conflicts between what Rann wrote in his report and what Holloway told Parliament.
Rann’s June 23 travel report says: “I understand that Professor Laura Lee is also assisting the Hon Paul Holloway, the Minister for Urban Planning, in arrangements for his forthcoming visit to Europe to look at urban design initiatives.”
Yet Holloway initially denied in Parliament he had such a trip planned.
On July 1, more than a week after Rann’s report, shadow finance minister Rob Lucas asked Holloway about the cost and make-up of the minister's proposed overseas trip.
“Will the minister be catching up with Ms Lee whilst he is overseas to discuss matters of mutual interest?” Lucas inquired.
Holloway was flummoxed. “I would have thought hypothetical questions are clearly out of order. To ask about a trip that I have not even gone on yet, that I haven't even planned or booked is a bit it outrageous,” he replied.
Mr Holloway then went further, accusing public servants of breaching the Public Sector Act to supply Lucas with information – information which had simply come from Rann’s own parliamentary report.
“Perhaps we do need an ICAC ((Independent Commission Against Corruption) for these corrupt public servants who are actually breaching the law and telling the honourable member. Perhaps the Hon Mr Lucas's telephone should be one that you would tap all the time. You might pick up a few journalists he is talking to.”
The suggestion he would countenance tapping journalists’ conversations was stunning enough, but Holloway then changed tack. He next suggested Lee would not be coming because of “constant attacks that were really unnecessary … why would any international person want to come to our city?”
“Is that why she’s not coming here?” host Matt Abraham asked Holloway on ABC radio.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove,” Holloway responded.
“It’s just that he had, well he has, a friendship with Laura Lee and knew her quite well I think. Met her in London and New York as part of his overseas trip and then it all sort of fell in a heap. It went pear-shaped,” co-presenter David Bevan had said earlier.
But this may not be the end of Lee’s involvement. Holloway has now revealed the professor will still be on the public payroll, funded through the Commonwealth Government, to work on a project with Adelaide City Council.
“Laura Lee has been very helpful and continues to be helpful. She’s working on another project for integrated design for the city,” he said.
But what will she actually do, and what could she have done had she taken the original job?
“Laura Lee was appointed to an exceptional new position, one that is well remunerated, and has not given an interview and has refused interviews since that appointment,” Sunday Mail editor Megan Lloyd said on ABC radio. “So she pops up overseas. She has meetings with the Premier. You’ve got media who have been trying to put some reasonable questions to her. This is someone who the Opposition asked questions about in Parliament. Paul Holloway actually couldn’t answer about what her record of achievement was prior to this appointment in terms of what has she actually built or constructed.”
ABC Stateline editor Simon Royal also voiced reservations.
“The oval will go where it is and there is no alternative. The hospital will go where it is and there is no shifting that. The City Council has its plans for Victoria Square. These are really important things that you would think a commissioner who is supposed to be … whose reason for being is the integration of Adelaide, might have something to say about it,” he said.
“What is she going to do? Choose the lighting and pavers? If we were serious about getting the maximum value from that sort of position, the integration of Adelaide, and you have a number of really expensive projects coming up, maybe you would want that person to actually have a say in where those projects should go rather, than just lighting and pavers.”
Channel 7 political reporter and some-time FIVEaa presenter Mike Smithson finds some aspects of the Lee story difficult to explain.
“I specifically asked the Premier, ‘Did you meet anyone from Carnegie Mellon in America?’ and he said, ‘No, I didn’t’. Now, subsequently, we’ve found out that he did meet with Laura Lee in America as well as in London and Laura Lee is on the Carnegie Mellon University Board. She’s an academic on the board.
“There is a little bit of a cloud over what her exact role is in life. Why did the Premier say, ‘I didn’t meet anyone’, but he actually met her. Again, does this – I’m not saying make us suspicious – but it just, something doesn’t seem right with this whole thing.”
Meanwhile, the Premier is refusing to say how much public money Carnegie Mellon University has been promised for its Adelaide campus for the next four years.
The Opposition criticised the original funding agreement for establishing the campus, which involved up to $19.5 million.
Rann told Parliament that the agreement has expired and a new one has been based on the university’s growing enrolments.
“The new agreement is exempt from public disclosure under the Department of the Premier and Cabinet Circular 27 Disclosure of Government Contracts,” he said.
Meanwhile, the concept of integrated design seems to have slipped in the Adelaide Hills. This week Mt Barker Council decided to oppose the Government’s plan for an extra 50,000 people in the area in just 15 years.
“It can’t be supported at this time because as a responsible council we’ve got to provide for the future for our community and it’s our community now – our grandchildren and our great grandchildren,” mayor Ann Ferguson said on Tuesday.
“I know we’ve been identified for growth, but it has to be managed, sustainable. We must have solar, we must have rainwater. These people need to have parks to go to, they need their toilets to be flushed to provide them with this basic day-to-day living, and at this time we don’t have that,” said the mayor.
Local Government Association president Felicity Lewis said other councils were similarly worried. “I think it’s important to understand that local government isn’t anti-development,” she said. “It’s about orderly development.”
Holloway is unrepentant. “We’re responsible to the people of SA for growth,” he emphasised. “If every council said, ‘We don’t want growth in our area’, and they tend to do it these days, what are we supposed to do? Just stop all growth?”
Integrated design is a concept, Laura Lee explained at that Town Hall meeting, and about spaces between buildings. It is, she said, about “building confidence”. Yet from Mt Barker to Adelaide, and in the spaces between, the jack-in-the-box appointment and sudden disappearance of the Carnegie Mellon professor provokes as much controversy as the urban environment which the government creates.
