Walter Burley Griffin group claims Castlecrag tower meeting was a facade

The latest chapter in the Castlecrag towers saga started at 10:49am on Thursday, when the Lorikeet received an email from the Walter Burley Griffin Society (WBGS). 

The society — self-appointed gatekeepers for the legacy of the famed planner and architect — was writing to claim it had been brushed by Conquest, the developers behind two 11-storey towers approved for construction in Castlecrag.

• Griffin was a modernist American architect famous for designing the city of Canberra and suburb of Castlecrag.

By doing so, the WBGS said Conquest had broken an agreement to consult with the society before work on the project began.

As part of the development application for the towers, Conquest stated that “consideration should also be given to the aims and objectives of the Walter Burley Griffin Society”.

In the email, a spokesperson for the WBGS wrote: “Despite this, Conquest did not consult with the WBGS about its proposed design, to ensure it was sympathetic to Griffin’s vision for the suburb.”

The Lorikeet took this claim to Conquest, which said one of its first orders of business when planning the project was to contact the Walter Burley Griffin Society. 

Griffin was born in the US and is a widely known figure. As it happens, more than one society is named in his honour, and Conquest said it mistakenly made contact with the one in Griffin’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois, not the one in Castlecrag, NSW.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the America-based Griffin enthusiasts were not on top of the brouhaha brewing across the Pacific Ocean, and were not able to assist Conquest.

When Conquest did find the local group, it said it arranged a meeting, only for the WBGS to cancel “at the last minute”, a Conquest spokesperson told the Lorikeet. Conquest said this dispelled any WBGS “claims of being ignored”.

In response, the society said it had invited Conquest’s CEO Michael Akkawi in November 2025 to take a free guided tour of the North Shore’s Griffin Heritage Conservation Area.

The WBGS said this tour didn’t eventuate, and that Conquest instead proposed a meeting with its media officer in February. The society deemed this unsuitable.

“It was a tokenistic gesture,” the WBGS told the Lorikeet on Friday. “They’ve [said they would send] a PR person based in Melbourne. Had they sent an architect or a planner along, that would probably constitute a more appropriate consultation.” 

The meeting did not go ahead.

While the main aim of the society is to reduce the tower's height — an unlikely scenario — it has also previously provided advice on the design of windows, colour palettes and roof tiling.