Developer denies Castlecrag tower meeting with Burley Griffin group was a facade

[This story was updated on Thursday May 7, 2026.]

The latest chapter in the Castlecrag towers saga started at 10:49am on Thursday, April 30, 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 claiming Conquest, the developer behind the two-tower, 11-storey, 150-apartment project, had not suitably taken Griffin’s legacy into account.

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”.

The society says this did not occur, and that Conquest based its “consideration” on a DA previously submitted for the same site by another developer. That DA had been approved, but was for a much smaller project that never went ahead.

“The Griffin Society would like to point out that there is NO similarity between the approved mid-rise mixed-use development (height of up to 15 metres with 38 apartments), and Conquest’s proposal for two high rise towers of 49 metres height with 150 apartments,” the WBGS said in its email.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Walter Burley Griffin was a modernist American architect famous for designing the city of Canberra and, later, the suburb of Castlecrag.

Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin were a power couple of 20th century architecture.

In 1918, the Griffins had become fed up with the numerous problems the Canberra project had encountered, and chose to leave the capital to work on a smaller, more personal project without the suffocating oversight of a federal government.

The couple scooped up 650 acres of Middle Harbour land for 25,000 pounds: adjusted for inflation, about $2 million today. This land would end up becoming the suburb of Castlecrag. The Griffins designed 40 houses for the suburb, though only 14 were ever built.

In response to WBGS claims, Conquest told the Lorikeet it had attempted without success to meet with community groups about the large-scale construction. It said one meeting was arranged, only for the WBGS to cancel “at the last minute”.

The WBGS says it did not attend the meeting as it was under the impression only a company PR person would attend.

“It was a tokenistic gesture,” it told the Lorikeet. “Had they sent an architect or a planner along, that would probably constitute a more appropriate consultation.”

Conquest said it made clear the project’s planning director would also be at the meeting, but the WBGS and the Castlecrag Progress Association, which was also keen to meet, dispute this.

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. It said this offer was not accepted.

The Lorikeet asked Conquest on May 4 for evidence the community groups had been made aware the planning director would be at the meeting, and also for information on how Griffin’s vision for Castlecrag had been incorporated into the design, but didn’t hear back by publication.

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