THE SEVENTH Marion Mahony Griffin Lecture is coming up tonight at the National Archives.

This year’s lecturer is Professor Peggy Bang, whose subject is “The Melson House Revealed: an Owner’s Perspective.”

Melson House is a most spectacular example of Prairie School architecture designed by Walter Burley Griffin, with presentations by Marion, who managed the completion of the house in 1914 after Walter had moved to Australia.

Marion was intimately involved in the design and landscaping of the house, which is  located overlooking Rock Crest-Rock Glen, part of the Mason City estate where Walter and Frank Lloyd Wright designed several other houses.

It is believed that for Melson House, Walter and Marion drew upon design principles and the competition drawings, especially  “View from the Summit of Mt Ainslie”, which they had fashioned for their winning plan (1911) for Australia’s national capital.

Professor Bang is a retired Visual Arts Professor from Iowa and an expert on the Prairie School.  She was instrumental in saving and restoring Frank Lloyd Wright’s Park Inn Hotel and Stockman House in Mason City.  She and her husband Roger, businessman and former mayor, now own the historic Melson Hous.

The event is coordinated by the Walter Burley Griffin Society Incorporated, which commemorates the lives and works of Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937) and Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961) and promotes the environmental ideals and community life they fostered in Australia. For information visit  griffinsociety.org

Marion Mahony Griffin Lecture, at the National Archive, Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes,  tonight,  Wednesday, September 14,  at 7.30pm,  bookings to eventbrite.com