Gromboyd goes Hawaiian: Roy Grounds, Robin Boyd and the “Exclusive Pacific Fellowship of Talent”

Abstract

The theme of architectural connections between Australia and Hawaii has been a recurring and intriguing one. While architects and builders from Australia made some brief but memorable forays into Hawaii in the nineteenth century, it was not until the early twentieth century that such connections burgeoned as successive generations of young architects passed through Honolulu on their travels to the mainland United States and Europe. Melbourne architects Roy Grounds and Robin Boyd, of the eminent firm of Grounds, Romberg & Boyd, were just two of many. Unlike most, however, their tropical fever spurred a desire to foster formal architectural connections between Hawaii and Australia, which culminated in two memorable visits to Honolulu in 1959–60. This article lifts the lid on Grounds and Boyd's hitherto ill-documented Hawaiian interludes, their background and their legacy, and their context in the broader theme of twentieth-century Australian architectural connections with Hawaii.