Lindsay Falck

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(Unidentified photographer, n.d.)

Full name: Dyer Alfred Lindsay Falck

Born: 1934, Sea Point, SA

Died: 2020, Philadelphia, USA

Profession: Architect, lecturer

Contextual timeline


Notes

A contemporary of Roelof Uytenbogaardt and Neil Grobbelaar amongst others, Lindsay was taught by Professor Thornton-White, the Director of the UCT School in the 1950s and early 1960s. Under Thornton-White’s guidance that generation was schooled in the main design principles of the modernist masters such as Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. Immediately after graduation Lindsay went to work for Thornton-White as an assistant (and later senior assistant).

Thesis project

In 1960, Lindsay began his association with architect Revel Fox - Lindsay was one of his first employees. He worked with Revel on the Ballet School at UCT, the La Cock House, and the Deanery for the St. George Cathedral in Cape Town, for a period of nine months before the jobs dried up and he found temporary employment in the office of Ezra Greenblo. As soon as Revel got more commissions, Lindsay was asked back as his chief assistant, becoming a partner in 1965. Lindsay was design partner-in-charge for the Joseph Stone Theatre (1965-69); B.P. Centre, a 31 story office tower with mixed use spaces in surrounding low-rise buildings (1966-73; now 1 Thibault Square); and the School for Botanical Studies at the National Botanical Gardens in Kirstenbosch (1966-70), and Montebello Apartments in Newlands – a complex of 108 medium rise apartments and 4 townhouses (1963-68).

While his teaching commitments demanded much of his time, he was able to collaborate with others on various selected projects of different scales, both locally and nationally. Lindsay consulted on construction and technology matters for the firms of Gabriel Fagan, Revel Fox and Partners, as well as Prinsloo Parker, Flint, Elliott and Van der Heever.

"What made him a special teacher of note was, amongst other qualities, his attentive and caring personality as well as his enquiring mind. Evidence of this life-long curiosity was his studies in City, Urban and Regional Planning (MCURP) at UCT, his later interest in the documentation of seminal technical case studies, in Landscape Architecture and more recently in Archaeological Conservation at the Department of Architecture (now the Weitzman School of Design), Pennsylvania University, Philadelphia." (Lucien le Grange)

Falck taught at UCT and later at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn he worked with the Historic Preservation program there on projects in Turkey, Egypt, and Bolivia, designing special equipment for archaeological work. He taught in both Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Being a hands-on architect interested in how things fit together, he was exceptionally good at detailing / tectonics.

"No beads, no architraves, all connections between frames and cills and the walls, either plastered or fair-face, were made with small, 12x12mm recesses. The door frames were the same depth as the half-brick walls so that their face was flush with the wall face; the glazing beads were rebated so that they too, met the frames with a tiny recess. And the same detailing penetrated the kitchen fittings, the bedroom cupboards, the skirtings and ceiling cornices." (Julian Cooke)

"When it came to understanding how things worked, Lindsay’s interests were wide and varied. He spent 10 years restoring a 1926 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud Hearse that he purchased for £200 from local undertakers – filing the massive 12-cylinder engine block by hand until it gleamed – and reconditioned a classic 1967 Moto Guzzi racing motorcycle." (Meredith Keller)

Projects

  • 1956-59: UCT School of Architecture (Centlivres Building), Cape Town (overall + detail design) (with Thornton-White)
  • 1956-58: House Lindsay Falck, Cape Town, 22 Thistle Street, Newlands
  • Ballet School at UCT (with Revel Fox)
  • La Cock House (with Revel Fox)
  • Deanery for the St. George Cathedral (with Revel Fox)
  • 1966-73: BP Centre, Cape Town (with Revel Fox)
  • 1966-70: School for Botanical Studies, Kirstenbosch (with Revel Fox)
  • 1963-68: Montebello Apartments, Newlands (with Revel Fox)
  • Mannenberg Community Centre
  • House Steyn
Sources

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