The Lippincott Material

The Massey University Archives holds a number of items with links to the American architect Roy Alstan Lippincott, who was instrumental in the design of the original Massey Agricultural College campus - now the University's Manawatū campus. Lippincott graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University in 1909 and then worked in Chicago with Hermann Von Holst, Marion Mahoney and Walter Burley Griffin. Over the course of the next decade he was closely involved in the design and planning of Australia's new capital city, Canberra. In 1921 Lippincott relocated to New Zealand after he and Edward Billson won the competition to design buildings for Auckland University College. Sir George Fowlds, Chairman of the Auckland University College Council, became an admirer of Lippincott's work and in 1927, when Fowlds became Chairman of the Council of the new Massey Agricultural College, Lippincott was the natural favourite as architect/designer. Between 1927 and 1929 he designed a campus plan, the Science Building, Refectory, Dairy Factory and cowman's cottages for Massey Agricultural College. Some of Lippincott's original designs for Massey Agricultural College can be seen below.