John Donald

Description John Donald

Collection Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland

Catalogue Number 551 223/10

Category All Other

Scope and Content The collection of John Donald’s works comprises drawings done during Donald’s time at Robert Gordon College. The bulk of the collection was created by Donald during his early years of academic training. 1936 - During Donald’s second and third year of studies at Robert Gordon College, he drew three drawings of St. Ternan Arbuthnott, Kincardineshire. Two of these drawings depict different elevations, as well as floor plans. The third features a wide perspective view of the church. The pre-reformation church must have been of particular interest to Donald, as his drawings were also accompanied by six pages of survey notes, which consisted of detailed measurements of columns and portals within the church itself. Another stone building was drawn by Donald in 1936, likely a monastery. The untitled building sits in a vague rural setting, detail is just as scant on the building itself. Donald’s second and third years of study also provided the collection with drawings that were likely assigned exercises for students at Robert Gordon College. Entrance to a Park is an enlarged axonometric view, lay-out plan, and side elevation of a park. The drawing has minimal detail and is sparse in design. Greek Composition is another drawing most likely designed to gage Donald’s development. The drawing shows an ambiguous façade of a classical building, complete with frieze, Corinthian styled structures, and Greek sculpture. The drawing is reminiscent of Isobel Gordon’s The Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, and The Mausoleum Halicarnassus, drawn nine years earlier as part of her training at Robert Gordon College. Monument to a National hero is just as ambiguous as Donald’s Greek work. The drawing sets a cross section of the building up against an exterior view of the same tower, revealing an interior with a different shape. John Donald’s design for a crematorium spans five drawings. Two of these drawings are dedicated to showing all exterior sides of the building. The first shows the front of the structure, a cross section of the front, and the back. The other drawing shows one long side of the crematorium, a cross section of that side, and the side opposite. The other noteworthy drawings of the crematorium are the aerial views, and the floor plans. Donald has labelled an organ loft, flower room, and incinerator chamber. Crematorium is a unique subject for Donald to work with, as it requires a unique set of spaces. Donald’s third year at Robert Gordon also saw him create a Tourist Centre Swimming Pool. The colourful scene shows a wide perspective in which female bathers make use of Donald’s outdoor pool design. He’s also included a vague landscape of encroaching trees and a hillside in the distance, creating a serene area for the pool. A small plan is also included in the drawing, showing lavatories and a shower room. The pool scene was a focus on a small area of Donald’s Layout for a Tourist Centre. The large drawing shows the plan of an area designated for bungalows, tennis courts, and an administrative building and restaurant. The plan is accompanied by seven drawings on tracing paper, showing detailed measurements in plans and elevations of the administrative building and restaurant. Donald also drew his design for a Pierhead Building at Kyle Slangemhor during his third year. The design is covered through three drawings: the first is a colourful perspective of the building set against hills displayed in the background; the second is an axonometric view of the building, and the third shows elevations of the building from every side, as well as a ground floor plan that includes an office, shop, and store. Some of Donald’s most interesting drawings aren’t strictly architectural. In 1936 he also created Coronation Decorations, three watercolours featuring designs for decorations to be used at the coronation ceremony of George VI. The drawings all feature a promenade dotted with Donald’s designs for coats of arms and shields hanging from pylons that line the street. The colourful drawings provide a good example of how eclectic Donald’s skills and interests were. The street depicted is Union Terrace, in Aberdeen. 1937 - In his fourth year of study at Robert Gordon College, John Donald’s subject matter revolved around recreation and leisure activities. The Pithead Baths presents an axonometric view of a bathing facility, as well as a ground floor plan that included spaces designated for a canteen, drying rooms, lavatories, boot greasing/cleaning, and a spray bath area. Created in the same year, Seaside Promenade Development shows a perspective view and plan for a seaside recreational area. The plan shows tennis courts, bowling greens, a band stand, and other recreational areas placed alongside a beach. 1938 – John Donald created two large plans during his fifth year at Robert Gordon College, the first being the Zoological Garden. The drawing features a large perspective view of the zoo, as well as a complex plan designating which animals were to go where. Donald created his design for Working Class Flats in the same year, in which he again showed a large perspective of the area where the flats were to go, as well as a an aerial plan for how the four blocks of buildings were to sit in relation to other existing offices and shops. Donald also included floor plans for three different types of flats that were to exist within the buildings. Donald’s fifth year also saw the creation of two similar, more streamlined building designs. The City Sports Centre presents a wide perspective of a slightly more contemporary building, with three figures playing hockey in the foreground. A similar building design can be seen in Donald’s Factory Assembly Block. A perspective view of the building shows the entrance, and mostly glass side wall, surrounded by a sparse landscape. Both buildings feature simple designs without any elaborate ornamentation. 1939 – In his final year at Robert Gordon College, John Donald completed his design Hotel, Scottish Highlands. Donald included a front elevation of the hotel, surrounded by a quickly sketched forested landscape. There are also plans for the ground, first, second, and third floor, as well as a general layout plan that includes a dining room, single bedrooms, and a bar. John Donald earned honourable mention for the Rowand Anderson prize for his design for A National Theatre. A cross section of the theatre can be seen along with plans for a dress circle, gallery, and mezzanine. Donald presented the theatre in more detail throughout five additional drawings; interior plans include dressing rooms, stages, and seating, while exterior plans show different elevations for the theatre, as well as the buildings in relation to major roads, and a car park area.

Administrative History Born in 1916 in Buckie, Banffshire, John Hutcheon Donald was a student of Gray’s School of Architecture, a division of Robert Gordon College, from 1934 to 1940. While studying, Donald received honourable mention in the Rowand Anderson competition for best fifth year student, and was a finalist for the Tite prize. Donald also received training as an apprentice under distinguished architect and well known landscape gardener John Alexander Ogg Allan, from 1937 to 1938. While an apprentice for Allan, he worked on drawings for the Tullory primary school, which still exists today, and the Ruthrieston Academy, which has since been demolished. Both sites are located in Aberdeen. In June of 1940, Donald graduated from Robert Gordon College and was admitted to the ARIBA later the same year. 1940 was also the year that Donald returned to work as Allan’s assistant. The position was short lived however, and in 1941 Donald took up a position as an architect and surveyor for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of Scotland. The position entailed evaluating building proposals that were seeking aid in the form of government grants. Originally stationed in Wigtownshire, the position moved Donald to Caithness, Aberdeenshire, and eventually to Dumfries and Galloway in 1970, where he was named senior architect and surveyor. Donald stayed there until his retirement in 1979, living in a house he designed nine years earlier, along with the surrounding landscape. John Hutcheon Donald moved to Milltimber, Aberdeen soon after, where he died in 1997.

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