Landmark

by PAUL DAFFEY

Sir Kenneth Luke Stand, Waverley Park

HISTORY

Under the leadership of Ken "K.G." Luke, later Sir Kenneth, who was the Victorian Football League president from 1956 to 71, the league bought 212 hectares of market gardens and dairy farms in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs in 1962 with a view to building the first stadium dedicated to Australian football. In 1966, Luke used a silver spade to turn the first sod. Financial difficulties prevented work starting on the grandstand until 1973. It was completed in 1976.

AWARD

According to a National Trust report that documents Waverley Park's heritage-listing, the stand is "a pioneering example of reinforced concrete structure, employing the unique device of a concrete scissors frame as support for the large-span cantilevers". The structure of the stand was deemed so innovative that, in 1978, the Association of Consulting Engineers (Australia) awarded its national merit award to Melbourne engineering firm John Connell and Associates, which had carried out the instructions of architect Reginald Padey.

ARCHITECT

Padey came into contact with Ken Luke while working at the architectural firm Meldrum and Partners as part of his studies. In 1962, after graduating, Padey went on a six-month trip. He was in New York, looking at the stadium that had been built for baseball franchise the New York Mets, when he received a telegram notifying him that Ken Luke had told the press that his architect for the proposed Waverley project was overseas looking at stadiums. Padey revised his schedule to look at more stadiums than originally planned. He took in the Olympic stadiums at Helsinki and Mexico City, as well as the stadium that was being built for the Tokyo Olympics. While caring little for London's Wembley stadium, he was enchanted by the Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. "It was beautifully done," he said.

BIG PLANS

Padey, whose interests also included church architecture, designed Waverley Park in 1963 as an all-seater venue for more than 150,000 spectators. Lack of money meant it was built in stages and never did it come close to fulfilling the original design. The Sir Kenneth Luke Stand was one of the stadium's few features to come close to fulfilling its design. It was built on top of an outer stand. Padey, a 78-year-old now retired in Glen Iris, failed to draw much satisfaction from the stand because it was one part of a grander plan. "I wanted to see the ground in its full design," he said.

FUTURE VISION

During Allen Aylett's presidency of the league from 1977 to 85, Aylett encouraged, among other things, the use of corporate boxes in the Waverley stand. "I used to walk into the outer and look back at the Sir Kenneth Luke Stand and think about when it would be developed around the full circumference of the ground," he said. That vision was killed off by state Labor government action against plans to shift the grand final to Waverley.

STAND ALONE

After Waverley Park hosted its final AFL match, Hawthorn's thrashing of Sydney in round 22, 1999, everything was ripped down except the Sir Kenneth Luke Stand. In front of the stand, 38 concrete terraces stretch down to the oval that is to host Hawthorn training sessions from next season. If looking at the stand from the oval, you're faced with a visage of plate-glass windows that lends a futuristic look. The top deck of the stand is full of seats that will never be used; they've been left there for heritage reasons. If you're driving along the South-Eastern Freeway towards the city, the stand makes an arresting sight as it rises above the flatlands of the suburbs.

DEVELOPMENTS

While most construction sites lend the appearance of a Star Wars set, the high windows at the Waverley stand increase this effect. On a tour of the stand this week, journalists could be impressed by the Hawks' plans for a 50-metre running track and a 48-seat theatrette. But it was on the third floor of the stand, looking over the proposed gym area and onto the oval, that the plans came alive.

FINAL WORD

"He was a big man in all respects, a man of great vision." Waverley Park architect Reginald Pavey on former league president Sir Kenneth Luke.

This article first appeared in The Age on Saturday, June 4.

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