Percy Edgar Everett
| Percy Edgar Everett | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 26 June 1888 |
| Died | 6 May 1967 (aged 78) |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Other names | Joseph Everett |
| Occupation | Architect |
Percy Edgar Everett, (born Joseph Everett, 26 June 1888, died 6 May 1967), was appointed chief architect of the Victorian Public Works Department in 1934 and is best known for the often strikingly Modernist style of many of his designs for State Government institutions such as schools, hospitals, court houses, office buildings and the many technical colleges the department produced over the next 20 years.
His most well known design is the Police Headquarters at Russell Street (1940–1943), giving Melbourne “its first Gotham City silhouette”. Percy Edgar Everett’s style reflected and often combined a range of Modernist sources including American Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and European early Modernism, such as Brick Expressionism, the German Bauhaus and even Russian Constructivism, drawn from magazines and his two trips abroad.
Percy Edgar Everett was born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. His father, Joseph Everett was a blacksmith from England. Joseph established a coach-building business, as well as building business later on, for which Percy assisted with detailed aspect of the buildings.
Everett received his early education in Ashby Public School. The two subjects that drew most of his attention during his time at Ashby were drawing and piano lessons. It was there he first tried his hand at sketching. Among his early subjects were ships, figureheads, and sailors, suggesting the kind of environment he was born into.
His interest in drawing, and his experience in the building industry, led him to architecture as his first career choice, with music as a second choice. Everett gained experience with Geelong architect W. H. Cleverdon and then became the first architecture student to enrol in the Gordon Technical College, under the dynamic leadership of George R. King, who established architectural section at the college. Everett graduated in 1906 and began his career as a graduate architect.
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