architect with strict protection of the adjoining bushland and sympathetic planting of rooftop gardens could achieve an 'intimate fusion of landscape and noble architecture' In 1967 he designed a significant garden on the roof space of the modernist Reader's Digest Building by architect John James. Together with landscape architects, Bruce Rickard, Harry Howard, and Allen Correy, Bruce Mackenzie established what became known as the Sydney Bush School of landscape architecture. These four landscape architects designed and constructed public landscapes in Sydney which combined the "universal values of modernism and the specific qualities of the Australian landscape". This approach was intimately tied to the Sydney School of architecture which was also establishing itself during this time. In many instance the architects and landscape architects worked closely together. An influential part in the development of the philosophy behind these design schools was the interaction between colleagues which took place at the offices at 7 Ridge Street, North Sydney. Bruce Mackenzie shared the Ridge Street offices with like minded architects, designers and artists such as Ian McKay, Harry Howard, Bruce Rickard and Harry Seidler and photographer David Moore. Designed as a purpose-built space for a community of designers the building was an incubator for design ideas. Many of the landscape architects who went on to build the profession in Australia including; Helen Evans, Finn Thorvaldson, Catherin Bull, Nell Rickard, Victoria GroundsGrounds, Ian Olsen and Jane Coleman, worked with Mackenzie in this office. In an interview with Barbara Buchanan in Bruce Mackenzie describes this time at Ridge Street: "There was that sense of being part of a group of fellow travellers who comprehended the same language and the same aspirations, the same projections . . . And of course we are not just talking about bush, but we are talking about design and planning, aesthetics and the circumstances and the environment of society, of the community, of the way you lived and worked and the way you played. It was that sort of association of people.". Mackenzie's practical knowledge of the indigenous species of Sydney's bush and landscape construction made him a person of influence amongst his peers who often consulted him in these matters. Mackenzie in turn enjoyed the opportunity to have access to other designers and modernist ideology. The Sydney Bush School evolved through this cross fertilisation of ideas. His first major work whilst in the offices at 7 Ridge Street was