UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
CROSS-SECTION
issue No 65 March I, 1958
The piecemeal & characterless additions to the ever- growing fringe of Aust's cities is as alarming as the choking of the city centres (C-S Dec '57). Melbourne grows each year by an area equal to Ballarat, and suffers more than other cities from the straitjacket grid of its primary roads. As chessboard suburbia unrolls its carpet of red roofs and paling fences over the undramatic landscape, the topography just lies underneath and dies. It is therefore heartening to
discover Melb arch't-planners Grounds, Romberg &
Boyd creating this sympathetic and thoughtful sub- division . although in Hobart. It is Alcorso Village, in Glenorchy, for Silk & Textile Printers Ltd. The winding road, the circuses (based on the precedent of Arthur Circus in Hobart, now mutilated) the preservation of every existing tree & the central park, next to the shops & hall add up to a landscape-conscious and humane neighbourhood.
The houses are all small (9-I sq), of timber & of
simple design, all white with grey roofs. Many are linked by carports into continuous rows. The client instructed that the Village should be "an example of how beauty & economy are allies rather than enemies".
The first dozen are finished, and occupied by British migrant workers working for the Company. (Continental Constr'ns, bldrs)
¶
One of the large suburb-building speculations pro- posed by A V Jennings Constr'n Co, in Melb (C-S Nov '57) was refused by the Council of the area.Mulgrave Shire withheld permission for a scheme with 300 houses & 42 shops because sites proposed are smaller than required. Jennings say that the smaller sites offset the £65,000 they intended to spend on a sewerage system, since the area is not sewered./
The Stanhill Development Ltd satellite town on the other side of Melb (C-S Feb '58) still has no town- planning authority's approval.
This new hairdressing salon, that of Elizabeth French Pty Ltd, at Hurstville, Syd, gives its impression of clean efficiency as a result of careful attention to the fittings & furniture. (Harry Seidler, arch't)
¶
The future of Melb's Western Market is again un- certain. A choice was made by the MCC Properties Com'iee (chairman Councillor-arch't Bernard Evans) but was modified later so that of 3 tenders received 2 have now been asked for £20,000 deposit cash and given 3 months to produce drawings & detailed pro- posals. A 4th, late, tenderer has somehow gained a promise to have his proposal also examined by the"expert commitfev" which has been created to make the final selection. The depressing feature of the affair is the way in which the search for a well-designed con- tribution to the cityscape at reasonable profit to the Council became a wrangle over profit or higher profit when the tenderers had not even produced (in I case not even prepared) a design proposal./The search for a developer for the other market site, the Eastern will be renewed, with new, easier, tender conditions . . . the site may even be divided into 2 or 4 parts.
¶ The Building Com'tee for Melb's new National Gallery decided to clear the site & gain revenue from car parking on it. The also discussed with the RVIA the pros & cons of an architectural competition.
¶ Syd's Opera House Fund, donations & promises, passed £330,000 during February.
This new kindergarten was opened at Rose Park, Sth Aust. (Philip R Claridge, arch't; A V Jenning Const'ns, Bldrs; £6900)
¶ Stresscrefe Constr'ns Ltd now supplies a large variety of precast prestressed concrete units from its new plant at Penrith, 40 miles from Sydney. The prestressing bed is 250 feet long, 20fí wide & is capable of prestressing forces up to 500 tons.
This filing cabinet with the open drawers is an office block in Lonsdale-s+, Melb, just built for the A M P Assurance Society. It is alternative accommodation for tenants out of the Society's Collins-st HQ. Not, therefore being openly connected with A M P prestige, it is a minimum-finish maximum-floorspace design. The open drawers are, in fact, bay-windowed offices taking advantage of the Reg which permits certain projections over the street. This must certainly be the most economic office block ever to come from the practice of Messrs Bates, Smart & McCutcheon. (Hansen &
Yuncken, Bldrs)
This welded steel rigid frame spans 110 ff with a 22 ins by 7 ins steel beam. Perhaps ironically, all ih's steel is to enclose a store of plywood. It belongs to Gunnerson Le Messurier Ltd, at Port Adelaide. Lighting will be artificial only. (Hassell & McConnell, arch'ts;
Prof Bull, Adelaide Univ, struct eng'eer; Forwood, Johns & Waygood, steel fabricators)
The construction of new wings at St Vincent's Hosp, Melb, has wended its way slowly through 5 financial years and at last reached completion. 340 nurses are accommodated in the nursing home, and 252 beds in the casualty & outpatients dept, seen here. (Stephen- son & Turner, arch'ts; T R & L Cockram, bldrs)
¶
Melb journalist Alan Nicholls was commissioned to write an account of the growth and activities of Messrs Stephenson & Turner.IT
Nominations for the 1957 Sulman Award for archi- tecture of merit in NSW are due this month. This year the class under consideration is Individual Dom- estic Residences completed 1952-7.IT
A syndicate of ratepayers applied for a lease of Puckey's Estate & homestead, near Wollongong, for development as a tourist attraction.¶ The caption to our photograph capturing the
"delicious architectural moment" at Circular Quay railway station (C-S Jan '58) brought protests. First, the responsible authority is the arch'ts of the NSW Railways, not (he personally points out) the Govt Arch't; second, the ornamental columns are granite, not marble.
Recent design by the NSW Govt Arch't is better shown by this, the Manly Girls High School, for which tenders are to be called next month. It is in Harbord, will accommodate 1000 students, has a gymnasium &
hall, will be built with lift-slab and curtain wall constr'n. (Miller, Milston & Ferris, struct eng'eers;
£275,000 estimate)
This is arch't Mr John Overall, once of Adelaide, at present of Melbourne.
He has been chief arch't of the Com'Ith Works Dept for 5 years. His appointment to that post surprised many (he came to it from private practice in SA), but his conduct of it has been popular. His term coincided with the appearance of CWD buildings superior to any before, even though he has not been much at the drawing board. He travelled
the world studying Govt-designed bldgs, last year he spent 3 months as a class-member at Prof Copeland's new College for Administrative Staff at Mt Eliza, Vic.
He found time to be active in RVIA committees, the Olympic Games Fine Arts Festival & as an examiner in Design at Melb Univ architecture school.
This is architect Mr John Overall, now of Canberra.
He is its first Commissioner, responsible for its future character. For £6000 a year the smile is the same. It is only to be hoped that in Canberra he can also be a strong influence; Canberra has been in need for a long time, but ifs present rapid expansion makes the need desperate. (See C-S next month.)
IT
From this week, dogmen on building jobs will not ride on crane hooks or sling loads. The practice has been banned by the Builders' Labourers' Federation, following 10 deaths in the past year. The union's secretary, Mr P Malone, points out that in no overseas country do dogmen ride with the hook or load.IT
At Rydalmere, near Sydney, a £41m cotton-spinning mill is being built for Davies Coop Ltd. Progress was temporarily delayed when a strike followed the dis- missal by the builders, Concrete Constr'ns Ltd, of 2 labourers accused of pilfering copper from the site.IT
Mr. Max Freeland, from Melb, was appointed associate professor of architecture at NSW Univ of Technology./Mr J H Shaw returned from England to his appointment as senior lecturer in Town Planning.¶ The Sisalkraft Scholarship 1957 (April '57) was awarded, after 7 months deliberating over the 30 entrants, to Mr Leslie M Perrott Jr, of Melbourne.
At the summit of Mt Lofty this new kiosk invites people to eat, sit and view in comfort. (SA Hous'g Trust, arch'ts; C E Sellars & Sons, bldrs; £17,000)
¶ In Broken Hill a new Golf Club House will be built this year "... a daring modern structure nestling into the hills" says Broken Hill Truth. (N S Webb, arch't)
¶Wollongong's rate of expansion can be gauged from the fact that, in 1957, £5fm was spent on private building.
II
In Bolton-st Newcastle a £300,000 6-storey bldg is being built for the National Mutual Life Assoc'n, and it is fully air-conditioned. Most of it will be let, some floors are equipped for medical or dental suits. (M V E Woodforde, arch't; A S MacDonald, Wagner &Priddle, struct eng'eers; W Stronach Ltd, bldrs)
These are new offices and a cool store for Cadbury Fry-Pascall Ltd, at Lane Cove, Syd. (Crooks, Michell
& Peacock, designing eng'eers, with Kevin Curtin, arch't. E S Clementson Ltd, bldrs)
IT
A new Christ Church, Gosford, north of Syd, will be circular in plan. This idea was proposed by the rector, Rev N A Pullin, who persuaded his building com'fee and then handed further design work to Syd arch't Kevin Curtin. A model of the new church was displayed at the centenary of the old./NSW's first country-town drive-in cinema was completed at Gos- ford. (A M Bolo+, arch't; E S Clementson Ltd, bldrs)¶
ICIANZ announced its intention to build a !£3m explosives factory at Bass Point, near Shellharbour.The A & NZ Bank Ltd occupied the lower floors of these new premises in Melb, at the corner of Lonsdale & Queen streets, facing north & west. In construction, it used open-web joists, the firs+ tall bldg to do so here. Ceilings are suspended fireproof plaster, floors of concrete on expanded metal, electrical services in the floor, ventilating in the ceiling with flared registers. (Harry A Norris, arch't; Clive Steel
& Assoc'tes, struct eng'eers; Swanston Bros Ltd, bldrs)
flood-proof walls in Banking Chamber
DURING the disastrous floods of 1954, which caused damage estimated at £3 million to the town of Lismore, N.S.W., the premises of the E. S. and A. Bank Ltd.
were flooded to a height of 5'9". Masonry was com- pletely saturated, and for 18 months afterwards it was impossible to paint or redecorate the interior walls.
It was decided that the bank building — situated in a bad flood area — must be safeguarded from future floods. Architects. F. J. Board & Sons were consulted.
Their verdict was "Waterproof the walls with Dunlop Vinyl Wall Tiles".
Dunlop Vinyl Wall Tiles, when affixed to concrete
or concrete render by skilled layers using a special waterproof adhesive, form a completely impervious covering.
Covering the walls to a height of 6 feet, the Dunlop Vinyl Wall Tiles ensure the interior walls of the Banking Chamber will remain waterproof should flooding occur.
They can be restored to their original beauty by simply washing and polishing the tiles.
Available in 24 colours, Dunlop Vinyl Wall Tiles have a real luxury look, long life, are easy to clean and keep clean, and give complete freedom of design.
No other wall tiles in the same price field can offer all these advantages.
Reconstruction by R.
Two Lismore firms helped E. S. & A. Bank:
& B. Constructions Pty. Ltd., Wall Tiles laid by M. R. Tresize P+y. Ltd.
MELBOURNE: Dunlop Floorings P/L., 96 Flinders St., MF 0371.
SYDNEY: Dunlop Rubber Aust. Ltd., 27.33 Wentworth Ave., B 0969.
ADELAIDE: The Dunlop Flooring Centre, 131-133 Pirie St., W 1647.
BRISBANE: Dunlop Rubber Aust. Ltd., Centenary Place, FA 0271.
PERTH: Dunlop Rubber Aust. Ltd., 424 Murray St., BA 8141.
HOBART: Dunlop Rubber Aust. Ltd., 27 Argyle St., B 6581.
LAUNCESTON: 18 Paterson St., B 2067.
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