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UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

CROSS-SECTION

Issue No. 10: August 1, 1953

Mexico City had hoped to woo the 1956 Olympic Games with (among other attractions) its big new beautiful elliptical sports stadium planned for 102,000 spectators & avidly studied by many competitors for Melbourne's Carlton stadium fiasco. However, Mexico has a few tricks to teach Melbourne. 100,000 tickets for her stadium were sold for opening day.

But thousands couldn't get in. Then architects recounted the seats. They could find only 58,839. /Tenders close next month for an 81' high, 3-tier stand at MCG carrying

accommodation for the Games to 119,000 (Arthur W Purnell & Assoc'ts, arch'ts) .

• Melb'ne Trades Hall Council last week authorised Mr L M Perrott to prepare plans for a

£100,000 office block; part of a "large-scale" building programme.

11 Mr Emil Sodersten has been appointed Director of Sydney's Small Homes Service, which will reach into all States (except Vic

&

SA?) through the pages of Home Beautiful.

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Ice may be used as a structural material on Snowy Mt'ns. The S M Hydro-Electric Auth'ty is experimenting at Spencers Ck on a method of producing an ice coffer dam.

Greatest difficulty: establishing the initial barrier of ice.

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new high schools, 6 technical

&

7 primaries will be built at once by the Vic Educ'n Dept to ease the disastrous overcrowding in schools. They will mainly be collections of the light, cheap, attractive PWD prefabs illustrated in C-S, Jan. Changes in technique since then include Standard Steel open-web joists instead of oregon roof beams & maintenance- free pre-cast cement tiles ("masonry veneer") instead of boards on external walls.

High schools will start with a nucleus of 10 rooms (200 pupils), techs with 8 rms. Tenders for 112 classrms closed last week. 3 bldrs shared: z to G A Winwood, 4 to Gyngell Bros,

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to MacDonald Const'ns. Cost: under £200 a square.

(~ The NSW Housing Minister (Mr Clive Evatt) moved to abolish the Housing Commission for failing to satisfy the demand for homes & to carry out the function for which it was established. /The Vic HC was under political fire, with moves to cut the Architects' Panel.

(ij The NSW Govt refused to withdraw its ban on washing-machines in kitchens.

(~ The £300,000 r-c & brick railway station at Cairns was finished. Also nearing completion•

a £200,000 hospital block & £80,000 office bldg. Water lies 3' below the surface at Cairns. £13,000 of English pumping equipment was used to keep the station's footings dry when pouring its raft foundation. The other bldgs are on deep piles.

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Brisbane's Sunday Mail charged that the labour-controlled BCC was deliberately restricting industrial expansion in the West End. Later the senior town planner (Mr J E Lloyd) was suspended by BCC for having allegedly given information to the press.

(I On August 4, Mr Justice Weir of the Industrial Commission will start investigation of allegations of a NSW timber monopoly ring organised to regulate supply & control prices.

• The fabulous land boom at Surfers' Paradise, Q, is "out of control". Building lots, sometimes no more than sand patches, are selling at 10 times official valuation. Newest projects: an £80,000 "crystal palace" of shops, etc, & a £65,000 office block.

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Hunter's Hill (NSW) Mayor W Reeves supported National Trust moves to deflect a new express highway to save historic cottage "St Malo".

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At Zillmere, Q, the French firm of Le Corche Freres & Schroth pulled out of its contract to build 886 prefabs, leaving the State Govt to complete 314 homes. Demands for an inquiry into all prefabs followed.

(~ Messrs Mussen, Mackay & Potter are planning limit-height offices for Vanguard Insurance at NW cnr Bourke-Queen-sts, Melbourne.

Ç Arriving Melb'ne tomorrow, Lcs Angeles Chief Planner Mr Charles B Bennett on a good-will-boosting visit arranged by Town & C Planning Assn prior to publication of Melbourne B of W's city plan. Retired from chief arch't of Vic State S Bank, Mr G.

Burridge Leith, after 33 yrs. Partnered in Syd, Messrs John B Suttor & John A V Nisbet;

in Adelaide, Messrs E Emil von Schramek, L G Bruer

&

R B Dawes in the firm of Evans &

Bruer, Philpot

&

Partners. Started practice in Adelaide, Mr Bartley H Bishop. Awarded NSW research bursaries: Messrs H R Valence, N M Johnson. Returned from Singapore, where he attended the gala opening of the cinema he designed from Sydney (C-S Dec 52), Mr H P Oser. Opened practice in Perth "Architect Associates," a co-operative group of young men started by Messrs Jeffrey Howlett & Dennis Silver. Died in Ipswich, Q, Mr Martin W Haenke, arch't. Left Adelaide to lecture at Iowa State Univ, Mr Colin Green.

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The design by Messrs Bates, Smart & McCutcheon of1,2 a new Wilson Hall (rigid steel frame, brick, acoustic ply lining) to replace the Gothic Revival one burnt last year was approved by the Melb Univ Council. Before the model was shown The Sun giggled

"

. . eyebrows will be raised . . ." at its modernity. But after its publication Melbourne's eyebrows appeared steady . perhaps because the idea of logical architecture is

accepted after all, & it is no longer a question of "Modern" v "Gothic" but simply of good v bad.

• Congratulations from arch'ts all over Australia are pouring on Mr Douglas Annand.

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Mr Neil Clerehan, arch't, back from USA (where he was: "at Taliesin, a guest; at

UN, a consultant; at Miami, in gaol") slipped a 3 very smart dress shop into a tiny 10'

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central Collins-st frontage; quickly: in 10 days.

• 2 of the Vic HC's inept "£1000" 7-square economy houses will be built by the NSW HC

"as an experiment."

• Lord Mayors came back from the Coronation & USA full of traffic discoveries.

Sydney's Ald Hills advocated "pigeon-hole" car parks. Melb's Cr Brens wanted more bridges, in steel. Meanwhile "owner-onus" began in Melb, & Myers announced plans

(by Cr Bernard Evans, arch't) to start building immediately a 3-floor 500-car £250,000 parking station in Lonsdale-st. in Brisbane, a £100,000, 600-car station is planned.

IT Big plans are brewing to make the May '54 Arch'I Convention in Sydney the

greatest show yet: 42 trade exhibitors sponsoring a Town Hall exhibition . .. films made by RAIA & the Fed'I Govt. . . . televised to 6 city stores . . . subsidiary shows by interior

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designers, painters, sculptors, schools . . . commemorative postage stamp on Australian architecture.

RAIA's "Architecture", July, publishes a long report on the controversy over architects who act as builders (C-S, Mar). No new restriction on their activities is favoured.

(l Sydney's Society of Interior Designers awards regularly a "Good design label of the month" to Aust'n-made products. July award: pear-shaped ovenware by sculptor Miss Anita Aarons.

• Plans for immense & wonderful office blocks have been hopefully revived by the Fed'I Govt in Syd & Melb. A revamped version of the Melb Fed'I offices on land in the city's NE corner was published. The Sydney scheme is linked with the revival of a 100-yr-old proposal to extend Elizabeth-st by cutting throught to Bent-st. If Syd CC decides to cut

the street, the Fed'I Govt & Qantas may build £10-m offices on it.

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IT Cement production doubled in 3 mths in SA, but the demand more than doubled.

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Fort Nelson, 5 miles out on the slopes of Mt Nelson, was one of Hobart's early forts, commanding a breathtaking view of town & river. Mr J H Esmond Dorney, arch't,

recently bought the remains by public tender (the WSHD having refused the site as being too hilly) & is building 4-6 his own home in & around the fort structure. His temporary panoramic living block is a glass cylinder fitted over a 24' diam gun pit, the steps of which form seats concentric on the central sitting area. A study is separate, linked by an

existing ramp. 10 yds north is a second, larger gun pit round which Mr Dorney will build

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a permanent house. The history behind it is so colorful that this building is likely to be dismissed as a novelty, yet it is an object lesson in the sensible, economic & imaginative exploitation of existing conditions.

A £20,000 hotel at Roseworthy will be the first country hotel in SA since the war (Walkley & Welbourne, arch'ts).

• The fences, signs & sheds of 2nd-hand car lots make ugly new additions to most Australian towns. But at least one dealer in Adelaide sought professional advice for the office on his lot. He didn't actually employ an architect, but had drawings prepared by a student draftsman who desires to remain anonymous. 7 The result is an attractive complement to 2nd-hand American cars & the swagger 2nd-hand name. Its 720 sq ft were built by

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sub-contractors for under £1500, including Semastic tiled floor & Insulwool insulation.

(JJ "Design & Construction," a new monthly to be published in SA will feature plans of the projected SAIA Small Homes Service. /Melbourne's "Architecture & Arts" magazine will change from quarterly to monthly, starting this month.

• A 4-m cp approach lighting system will assist all-weather landing at Adelaide's

£14-m West Beach airport, nearing completion.

• The new £80,000 air-conditioned 8 picture theatre at Mt Isa, a W Q'land mining town 1400 rail miles from Brisbane, will have a panoramic screen & wiring for 3D sound, but architecturally it all still looks like Theda Bara.

J1 The first "drive-in" movie show was proposed for Rocklea, Brisbane: 750' x 150';

327 cars; £20,000. BCC gave tentative approval.

41 Public protests forced BCC to reject tenders of £2160 a year for defacing Brisbane's 3 fine, famous bridges (C-S, May) with neon advertising.

(I The steel frame was completed of the 1st section of the 9 £10-m Port Augusta, SA, Powerhouse, being built on timber piles on a site reclaimed from Spencers Gulf. Two 30 megawatt turbo-alternators & 4 giant boilers are now being installed. (Electricity Trust of SA, bldrs; Hurren, Langman & James, consulting eng'nrs) .

• Partly-completed Warragamba Dam was visited by 470 delegates attending a brief conference on prestressed concrete organised by The Cement & Concrete Ass'n in Sydney.

They saw its 100' 6-storey prestressed tower. (All columns & beams were cast on the ground.

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Columns, 18" sq, were cored with 4 holes near the corners & threaded with 18-strand cables tensioned with hydraulic jacks then anchored with wedges driven into the end

openings.) The conference was criticised by some engineers as lacking discussion on advanced techniques, but it gave the few arch'ts who attended a clear idea of the possibilities &

limitations of this "new tool."

J The first block of SAHTrust flats-10 Goodman Court, Plympton IR J Nurse, bldr) will be occupied this month. Then paving & planting, to be maintained by the Trust, will begin.

Meanwhile the second similar group, nearing completion on Anzac Highway, came in for hot uninformed criticism. The flats are solid austere bldgs in Mt Gambier Limestone ("like • barns . . . gaols") but carefully planned ("dumps ... why build flats at all?") & well sited

("why were they not built in regular lines?") & need little more than the trees promised

by the Trust to make them presentable. Even treeless, they are a simple relief in Anzac Hwy, 9 which has one of Australia's most pretentiously appalling collection of buildings.

41 The tile-covered floor slab of a 11 new house at Castlecrag, NSW, by Messrs Baldwinson

& Booth, arch'ts, is no-fines concrete where it rests on ground, reinforced concrete where it is suspended over the steep hill.

• Vic's £1000 cast plaster "Barry Home" is going up, but only in price. Latest outside estimate: £2400. Meanwhile a plaster manufacturer of Oakleigh, Mr George Castley, showed his 5-room £2650 plaster prefab.

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A 7-storey bldg for the Pharmaceutical Service Guild began in St Francis St, Melb,

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(Chris Cowper, Murphy & Assoc'ts, arch'ts; Simmie & Co, bldrs) . It is the first sizable new private city bldg actually to start for 15 yrs.

(~ NQ Tobacco Growers' Co-op called tenders for a £150,000 factory at Mareeba to make 20-m cigarettes monthly.

• Contrary to the evidence of PO bldgs, stamps & other PMG publications, the Post Office has a subtle appreciation of typographical design. Thus C-S is set this month for the

first time in 10 pt Metro, an approved orthodox type. The 10 pt Remington type face ~, used in previous issues was frowned upon as looking too much like a personal letter

for inclusion in second-class mail.

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This week as machinery is installed in the new Chesebrough (Vaseline products) building in Clayton, Vic., the architects took time off to review the job and list its probable firsts in Australian architecture.

Architects: Hugh Peck and Associates, Melbourne.

Contractors: Lewis Construction Co. Pty. Ltd.

(J The first floor (suspended concrete) is supported by open lattice joists mass produced by Standard Steel, Australia. The floor was poured in a wire mesh and building paper form, stretched taut over the lattice joists.

JJ The Standard Steel joists support heavy upper-floor mixing vats, carry steam traced pipes and permit gravity feed droppers, at intervals, to the ground floor packaging line.

(J All services are carried and concealed in the open web. The ground floor area is kept entirely free of columns for packaging and warehouse activities.

41 Constant viscosity of Chesebrough production required artificial lighting and mechanical ventilation throughout.

Floors throughout the production and packaging areas are of Dunlop Vinyl Tiles, specially imported from England for this job and available by arrangement. These tiles were tested by Chesebrough in the U.S.A. against other makes and found superior in oil

resistant qualities.

(J Spillage danger from mixing vats and packaging areas called for oil resistance of a high order. The Dunlop Vinyl selection allowed easy cleaning with no after-stain and avoided the bad security risk from slippery and dirty floors.

Further tests showed that Dunlop Vinyl Tiles, laid on a concrete base, stood up to the weight of loaded fork-lift trucks without cracking

(J In addition, other important areas in the Chesebrough building are floored with Dunlop Semastic Tiles . . . yet another important installation where beauty and utility must combine.

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