UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
CROSS-SECTION
Issue No. 14: December, 1953
Tasmania's Sesquicentennial C'tee has changed its mind & will not permit volunteer architects &
students to improve the amateur design of the Foundation Memorial (C-S Nov) .
¶ 300 delegates are expected in Sydney in May for the biggest & meatiest RAIA Architectural Conven- tion yet. The organisers expect papers to be read by Mr Howard Robertson, RIBA President, and (contrary to a C-S statement last month—see inside) Dr Walter Gropius. Mr C D Spragg, RIBA Sec'try, is also expected. The Gloucester Room at the Hotel Australia has been booked as a convention lounge
& the ballroom for meetings. Papers read by Aust'n arch'ts & t-planners will bring the total to about 10. Each will last one hour & will not be published in advance. The design & exhibition c'tee appointed Mr. Harry Seidler to design the exhibition, in which the many commercial exhibits will be given some design discipline & a big central propaganda display will include a small but very special model house.
¶ The latest big bldg proposed for Perth is an 1 1- storey State Insurance Office in St. George's Terrace.
Its design by Messrs Hobbs, Winning & Leighton shows a marked development since Perth's last insurance bldg, the Prudential, opposite, now up 5 floors with the steel frame.
¶ In Sydney, the Minister for Transport, Mr E Wetherell, announced that no more trams would be bought; buses would gradually replace them.
The press applauded. /In Melbourne, the Tram- ways Board reiterated its dislike of buses; trams would gradually replace them. Sections of the press applauded.
"A possible development at St. Kilda Junction", this was one of the few detailed suggestions with which the Board of Works dressed up its reserved, work- manlike Master Plan for Melbourne, presented in the exhibition which opened Nov 16 & closed this week. The show began well with highly favourable press coverage & unexpected public enthusiasm.
Meanwhile in Sydney controversy on compensa- tion is reaching a climax. Claims for "injurious affection" under the Cumberland CC plan must be lodged this month. Property owners & agents assert that land "frozen by the blue-prints" (for railways, roads etc) is unmarketable yet may not be resumed for 50-100 yrs. No compensation will be made till then, & meanwhile owners must pay rates. But CCC Chairman Mr R S Luke explained that when the land is needed full current market value will be paid.
Thus there is no reason for prospective buyers "to back away" from affected land. A motion to have a Parl'tary Select Ctee inquire into stopping the plan
& disbanding the Cumberland CC was defeated at the Locol Govt Ass'n conference.
Il Spec building in the grand manner is revived by Mr A W Dexter, bldr, in an old estate off Heying- ton-pl in the plump heart of Toorak, Vic. He com- missioned Messrs. Yuncken, Freeman, Freeman, Griffiths & Simpson, who planned 6 spacious, elegant houses round a cul-de-sac. No care was spared in detailing nor any expense in finishing.
Behind the light facades are such appointments as genuine 18th-C mantelpieces.
¶ The Arthur Murray (USA) Dancing Studio opened in remodelled basement rooms in George-st, Sydney (Moore, Walker & Croaker, arch'ts; Sparks
& Colquhoun, bldrs) : 2500 sq ft with a large ball-
room, small teaching studios, offices. Mr. Tony Moore's thoughtful decorative treatment includes shaped ply panels between posts, cross bracing of brass rods with central screw rings & an undulating ceiling of silver-ash ply. Miss Marion Best's brilliant colour scheme introduces 15 striking colours.
Young Syd Univ graduate Mr W E Lucas put a lot of his own manual labour as well as careful archi- tectural study into this, his first house, at Sylvania, near Port Hacking, NSW. Louvred sunshades hang from the wide eaves' edge.
11 Today the Small Homes Service of NSW will be opened in David Jones' store, Sydney. It will sell plans & specifications of small houses designed by NSW RATA members, for £10. Plans will be pub- lished in the Aust'n Home Beautiful (Melb) & in the Sunday Herald. /Last Friday the Small Homes Service of SA was opened. It will sell plans &
specifications of houses by SA RATA members &
a number selected from Victoria's Small Homes Service. Publication will be in Adelaide's new Sunday Advertiser.
This 254ft-long dog pavilion is the first of the new bldgs proposed for Melbourne Showgrounds by the R.A. Society arch'ts, Messrs. Leith, Bartlett &
Partners.
¶ The main viaduct begins to take shape after the resumption of work on the Circular Quay, Syd, rail loop.
V The SA Lawn Tennis Ass'n will build a 2500-seat,
£25000 stand at Memorial Drive following approval by ACC of a modification of the design rejected last May (C-S June '53). /At Kooyong Vic, huge tem- porary scaffold pipe stands are nearly ready for the Davis Cup.
The whitened ends of 3" pipes project through dark blue-grey stucco over most of the facade of the new
Chamber of Manufacturers Insurance bldg in Flinders-st, Melb (Mockridge Stahle & Mitchell, arch'ts; G A Winwood, bldr) . Stylish details are concentrated at the entrance & continue throughout the interiors.
¶ Late this month about 400 men will start erecting Sydney's Royal tour street decorations: 1203 colour- ful standards costing £22,651 in Traditional (regal)
& Australian aboriginal designs—supplemented by a number of special features to "help obscure one or 2 unsightly places" & perhaps, for the special delight of the Queen, a giant lion-&-unicorn em- blem salvaged from London's coronation decora- tions. Rather less ambitious plans got under way in other cities. In Melbourne, aboriginal motives were promised to Elizgbeth St. Most of Melbourne's loyal street decorations will hang from her overhead web of tramwires.
11 The Arch't-in-Chief's Dept. SA, called tenders for a 40-bed women's ward, first step in the £lm ad- ditions planned for Northfield Mental Hospital.
This businesslike office interior for J Walter Thomp- son, Syd, demonstrates the polished, thoughtful de- tailing of recent work by Messrs Dykes-Johnson, de- signers.
¶ The big water plant at Mt Crosby, Q, won the Q RAIA Merit Award, but was described as "tragically unbalanced" by the Lord Mayor (Ald Roberts) whose Labour administration last year sacked both design- ers (Messrs F G Costello & G R Goffin) as City Arch't & City Engn'r respectively.
¶ SA Senator O'Flaherty claimed that 98 houses in the Hectorville War Service estate were falling down. A News reporter later found this to be an exaggeration; cracks between rooms were only up to 3" wide. The RSL & others demanded that WSHD accept responsibility.
¶ The NSW RSL, disturbed by the commotion over its College-st bldg which is being cleared to make way for new Anzac House, felt obliged to take large press advertisements to explain: "the League has evicted no one . the move has created a 'knock- er's paradise' for everyone with an axe to grind against the Diggers' Organisation."
¶ Steel framing began on Port Adelaide's 10-acre
£2m sulphuric acid plant. It was announced that waste heat from the plant will provide electrical power for the city.
¶ Salisbury, SA, council will buy for £25000 & re- pair 294 neglected wartime munition houses from the Fed'I Govt, fearful that otherwise a slum would develop.
¶ Sydney City Eng'r, Mr A H Garnsey, has pre- pared a plan for 1334 flats for 3500 people at Paddington, but the Victoria Barracks is in the way.
A SGC deputation called on the Defence Minister, Sir P. McBride, asking for the early removal of the barracks.
¶ Writing in the arch'I students' revived "Aspect,"
Syd, Mr Peter Miller, eng'r & Mr Tony Moore, arch't, agreed that architect-engineer collaboration in groups is the inevitable next step, the hope for young practitioners.
Two new houses by Mr. Rae Featherstone, arch't, in Toorak, Vic, a strictly brick area, have side panels only of brick & north walls framed in wood (as above, in Chasleton-av) or reinf-conc (in Lan- sell-rd).
¶ Mr Justice Richards is to conduct the long-post- poned inquiry into allegations of a timber monopoly in NSW (C-S Aug).
1! The Univ of WA, already Australia's best-looking university (the late Rodney Alsop, arch't, 1930) hopes to have Prof Gordon Stephenson, the English town-planning consultant to the WA Govt, prepare a master plan to cover its expected big expansion in the next few years. /The WA Govt approved a 15.4 acre site for a new Teachers' Training College on the river side of the University.
¶' The Dutch Ruhaak organisation, "impressed by Kwinana, WA," is exploring the prospects of build- ing a £4m factory for textiles, glass sheeting, ceramics.
In the new memorial hall at The Wilderness School, Medindie, S.A., Mr. Dean Berry, arch't, has placed the stage in the centre of one long side opposite the glazed wall to the garden. The stage is an open platform minus a "terrifying" proscenium, to reduce stagefright in young players.
¶ The report of the NSW RATA on the City of Sydney plan advocated relaxation of the 150 ft height limit in wider streets & facing parks.
If Marion, SA, Council flared up against the Hous- ing Trust's tiny but attractive pensioners' cottages (C-S, Oct 53). One complaint: "none would have a clear frontage to the street."
These 2 trim new buildings by Messrs. Bush, Haslock
& Parkes are opening eyes in Devonport, Tas: a ser- vice station (G Ibbott, bldr) & a house (H E Haslock, bldr).
¶ Adelaide's Tivoli will be modernised for £60,000 with seating cut from 1800 to 1500 & provision for movies.
¶ Wesley College, Wayville, SA, announced a
£30,000 building programme including a "modern Gothic" hall & administrative block, & a "modern"
dormitory block (Gordon C Brown, Arch't).
If The WA Minister for Health (Mr Nulsen) revealed that 50% of Govt hospitals & 100% of board hospitals outside the metropolis are without hot water systems; many are without septic systems.
In 5 yrs Messrs J J McGuire & Assoc'ts, engn'rs, have used "cathedral" buttress rigid steel-frame arches to cover 180,000 sq ft in various industrial bldgs. Latest: United Buyers Ltd bldg at Villawood, Syd (John Allsopp, arch't) &, above, Fabricated Products P/L b:dg at Mascot (George Stocks, arch't). Mr. McGuire also uses a system of continu- ously welded steel purlins spanning up to 35 ft. This type of frame is now offered by Altikar Corp'n, Port Kembla, utilising standardised joints & knees which enable a tailored bldg "for the cost of a prefab."
11 Bonds Tours will prefab SA's first motels, each unit with 2 rooms & a skillion roof, for erection at Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges, early next year.
Kellogg's new office block at Botany, NSW, will turn a bland, blank face to the public in order to avoid the unpleasant west. The main block retreats from the street, facing its windows north. A single storey executive wing on the left, opened to all aspects but the front, carries a pergola'd roof garden
(Stafford, Moor & Farrington, arch'ts).
11 A £21,000 restaurant & music shell is proposed for Hyde Park, Sydney.
¶ The "first piece of modern sculpture at Syd Univ"
was set in place at the main gates, a cubist sand- stone student studying, by Mr. Tom Bass—who later visited Melbourne for consultations with Messrs Bates Smart & McCutcheon, arch'ts, on the exten- sive sculptural works for Melb Univ's new Wilson Hall.
¶ A show at David Jones' Market-st store displayed Syd Univ students' designs incl a new Great Hall for the University. "We asked the students to assume that the old hall had been destroyed by fire," said Prof H I Ashworth. "The recent destruction of the Wilson Hall at Melbourne gave us the idea. . IT 2 11-storey insurance bldgs are planned for prominent Adelaide corner sites "soon": At Vic- toria-sq/Franklin-st by MLC for £7m; & at King William/Pirie-sts by City Mutual.
The most eminent figure in the building industries of the world ever to come to Australia will be here next year. But because reports on the forthcoming visit of Walter Gropius have been conflicting CROSS- SECTION last week telephoned Dr. Gropius in Boston.
In answer to questions Dr. Gropius said:
¶ I will be in Australia in May, during the time of the Architectural Convention in Sydney.
¶ The Royal Australian Institute of Architects is sponsoring the trip.
¶ Unfortunately I will not have time to travel widely in Australia. I will be there no longer than two weeks—probably about ten days. I understand I will go to Melbourne.
¶ I will want to see your contemporary architecture.
That of course is what interests me most.
¶ Several of my students are Australians or now in Australia . . . there are Peter Stephenson and Harry Seidler. Seidler has built many houses in Australia which have been illustrated widely in magazines. I have read several publications and one or two books about Australian work.
¶ Being a teacher I have been particularly close to the younger generation for a long time. I am hoping to see the work that the younger men of Australia are doing. I am looking forward to form- ing my own opinion of their work and discussing it with them.
¶ In America, contemporary architecture has in- creased considerably since the war, due mainly to the work of young architects, several of whom have made valuable contributions to contemporary thought.
Where beauty and utility must combine
A NEW STORE AT FRANKSTON,
stopping off and shopping centre for Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, emphasises planning and presentation as an important factor in retail selling.
Architects: Mockridge, Stahle & Mitchell.
DECORATION WITH DIGNITY
is the keynote of this new Semastic Floor Tile installation at the showroom of Regent Motors Pty. Ltd., Melbourne. Discreet choice of colour and pattern make Semastic Tiles ideal for premises of this nature.
A NEW HOSPITAL
for the Sisters of St. John of God, Ballarat, features Dunlop Semastic Floor Tiles throughout all main areas of the hospital.
Architects: P. J. O'Connor and Brophy, Melbourne.
DUNLOP SEMASTIC FLOOR TILES
For complete information concerning:
• SEMASTIC FLOOR TILES • RUBBER FLOORING • FLEXIMERS • STAIR TREADS • LINK MATS • LINO TILES contact:
Dunlop Floorings Pty. Limited 130 Flinders Street, Melbourne Phone: MF 0371
Dunlop Rubber Australia Limited 27-33 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney Phone: M 4409
The Dunlop Flooring Centre 131-133 Pirie Street, Adelaide Phone: W 1641
Dunlop Rubber Australia Limited Centenary Place, Brisbane Phone: FA 0271
Dunlop Rubber Australia Limited 424 Murray Street, Perth Phone: B 8181
Dunlop Rubber Australia Limited 27-33 Argyle Street, Hobart Phone: 6581
18 Paterson Street, Launceston Phone: 1650
IADVERTISEMENTI
