UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
Issue No 72 October I, 1958
The National Capital Development Com'n now acts as official client for Canberra public works. One of their first large buildings, for which a contract has been let, is Lachlan Court, a block of 118 bachelor flats in Barton, and it will use no fines concrete, (CWD arch'ts). But much greater lies ahead: the future permanent, Parliament House has a site at last, the Lakes Scheme is approved in principle, and the De- fence Dept has been promised its own special area &
buildings, the 1st of which will cost £600,000, (could that be in return for the irksome bother of moving from Melbourne? Archt's are Buchan, Laird & Buchan, Melb, with help from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, USA.) These 3 decisions plotted on a map make the heart of the Canberra Plan a triangle with a watery middle, whose apexes are Civic, an empty Capitol Hill with Parliament House below it, and the Defence Dept guarding the American War Memorial. The symbolism may have been inescapable.
This synagogue at Dover Heights, Syd, has been illustrated and explained in Architecture in Aus- tralia (RAIA, Syd). Ingenious tailoring to a narrow, very suburban, lower-than-pavement site is one aspect of its excellence. It was designed by architect Neville Gruzman and artist Eric Smith in collaboration, and is truly a synthesis of +heir skills./The same blending is less likely to occur in the Melb Univ's new Central Library, for, when the building was far advanced, selected artists were invited to submit designs for an internal mural./For the Church of the Holy Name, St. Peters, SA, Mr Max Birrell is to paint a 300 sq ft mural; his design & the church's were evolved together. Now under construction (Michelmore, Roeger & Russell, arch'ts)
Photo, Mark Strizic The complex of new buildings making the works of British Nylon Spinners (Aust) Ltd, at Bayswater, east of Melb, reached completion. Half of its £4m cost was used in building and roads, half in equipment.
All structures are on piles & ground beams, even +hough the foundation is secure clay, in order to obtain freedom from vibration; the steel frames are also heavy for rigidity. Elaborately equipped labora- tories are included, for process control. (Stephenson
& Turner, arch'ts; Utah Construction Ltd, site works, McDougall & Ireland, bldrs)
¶ Hurrying ahead with the Persian hospitals' work- ing drawings (C-S Sept '58) Messrs Stephenson &
Turner needed more metric scales for their drafts- men, and had exhausted MeIb's supplies. So they imported 2 dozen. Customs officials noticed the novel childrens rulers and set out to discover who was improperly importing overseas toys.
IT MeIb's Master Plan, amendments made, should re- turn to Parl't for final approval before this Christmas.
~) The first Architecture School building in Melb Univ (given by the profession, in 1921) was de- molished. It was a brick pavillion, 21 ft square. An architecture course has existed at Melb Univ since 1861, so it looks as if at least one century may pass before Architecture moves in to its own architecture.
/John S Gawler, Dean of the architecture school from 1931 to 1946 was made a life fellow of the RAIA.
¶ An exhibition, "British University Architecture of Today" came to Canberra from London./The display of entries in the Taubmans Family Home Comp'n, moved from Sydney to Brisbane.
¶
A tender was accepted for Perth's new Com'Ith Bank; £571,000 which is £30,000 below the estimate.(J Hawkins & Son Ltd, from 8 tenders)
IT
The annual Convention of the Master Builders Federation of Aust begins in Perth this week.This is the main block (with Nurses' Home beyond) of the Perth Chest Hospital, it was officially opened with views to King's Park from Hollywood, it has 216 beds in 8 suites, each with 4 4-bed, 4 2-bed & 3 single wards plus day rooms & solariums. Steam is piped 1,320 ft from nearby Hollywood Hosp. The photo shows the north wall, faced with turquoise panels. The undulat- ing roof covers animal pens. The hospital and its nurses' home cost £IZm, provided by the Com'Ith Govt. (WA PWD, arch'ts; H A Doust Pty Ltd, bldrs)
¶ At Marrickville (Syd) District Hosp, the 1st wing of a new Nurses' Home is being built, costing
£300,000 accommodating 130. Each floor is planned as a "flat" for 17 nurses, with 2 bathrooms, one lounge & a pantry. (Leighton Irwin & Co, Melb arch'ts). The "flat" is more nearly approximated at Adelaides Queen Elizabeth Hosp, Woodville (C-S Nov '57) where each floor is subdivided so that 7 nurses share a bathroom, lounge & kitchenette.
Access to each uni+ is by open balconies. (Stephen- son & Turner, arch'ts)
¶ Adelaide Children's Hosp will be expanded to 600-bed capacity, in several stages; 10-floor out- patients' wing by 1962, extensions to Nurses' Home by 1964, 10-floor surgical block by 1965 (Woods, Bagot, Laybourne-Smith & Irwin, arch'ts). Estcourt House, the children's convalescent hosp at Grange, will be doubled to 100 beds (J S Hall, arch't) If An approx £2m contract on provisional Bill of Q
& unit rates contract was let for the construction, using lift-slab technique, of an office building in Syd, with frontages to both O'Connell-st & Bligh- st. It is for the Royal Exchange Assurance company.
(Kenneth McConnel, Smith & Johnston, arch'ts;
James Wallace Ltd, bldrs)
¶ The 1st Tasmanian chapel in the Mormon building programme (C-S June '58) was completed, on Rosny Hill. It is similar to the 1st in Adelaide, & also de- signed in USA.
This £48,000 RSL Memorial Centre was completed, in Scarborough-st, Southport, Qland. Its auditorium seats 450, its stage is equipped for Little Theatre.
Money was raised by the United Services Building Assoc'n, who handed over the building after com- pletion. (Prangley & Crofts, arch'ts; A H Kerven, bldr)
IT Entries are due next month for an architectural competition organised by the Architectural Graduates Society, Melb Univ, sponsored by Stegbar Windowalls Ltd. £500 prize is offered for designing a £30,000 community centre for 30 aged people in Frankston.
A year of fund-seeking for the Syd Opera House has resulted in £100,000 from the NSW Govt,
£20,000 from Syd CC, £80,000 more promised by Syd CC, private donations given or promised
£154,000, 3 state lotteries £500,000. With 2 more lotteries due this year there should be £Im in kitty when Mr Cahill lays the foundation stone in Febru- ary. Demolition of the old tram depot on the site is under way.
¶ The Com'Ith Govt accepted a £78,472 tender for an office building in Kirribilli, from Messrs Polden
& Wilson Ltd of Willoughby.
By using mezzanine floors, enough space is freed inside this building to express internally the sugges- tion of a grand Banking Chamber. It is, by the way, the Hobart Savings Bank. A less expensive building than its neighbour, the Commonwealth Bank (C-S March '57), and none the worse for that. (D Hartley Wilson, arch't; Hansen & Yuncken, bldrs)
This building is the closest neighbour to the Soils Research laboratory illustrated last month, both of them at Glen Osmond, in the Adelaide foot-hills. It is the Home of the Australian Wine Research Institute.
(Woods, Begot, Laybourne-Smith & Irwin, arch'ts) 11 Tenders were called for the ABC's first T V studios in Adelaide, to be at Collinswood. It is a 125-squares bldg with a 50 x 35 x 25 ft high studio. (Com'Ith Works Dept, arch'ts)
¶ Extensions were completed at the factory, in Vic- toria-rd Rydalmere, NSW, of Hunter Douglas Aust Ltd, who make aluminium awnings & panels. Two co- managing directors have identical suites. (Harry Seidler, arch't; Coleman & Fairburn, bldrs) If 65-year-old Paling's Concert Hall, in Ash-st Syd was remodelled ...cast iron columns removed, acoustic treatment, new stage, new lighting, new furniture, new foyer, new dressing rooms. (E M Nicholls, arch't; J P Cordukes, bldr; Soon Bros, colour consultants)
¶ Working drawings of a 27-flat block for Pyrmont, to cos+ £80,000 were completed by Syd City arch'ts, and mark the Council's first entry into housing con- struction. The money is from previous sales of Coun- cil properties; future blocks will take Pyrmont re- development to Elm worth.
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•,
An arrangement clinched between the Dutch Govt
& the World Bank provides £2.7m for housing Dutch migrants in Australia.
¶ Grand Central Car Park Bldg, Melb (see C-S Dec '57, for once-proposed completion) was sold for
£360,000.
11 A new £65,000 High School at Lilydale, Vic, was opened, replacing one burned by fire in May. Has 9 classrms, 4 offices, was finished in II weeks. (Vic PWD arch'ts, T W Morris Ltd, bldrs)
11 A new High School at Orange, NSW, is being built with precast concrete frame & cladding, fabri- cated in Syd by Concrete Industries Ltd. Five special trains take the 430 tons of components; the building will cost i£340,000, accommodate 1200 pupils (Kevin Curtin & Gov't Arch't)/At Wolaroi College, Orange, a new 2-storey Junior School was completed: £16,100 for 3 dormitories, a classroom, & a master's flat. (Brown Brewer & Gregory, arch'ts; A A Evans, bldr)
Casual observers have though+ that this, the firs+ of the Com'Ith Govt's Melbourne office blocks (C-S Sept '56) was completed some time ago. But con- struction has continued upward, and now it is ap- parent that the big box is a mere acropolis, base for a galaxy of mechanical temples.
¶ Oland Cabinet drafted terms of reference for an enquiry into the Brisbane Town Plan situation.
This design for a primary school is the NSW Govt Architect's special answer to a northern town whose summer is hot & dusty and where floods may come:
a polygon of 10 elevated classrms, with toilets, of
fi
ces& 2 classrms on the ground floor, a landscaped court in the middle. This solution answers basic problems neatly, & is fine architecture, so worth criticising: the answers are incomplete; keeping the access corridor to the inner side precludes sun from the southern classrooms, while the western ones, closed as they are from 3.30 until next day's classes, will in the morning be suited only to cookery. In fact the arrangement of rooms and ramps has a symmetry which speaks of unnecessary, formal, concessions to the circular plan.
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Athletes at Melb Univ's Beaurepaire Sports Centre were joined by bronzed Zeus, from Artemission. This is the promised gift from the Greek Orthodox Com- munity of Melb (C-S Oct '57); the only other copy of the classical original is the plaster version in the foyer of the U N Building, New York.
11 Two years ago Mr Osborn McCutcheon gave a statement to Cross-Section, about Melb Univ's Wilson Hall acoustics. At least a year, perhaps two, will be needed before 'tuning' is completed, he said. Pre- sumably, therefore, whatever could reasonably be done has now been done.
¶
Syd arch't Mr Arthur Baldwinson is now in part- nership with Geoffrey Twibill, younger Syd arch't, the partnership of Baldwinson, Booth & Peters having been dissolved.¶ A 3-storey office building for the Metal Trades Employers' Assoc'n was completed, in North Sydney, with frontages to Mount-street and to Walker-st. Con- struction allowed for 6 additional floors. Its long, northern side has a curtain wall which is free of struc- tural members because columns are inset lC ft 6 ins, and the flat plate slabs cantilevered; there are sun- shading hoods over windows. (Spain, Cosh & Stewart arch'ts; Stanley & Llewellyn, struc+ eng'eers; H W Thompson Building Ltd)
¶
Melb Univ Gazette entry, among Benefactions:"£40,000 from an anonymous donor for the purpose of building on a scheme agreed upon in due course".
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"Space Age Design ... sensationally futuristic ...
resembling a clump of mushrooms" said the local press, of this Bowling & Recreational Club at Peak- hurst, Syd. The Club hopes to start building within 6 years. (Loder & Dunphy, arch'ts)
time you spill the acid
Miss Thwaites, make sure it's on the DUNLOP VINYL TILES
A laboratory at the new Kodak Warehouse, St. Paul's Terrace, Brisbane.
Architects:
Cook & Kerrison.
Builders:
Hutcherson & Newton.
WE'VE no evidence that Miss Thwaites works at the new Kodak Warehouse, St.
Paul's Terrace, Brisbane, but if she does, she can spill acid on the walls as well as the floors. Because the architects for Brisbane's new Kodak building say—
"During the initial planning stages of the recently completed Kodak Warehouse, it was apparent that special care would be essen- tial in selecting wall and floor finishes to the developing and printing workrooms and darkrooms.
"The workrooms use 4 million gallons of water per year, in addition to chemicals and acids in the various stages of filin processing.
"All surfaces had to be acid- and water-proof, and present a decorative, readily-cleaned surface.
"After discussion and testing of many finishes, it was decided to use Dunlop Vinyl Tiles.
"In all, 1,100 yards of Vinyl Wall Tiles and 1,000 yards of Vinyl Floor Tiles were used in this installation."
Next time you feel like throwing acid — or simply want sound advice on the use of vinyl floor or wall tiles, pre-formed vinyl coving, rubber flooring, lino or lino tiles, Fleximer underlays, link mats, stair treads
— contact the Dunlop Flooring Service.
MELBOURNE: DUNLOP FLOORINGS PTY. LTD., 96 FLINDERS STREET. PHONE MF 0371.
SYDNEY: DUNLOP RUBBER AUST. LTD., 27-33 WENTWORTH AVENUE. PHONE B 0969.
ADELAIDE: THE DUNLOP FLOORING CENTRE, 131-133 PIRIE STREET. PHONE W 1647.
BRISBANE: DUNLOP RUBBER AUST. LTD., CENTENARY PLACE. PHONE FA 0271.
PERTH: DUNLOP RUBBER AUST. LTD., 424 MURRAY STREET. PHONE BA 3141.
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DF/FP/8
