r*Ihrrrrrr

Issue No. 130

Model of Canberra Reserve Bank of Australia illustrated above shows its atrium relationship with future buildings to the rear. Two of its 3 floors are punctured by a circular well terminating over ground floor strong room. This was the winning design by Howlett & Bailey, archts, of Perth, in the competition held last year.

Luya Julius Pty Ltd's new bulk store for Frigidaire & Nasco, Dutton Park, Brisbane. An accomplished reduction of build-ing elements to a minimum, producing a crisp and efficient design. Thynne & Associates, archts (M. Bryce, archi in charge); R. J. McWilliam, str. engr; Summers & Unthank, bldrs.

Photo R. Tan

This is Motel Palm Lake, Queens Road, Melbourne. Accom-modation:— ground floor, office, dining, coffee bar, kitchen; Three upper floors, 85 units. Swimming pool. Construction-r.conc. flat slab. M. Benshemesh, arch't.

August I, 1963

The construction of the new School of Architecture and Building, U of Melb, is now proceeding—steel work is up to second floor level and most of the basement has been poured. The prestressed conc. roof of the large lecture theatre is being completed this month. The appeal for funds has already brought sufficient response to enable additional small lecture theatres to be included in the contract. As a result all lectures will be able to be held in the new school instead of the 17 different locations that are currently used. The appeal is still open to further encouragements.

This ES&A Bank at Moe, Vic, was designed by Stuart McIntosh, arch't, winner of the University of Q'land Great Hall competition (see C.S. No. 128, June 1963). As in the Great Hall, McIntosh has designed this bank to be impressive and dignified, extending the roof planes to emphasise the space inside. If his design premises are not universally ac-ceptable, within his personal idiom McIntosh achieves the intended effect. W. I. Irwin & Associates, str. engrs., David Jennings & Son Pty. Ltd. (Bayswater), bldrs. if Hot on the heels of the announcement of the Princes Gate development over the Flinders St. Railway yards east of Princes Bridge (Melb), came news of another dramatic pro-ject: £30 mill scheme to roof the railway yards west of Princes Bridge, from Swanston Street, to Queen Street, in-cluding the re-building of Flinders Street station. The spon-soring company, H.J.K. Pty. Ltd., has a 99-year lease on the 10-acre site. Construction is hoped to begin within 12 months and to be completed within 10 years. Project archi-tects are Eggleston MacDonald & Secomb.

11 The route for a City Ring Road linking Alexandra Avenue with Victoria Street (Melb) met with a hostile reception in the daily newspapers, who criticised, justifiably, the loss of parklands in Fitzroy Gardens and Alexandra Gardens, and the noise nuisance of a freeway along Clarendon Street to two large hospitals—the Freemason's and the Mercy. The Claren-don Street route admittedly will do less damage than that originally proposed along Lansdowne Street. Extensions to the South-Eastern Freeway, although only tentatively designed, were also challenged for the amount of parkland that they would consume. But there seems no way out of the dilemma of land acquisition for trafficways—whether it is houses, fac-tories, businesses or parklands, the shriek of protest is heard just the same. To get a better road system existing land-use must be changed and some-one or something is bound to suffer. MeIb's newspapers do not seem to admit this reality. Pos-sibly there are better solutions than a plethora of ring roads e.g. improved public transport, perimeter parking stations etc., but the ring cycle has become the "conventional wis-dom". Anyway, as the Premier Mr. Bolte said: "There is no need for panic at this stage as there is no money in sight for a project of this kind''. And that, it would seem, is that.

Photos: David Moore

Alteration to terrace house, Paddington, N.S.W. Peter Muller, archt. Original 130-150 years' old officers' quarters prior to construction of Victoria Barracks. Acquired for £2,000 in slum condition with no bath and no kitchen. Muller took 5 weeks off, purchased £600 worth of materials and restored both house and garden. Then bought 80-year-old cottage at rear and converted it into an office. Interiors are inti-mate, colourful and imaginatively detailed.

Photo: Douglass Baglin

A.G.C. House, Sydney. Building: 4 basements, ground floor, 14 upper floors, 2 plant room floors. Concrete frame and flat plate construction. Services: 3 lifts, air conditioned (high pressure induction system on external zone and low pressure system on internal zone), single stair (fire) and sprinklered throughout. External treatment: black granite columns to ground and first floors. Reconstructed granite fac-ing panels. Grey anodised window frames. Solar grey plate glass. Unilite covered aluminium boxed mullions. Finishes: typical floors—acoustic plaster ceilings, vinyl wall sheetings, metal skirtings, demountable partitions. Sculpture at en-trance: designed by Tom Bass and executed by Mr. Z. Vesley. Brewster, Murray & Partners, archts; Stanley, Llewellyn & Whitten, str. engrs; Julius, Poole & Gibson, electrical & lifts engineers; Norman & Addicoat, mech. engrs.; James Wallace Pty. Ltd., bldrs. The architects claim: "The elevation treat-ment is both aesthetic and practical. Each floor is projected to form a hood and it has the following advantages: it gets away from the flat curtain wall which is universally being de-cried as becoming too boxy, monotonous and uninteresting, apart from its troubles and problems; acts as a sun shade to the glass and greatly assists the air conditioning, especially on the longer northern side; eliminates glare through the win-dows; provides a protection from the wind up-draught, which has been a cause of trouble with curtain walling, especially leaks; allows easy window cleaning with quick access, and protection for cleaner; enables the curtain wall dado to be less fire resisting than it would have to be otherwise; elimin-ates the need for structural perimeter beams. These hoods and fascias of course, give a horizontal effect to the eleva-tion. As the other buildings on this important new Square are predominantly vertical and generally taller than A.G.C. House, it was felt that a vertical effect would be more ap-propriate. This was achieved by: (i.) Making the horizontal fascias to the hoods a grey colour. (ii) Fixing grey glass to a curtain wall the full height from floor to ceiling levels. (iii.) The erection of narrow pure-white metal strips. These vertical strips, which stand out predominantly, are very prac-ticable, because:— (a) they act as downpipes for the hood water, which is collected to avoid dirt on the front facing. (b) they act as the columns for the cleaners' external safety rail, which is now compulsory". Anyone want to argue?

5 To be built in Adelaide:— £500.000 engineering plant for Civil & Petro-Chemical Engineers Pty. Ltd., opposite Port Stanvac refinery; Cheesman Doley Brabham & Neighbour, archts. / Works bldg. for Adelaide City Council, in Halifax Street; Walkely & Welbourn, archts. / £1.5 mill regional shopping centre, comprising a department store, supermarket, 60 secondary shops, medical and professional chambers, and an air-conditioned mall; on 26-acre site at the corner of Diagonal Road and Sturt Road, Marion, John Graham & Co, of New York & Seattle and Stephenson & Turner of

Adelaide, archts.

Photo: Fritz Kos This is a model of the first of five blocks of State Public Offices to be built on the Observatory-Hale School site near Parliament House, Perth. The architects, Finn, Van Mens & Maidment, were selected by an open competition last year. (See C-S No. 114, April 1962). The design has changed considerably since then: most noticeably the T-shaped sun shields have been replaced by horizontal extensions of the floor slab, with black columns exposed externally. In this view, the approach steps appear bewilderingly complex, the more so because of the simplicity of the building's elevations. 1f To be built in Perth:— new departmental store for Bairds; windowless above ground-floor, air-conditioned, four floors, main frontages to Murray & William Streets. Hobbs, Win-ning & Leighton, archts. / £500,000 Central Police Station and cell block, near the Causeway. Public Works Dept., archts.

This is a view of the pleasant central mall of the Waringah Mall Regional Shopping Centre at Brookvale, eight miles north of Sydney. On 28 acres, the Centre accommodates two department stores (David Jones-160,000 sq. ft.; Grace Bros, 60,000 sq. ft.), a chain store (Woolworths-30,000 sq. ft.), 50 small shops (60,000 sq. ft. total) and parking for 2,300 cars. Cost approx. 2 mill., organised by Hooker Pro-jects Pty. Ltd. (Sydney) for the Hammerson Group of Com-panies (London). Alexander Kann, Finch & Associates, archts; Rankine & Hill, str. engrs; W. E. Bassett & Partners, mech. engrs; Concrete Constructions Pty. Ltd. & Rex Building Co., bldrs; H. H. Watson & Co., civil engineering con-tractors.

f

•

Two adjacent buildings by Woods, Begot, Laybourne-Smith, & Irwin, arch'ts. In the background (top photo), the Pruden-tial Building, North Terrace, Adelaide. Wilckens & Burnside Ltd., Bldrs. In the foreground, new front to G. & R. Wills, wholesale merchants, Gawler Place. Another checker board pattern (cf. Biological Sciences bldg, CS No. 129, July 1963), which though it looks corny in strict elevation, seen obliquely in normal pedestrian views, gives an interesting play of recessions and projections that is very satisfying as street architecture. The re-facing was required to permit the widening of Gawler Place, which meant that a slice had to be taken off the western end of the old brick warehouse building. Cost limits were severe—brick and rendered panels, aluminium windows were chosen for cheapness and minimum maintenance. The base and external facings to the ground floor shops are honed marble.

The recently issued draft by SAA of "Dimensional Co-ordination & Modular Drawing Manual" invites critical corn-mentary, and cannot fail to produce this in respect of some of its illustrations. The lead established by the Canadian research organization in a similar publication has not been followed. The present document deserves a pained outcry from all members of the profession. Do write to SAA about its model "cottage", of which the above is a sample drawing.

Bush Brotherhood Church, Cunamulla, Q'land. Lund, Hutton, Newell, Black & Paulsen, arch's. A vigorous and carefully conceived design, in structure, finishes and attention to cli-mate control. The architects report: "As far as climate con-sultants are concerned we applied nothing but our own knowledge and research, this being the first real opportunity to prove our own theories as being reasonably correct, and to illustrate that it is possible to create climatic comfort within a building without necessarily having to use air-con-ditioning or evaporative cooling which have become un- reasoned pre-requisites . the roof was considered as a "parasol" completely shading the interior and upper level glazing. Having a 10" air space between the roof sheeting and the open boarded ceiling, air is allowed to move freely via the eaves, thus creating an air "blanket insulator" from the extreme summer heat". Glass areas are kept to a mini-mum and solid wall to a maximum (opening sections—steel framed with solid opening panels faced in aluminium outside and natural walnut veneer ply internally). Walls-6" r. conc. with rough cast render finish uncoloured. Roof structure-8 steel framed stressed skins, brought down to the four but-tresses, whose footings and piers (16 ft. deep) are indepen-dent of those to the wall and floor slabs. Cost £27,000; inc. landscaping.

Photo: David Moore

Architect's own house, Double Bay, by Tom Heath. J. P. Cordukes, bldr. Garden design by Bruce C. McKenzie. Cost excl. furnishings £9,500. 15 square open plan. Three levels. Electric radian+ heating in floors and ceilings. White tile roof, white painted bagged brick work, dark timbers, no metals. Impression of immense height within; clearstory light-ing and corner windows. Settles well into a sloping site despite neighbouring spec-built specials whose texture brick and roses emphasise a slightly ghostly atmosphere emanating from the preponderance of white and the gravel garden filled with exotics.

Italo-Australian Club, Canberra, Dr. Enrico Taglietti, archt. Cost £25,000; met by club members and by a donation of £4,000 from the Italian Govt. 80% of the labour was a

voluntary effort by the Italian community in Canberra. Con-struction—conc. piers, steel trusses, fireproof ceiling. The roof has a bold overlapping band, sheeted with asb. cement shingles, to reduce glare and produce a hooded temple-like enclosure, particularly dramatic on those elevations where the lower edges are not nibbled away to allow entrance cano-pies to emerge.

WHO WANTS

WHAT?

Whatever it is — we have it, do it or know it. We don't take chances with floor problems. We can't afford to. We make, install and maintain. We operate a specialised service; reliable advice, accurate quotes, prompt installation and maintenance. A service that goes with the complete range of flooring materials we sell. Vinyl asbestos floor and wall tiles, fleximers,

link mats. Stair treads, nosings, vinyl coved skirtings, rubber floorings, inlaid mats. Lino and lino tiles, wax free vinyl tile polish, vinyl tile cleaning powder, plus the extensive range of Dunlop and Amtico flexible vinyl tiles. You name it. We have it. And all in the one place. The Dunlop Flooring Service. D F7939

MELBOURNE: 96 Flinders St. 63 0371; SYDNEY: 27-33 Wentworth Ave. 2 0969; BRISBANE: Centenary Place. 31 0271; PERTH: 473 Murray St. 21 5566; ADELAIDE: 131-133 Pirie St. 8 1641; HOBART: 27 Argyle St. 2 6581; LAUNCESTON: 18 Paterson St. 2 2067.

Library Digitised Collections

Title:

Cross-Section [1963]

Date:

1963

Persistent Link:

http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24057

File Description:

Cross-Section, Aug 1963 (no. 130)