Union Insurance Society of Canton, 45-51 Queen Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
Union Insurance Society of Canton, 45-51 Queen Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 108062
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Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
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Graphic materialsTextual material
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Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)
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UnrestrictedOpen access.
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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2022:__________________________________________________DATE: 1957;ASSOCIATIONS: Union Insurance Society of Canton;DESIGNER: Bates Smart & McCutcheon;BUILDER: E A Watts.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWFrom Melbourne Planning Scheme Amendment C387melb | Panel Report | 10 November 2021Statement of significanceWhat is significant?The former Union House building at 43-51 Queen Street, Melbourne, completed to a design by BatesSmart & McCutcheon in 1958, is significant. Elements that contribute to the significance of the placeinclude (but are not limited to):• Original building form and scale;• Original nonloadbearing curtain wall including natural aluminium frame windows and opaqueglass spandrel panels to its principle (Queen Street) façade; and• Original expressed reinforced concrete spandrels and natural aluminium frame windows to itsrear (Samuel Lane).Later alterations, particularly at street level, are not significant.How is it significant?The former Union House building at 376-378 Bourke Street is of local historic and representativesignificance to the City of Melbourne.Why is it significant?The former Union House building, designed by Bates Smart & McCutcheon and built by E A Watts in1958, is historically significant as a part of the postwar development and rapid growth of corporatearchitecture in Melbourne of the 1950s-60s. The building was constructed for the internationalcompany Union Insurance Society of Canton, who owned and occupied the building from 1958 to1970. Located in the financial and commercial precinct of Queen Street, the building is significanthistorically as a reflection of the growth of insurance and assurance companies in Victoria during the1950s-60s, that cemented Melbourne's pre-eminent role in the state for financial institutions. Thebuilding was designed by architects Bates Smart & McCutcheon, the architectural practiceresponsible for the design of many notable buildings in Melbourne. By the 1950s, at the time thesubject site was built, the firm had become one of the largest practices in the country and hadbecome Australia’s ‘experts’ in high-rise office buildings, exemplified in Melbourne by ICI House(1958). (Criterion A)The former Union House building is significant as a largely intact example of an architect-designedcommercial development in central Melbourne, utilising the Post-War Modernist style thatcharacterised the new wave of development in the postwar period. These buildings represented thenew modernism in their modular, industrial Bauhaus inspired aesthetic incorporating features suchas consistent access to daylight and open floor plans to meet new standards for commercial officeaccommodation. The building retains defining characteristics of its style, including the lightweightaluminium framed, fine-graded modular curtain wall façade, with alternating clear glazed andcoloured opaque glass spandrel panels providing a lightweight grid across the façade, as well as therear elevation facing Samuel Lane with full width spandrel panels that appear to be of reinforcedconcrete, separated by rows of aluminium framed windows similar to the pattern of the Queen Street façade.(Criterion D).GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORMCites-RAIA (Vic) 20th Century Architecture Register includes CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATION 29821 Feb 1956 ; BUILDING IDEAS (CSR) March 1965 -32 Union Insurance Society of Canton 43 Queen Street, 1957 Bates, Smart and McCutcheon_________________________________________Cross-section 1958An unusual sight, a sign of the times, was the simultaneous completion of these neighbouring office blocks in Queen-st, Melb. On the right is the Norwich Union Insurance Society's bldg, designed by Messrs Yuncken, Freeman Bros, Griffiths & Simpson; on the left the Canton Insurance Co bldg, by Messrs Bates, Smart & McCutcheon. Both are neat comfortable & dignified. Canton House offers passers-by the pleasure of a mosaic mural at ground floor level. Syd artist Eric Smith was commissioned to design it; the final outcome so retires into the restrained character of the building front that the designer might well have been Mr McCutcheon himself. A sculpture over the doorway is by Tom Bass. Norwich House is fully air conditioned, using a reversible heat pump system; its interior features Mountain Ash offset by black, white & bronze trim. (Norwich Union: Hansen & Yuncken, bldrs; £600,000, 60-ft frontage; Canton Insurance, E AWatts, bldrs; £633,000, 82-ft frontage)_________________________________________CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWHO1365Former Union House43-51 Queen Street(1957)Architect: Bates Smart &McCutcheonSignificance· Historically significant as a Bates Smart & McCutcheon design for the Union Insurance Society of Canton and as a reflection of the growth of corporatearchitecture, and insurance and assurance companies during the 1950s-60s.· Significant as representative of an architect-designed commercial development utilising the Post-WarModernist style. A defining characteristic is the alternating clear and coloured opaque glass panels.SITE HISTORYPrior to the construction of the subject building at 43-51 Queen Street, the subject site, part of Crown Allotment 10, Block 3, was occupied by a four-storey building named the York Chambers (Mahlstedt Map Section 1, no 18, 1925). York Chambers, a brick building comprising a basement, ground and three upper floors, was auctioned in February 1952. An auction advertisement for the site described its ‘valuable position on the west side of Queen Street, south of Collins Street. Situated as it is in the heart of the financial centre of Melbourne, should be of special interest to insurance companies’ (Age 20 February 1952:10).Construction of the subject building had started by February 1957 (Age 7 February 1957:3). Constructed for the Union Insurance Society of Canton, the building was designed by architects Bates Smart & McCutcheon, and was due to be completed for a budget of £600,000 (Age 7 February 1957:3).The first commercial cargo insurance entity established in China to pay claims in China was the Canton Insurance Society in 1805, formed in Macau by two independent trading houses, Dent & Co and Jardine Matheson & Co. In 1835 Dent left the partnership to set up the Union Insurance Society of Canton (initially called the China Insurance Company), which moved to Hong Kong in 1842 when the island was ceded to Britain. The society was reorganised into an insurance company along modern lines in 1874 (Swiss Re 2017:6). In its new legal form, the Union expanded rapidly, opening branch offices in London in 1874 and Melbourne in 1883 (UISC 1952:16).The Union acquired China Traders Insurance Co in 1906, the China Fire Insurance Co in 1916, and the Yangtze Insurance Association in 1925. By 1920 the Union was said to be the largest marine insurance company in the world (UISC 1952:10; Smith & Middleton 1920:194). By 1952, a branch had been established in every major Australian city (UISC 1952:16).The Union Insurance Society of Canton was acquired by the Guardian Assurance Company in 1967, which was itself acquired by Axa in 1999 (Guardian 2019).Constructed to the height limit of 40.2 metres (132 feet), the building made full use of the 82-foot frontage to Queen Street, however, was purposely constructed to be only 60-foot deep, which allowed for a parking area to the rear (Age 7 February 1957:3; National Trust 2014). The insurance firm intended to take up only three floors of the site, leaving the rest of the building to be leased as offices. A Tom Bass abstract sculpture was placed above the main entrance, which represented the clipper ship symbol of the insurance company. A mosaic mural was installed at ground floor level by Sydney artist Eric Smith. A clock was also to be fixed to the front of the building (see Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3).(Age 7 February 1957:3).Figure 1. The Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd building at 43-51 Queen Street in 1970 showing the clock at its southern end (Source: Sievers, 1970 SLV copyright)The subject building was constructed with precast concrete wall panels and imported coloured glass spandrels. The glass spandrels gave a sense of horizontality to the building (National Trust 2014). As the site was silty, the building required 25-foot piles driven into the ground (Age 7 February 1957:3). The Union Insurance Society of Canton building opened on 15 March 1958 (Age 24 March 1958:11).In 1958, the architecture magazine Cross Section described the building thus:An unusual sight, a sign of the times, was the simultaneous completion of these neighbouring office blocks in Queen-Street, Melbourne. On the right is the Norwich Union Insurance Society's building, designed by Messrs Yuncken, Freeman Bros, Griffiths & Simpson; on the left the Canton Insurance Co building, by Messrs Bates, Smart & McCutcheon. Both are neat comfortable & dignified. Canton House offers passers-by the pleasure of a mosaic mural at ground floor level. Sydney artist Eric Smith was commissioned to design it; the final outcome so retires into the restrained character of the building front that the designer might well have been Mr McCutcheon himself. A sculpture over the doorway is by Tom Bass. (Canton Insurance, E A Watts, builders; £633,000, 82-ft frontage) (Cross Section 1958:1).The building has been primarily used as offices by various companies, with the Union Insurance Society of Canton, the company that constructed the site, occupying part of the building from 1958 until 1970 (S&Mc 1970). Another long-term tenant, an accounting firm named Marquard & Sons, were tenants from 1960 until at least 1983 (S&Mc 1960; Age 23 February 1983:27). Another insurance firm, Economic Insurance Co Ltd, was present at the site from 1960 until at least 1974 (S&Mc 1960, 1974). Other occupants have included management consultants, real estate agents and value assessors at different periods (S&Mc 1960, 1965, 1970, 1974).Figure 2. An illustration of the subject building in 1957 prior to its completion. The mosaic mural at street level can be seen, as can the sculpture above the main entrance (both outlined in red). (Source: Age 7 February 1957:3)Figure 3. The Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd building at 43-51 Queen Street (middle), and the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society at 53-55 Queen Street (RHS), both under construction in December 1957. (Source: Fowler 1957, STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA copyright)The most significant change to the building since its construction has been the removal of the mural, sculpture and clock from the ground floor façade. This seems most likely to have occurred in 1977 when alterations were carried out to the ground floor (MBAI 47822). The building has otherwise been subjected to internal partition changes (MBAI).The site now contains 19 businesses, two shops and two food and drink outlets (CoMMaps).Bates Smart & McCutcheon, architectsBates, Smart & McCutcheon (BSM) was formed when Osborn McCutcheon joined the existing firm of Bates & Smart in 1926. Bates & Smart had itself been born out of previous iterations of a firm that could be traced back to Reed & Barnes, thus making it one of the oldest practices in the country (Goad 2012:72). By the 1960s the firm had become one of the largest practices in the country (Goad 2012:72).During the 1930s, BSM had earned a reputation for designing Georgian-style residences, but also went on to win RVIA awards for their work on the AMP Building in Collins Street, Buckley & Nunn Building in Bourke Street (now David Jones), and a church in Camberwell (Goad 2012:73).By the 1950s, BSM had become Australia’s ‘expert’ in high-rise office buildings (Goad 2012:73). Much of their work at this time were large structures with glass curtain walls, and in Melbourne this was exemplified by ICI House which broke the city’s height limits (Goad 2012:73). This work was considered to have ‘changed the skyline [of Melbourne] forever’ (Goad 2012:73).At the time, the firm also developed a reputation for their work on university and other educational facilities. They were responsible for much of the laying out of Monash University, as well as the construction of some of the original buildings, and also had a hand in designing RMIT (Goad 2012:73). Commissions for schools include Yarra Valley Grammar School, Wesley College’s Syndal campus, and the Peninsula Grammar School (Goad 2012:73). Their best-known piece of educational work is most likely Wilson Hall at the University of Melbourne (1956), which was built on the site of an earlier Reed & Barnes Gothic structure (Goad 2012:73). Wilson Hall features a sculpture by Tom Bass, as does 158-164 Queen Street Melbourne (also designed by BSM and built in 1964), and the subject site (the sculpture of which is missing), showing a relationship between BSM and the sculptor.BSM has continued to be an influential firm in the time since the construction of the subject site. Notable work by the firm includes the Crown Casino and promenade, and the Royal Children’s Hospital (Goad 2012:74). BSM has also been involved in large collaborative designs in Melbourne with international architects, such as Melbourne Central with Kisho Kurokawa, Collins Place with I M Pei, and Federation Square with Lab Architecture Studio (Goad 2012:74).REFERENCESContextual History references contained within City of Melbourne Hoddle Grid Heritage Review:Postwar Thematic Environmental History 1945-1975Age, as cited.Brown, M 2010, ‘Bass, Thomas Dwyer (Tom) (1916-2010)’, Obituaries Australia, National Centre ofBiography, Australian National University, originally published 2010, http:/ /oa.anu.edu.au/, accessedonline 12 December 2018.City of Melbourne Interactive Maps (CoMMaps) 2019, http://maps.melbourne.vic.gov.au/, accessed 2April 2019.Clinch, R J 2012, ‘The places we keep: the heritage studies of Victoria and outcomes for urbanplanners’, PhD thesis, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne.Cross Section 1 April 1958, no 66, Department of Architecture, University of Melbourne.Eric Smith Australian Artists, 19 Films, http://www.ericsmithartist.com.au, accessed 9 April 2019.Fowler, Lyle 1959, ‘Office buildings in Queen Street, Melbourne, under construction’, State Library ofVictoria (SLV) Harold Paynting collection, accessed online 7 April 2019.Goad, Philip ‘Bates Smart & McCutcheon’ in Goad, Philip & Willis, Julie (eds.) 2012, TheEncyclopedia of Australian Architecture, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Guardian Insurance 2019, The Story So Far, https://www.guardian1821.co.uk, accessed online 4April 2019.Lewis, Miles 2012, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, Cambridge University Press, NewYork.Mahlstedt’s Pty Ltd 1925 City of Melbourne detail fire survey. Section 1, Mahlstedt Pty Ltd,Melbourne.Marsden, Susan 2000, Urban Heritage: the rise and postwar development of Australia’s capital citycentres, Australian Council of National Trusts and Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra.Melbourne Building Application Index (MBAI), retrieved from Ancestry.com 2015, Victoria, Australia,Selected Trial Brief and Correspondence Registers and Other Images, 1837-1993 [database online],http:/ /ancestry.com.au, accessed online December 2018.Merrett, D T 2008, ‘Banking and Finance’, eMelbourne, School of Historical and PhilosophicalStudies, University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au, accessed 7 April 2019.National Trust 2014, Melbourne’s Marvellous Modernism: A Comparative Analysis of Post-WarModern Architecture in Melbourne’s CBD 1955-1975, National Trust, East Melbourne.Sands & McDougall, Melbourne and Suburban Directories (S&Mc), as cited.Smith, Cades & Middleton, Alfred 1920, The British in China and Far Eastern trade, Constable & CoLtd, London.Storey, Rohan 2008, ‘Skyscrapers’, eMelbourne, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, TheUniversity of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au, accessed 7 April 2019.Swiss Re Corporate History, 2017 ‘A History of Insurance in China’, www.swissre.com, accessed 7April 2019.Union Insurance Society of Canton (UISC) 1952, A Brief Historical Record of the Union InsuranceSociety of Canton Ltd, The Union Insurance Society of Canton, Hong Kong._________________________________________NATIONAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA (VIC) 2014, Melbourne’s Marvellous ModernismOriginal Name Canton Insurance Building43-51 Queen Street MelbourneArchitect Bates, Smart & McCutcheonCompleted: 1957Significance:Built to height limit along with adjacent building with interesting patterned framing. Coloured spandrel panels lend a horizontal nature to the façade. Operable section to glazing.Intactness:Curtain wall intact. Original ground level lost._________________________________________NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)1932UNION INSURANCE SOCIETY' OFCANTON.SYDNEY,' Monday.— Mr. E. Gould, general manager in Austvalin for the Union Insurance- Society of Canton Ltd., has received a financial statement from the company, showing a balance after meeting expenditure of £338,966 from which the board recommended the payment of a dividend of 24/ per share….1952https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/23174916£150,000 DEAL IN CITYYork Chambers, well known landmark in the insurance section of Queen st., has been bought by the Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd. The price was some thousands above the £150,000 at which the property was passed in at auction in February.The building, No. 43-51 Queen st., is on the west side, between Flinders lane and Collins st.; has four floors, and is on land about 81ft. by 90ft. Agents were John Buchan and Company and W. F. Vale and Co. Mr. F. Sampson, G. G. Henderson Pty. Ltd., acted for the buyer..1953The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)Saturday 30 May 1953 - Page 19Insurance Company's profit upUnion Insurance Society of Canton Ltd. and subsidiaries made £486,581 profit for the year ended December 31, compared with £466,845 for 1951..1956PERSONALMr. C. R. Kingsland has been appointed generalmanager for Australasia of Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd. and British Traders' Insurance Co. Ltd. to. succeed Mr. R. C. Langker..https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71650471REAT NEW OFFICE BLOCKS, SHOPS, BANKS THE CITY GETS A NEW AND THE JOB'S ONLY BEGUNYork Chambers in Queen, st. are to go next to . allow a 12..- storeyed £600,000 building to rise . for the Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd..The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)Friday 6 April 1956 - Page 19https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71795901 illustQUEEN ST. WILL BE SHOW PLACEBy HÁRRY PERROTT, The Argus Property WriterWhen the present Queen st. rebuilding programme is completed, there is no doubt the street will become a second Collins st. a show section of the city...York Chambers, 43-51 Queen st., adjoining thc Norwich Union site, will shortly be demolished to make way for a building with 13 floors and basement. lt will be on a site. 81 by 90ft. and cost about £600,000. More than £150,000 was paid for the site some time ago. The building will be steel frame and reinforced concrete construction and mechanically heated and ventilated. Aluminium window frames, with colored spandrel sheets will fill the whole facade. The owners, thc Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd., will occupy the ground floor and a mezzanine floor overlooking the public section. The architects, Bates Smart and McCutcheon, Nine storey warehouse and office building for end of Queen st. have included a staff cafeteria and rest rooms in the basement. .
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 108062 | 1 PDF : 911 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |