Lonsdale House, 271-273 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
Lonsdale House, 271-273 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 105697
Level of description:
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:__________________________________________________Style: ModernePeriod: Inter-WarDATE: 1936;ASSOCIATIONS: Arron Investments P/L;DESIGNER: Anderson, I G;BUILDER: Denton, A W P.GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYStatement of SignificanceHistoryArchitect I.G. Anderson is thought to have applied for a permit to allow extensive alteration of this former warehouse in August 1934. The sum estimated to be spent was 14000 pounds. The Myer Emporium (advertising) was a major tenant after the work was carried out so it is surmised that they were also the owners (as they are today). Other early tenants included the Hellas Club, a number of tailors on the ground level and elsewhere also mantle makers and furriers were distributed through the building.DescriptionEvidently a renovation of an earlier 19th century warehouse, this is now a Moderne styled building with steel window frames, a cemented and streamlined facade, and new metal framed shopfronts which are particularly evident in Caledonian Lane ( made by Gill). Some shopfront sections survive in Lonsdale Street as does the upper office level entry, with Jazz Moderne wrought iron balustrading, black glazed tiles and an abstract patterned terrazzo floor in the hall and lift lobby. The main upper facade is of four levels, divided horizontally with radiused edge spandrels which about a 'vertical feature' with stepped tower at the parapet line. The lettering 'Lonsdale House' is on one spandrel and the canopy fascia, itself almost complete and highly stylised, albeit in poor condition.External IntegrityLonsdale Street shopfronts replaced on east side, canopy damaged.StreetscapeSimilar height and finish to the adjoining 19th and 20th century warehouse retailingling premises, this building presenting a combination of the two era which led to Myeestablishmentment and growth in this established warehousing area.SignificanceAn accomplished and early streamlined Moderne style renovation of an earlier warehouse which itself had helped create a merchandising centre which its later owners (Myer) were able to capitalise upon.VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER(not registered)Lonsdale House is a 1933 conversion of two earlier warehouse buildings, which had been purchased in 1931 as part of the expansion of the Myer department store on Lonsdale Street. Sidney Myer had established his Bourke Street Emporium in 1914 and expanded north to Lonsdale Street in 1926. The architect I G Anderson was commissioned to convert the former warehouses to a modern office building, accommodating the differing heights and floor levels of the two earlier buildings. The new building was designed in the Moderne style, the fashionable style for city commercial buildings in the 1930s. It was completed in 1935 by the builder W P Denton at a cost of around ₤14,000. Anderson designed a large number of buildings in Geelong, Melbourne and later, Tasmania, and is best known for his domestic commissions. He embraced the Moderne style in the mid-1930s, and became one of its leading exponents. Myer occupied the fourth floor, which was connected to the adjacent Myer store, and the remainder of the new building was leased commercially. Tenants over the years included the Hellas Club and a number of businesses associated with the clothing industry, such as tailors, mantle and corset makers, pressers, furriers, manufacturers' agents, and a mannequin academy.Lonsdale House is a five storey streamlined Moderne style building, made of reinforced concrete and with cement-rendered facades, steel-framed windows, and a tower near the eastern end. The Lonsdale Street facade is given horizontal emphasis by the curved balconettes and the long spandrels curved at the ends and decorated with incised lines, now painted green, and vertical emphasis is provided by the green-trimmed tower, stepped and decorated with semi-circular elements at the top beneath a flagpole. Along the parapet line is a strip of elaborate Art Deco style rendered decoration and 'Lonsdale House' is spelt out in Art Deco style lettering across a lower spandrel. There are three shops along Lonsdale Street, whose fronts have been altered, and five along Caledonian Lane (with shopfronts by Gill), constructed in the basement of the earlier building.Lonsdale House is architecturally significant at a local level as an accomplished and early Moderne style commercial building and as an example of the work of the architect I G Anderson. It has local historical significance as a demonstration of the expansion of the Myer retail empire in the inter-war period..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites RAIA 20th C. Register, CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATION 15612, 13.8.1934.NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954)Wednesday 1 July 1936 - Page 18https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/244760325Transformation In Old City BuildingsA REMARKABLE transformation is now being effected in two old I building in Lonsdale Street, between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets and adjoining Myer's on the east side, which are being remodelled and merged into one modern structure, to be known as Lonsdale House. The change will bring' about further improvement in this area, which on its southern side has been considerably developed in recent years.The premises which have thus been transformed comprise Levy Bros. Building of five storeys, and the adjoining three-storey property on the corner of Caledonian Lane, formerly known as Hallowthorne's Building.An unusual architectural feature of the remodelling is the fact that the differing heights and floor levels which formerly existed have been entirely eliminated. This has been ingeniously effected by the introduction of new horizontal alignment throughout. On the facade floors, which would have indicated the differing original heights, have been made to appear level by the introduction of balconettes, altering the apparent window heights in one building to conform with the heights of the other. Where new storeys have been added, existing floor levels have been j preserved.The old Levy Bros. building was also of much greater width than the corner structure, and tower scheme is incorporated in the new facade, as shown in the accompanying sketch.Piers between all the old and narrow wood- framed windows have been removed, and larger steel-framed windows substituted thus increasing both light and ventilation.The design provides for three ground- floor shops, one with a 21ft. 5in. frontage and others with frontages respectively of 14ft. and 12ft.The basement of the comer building has been abolished, and in its place five shops, with very short flights of steps to each, are being erected on the Caledonian Lane frontage, thus, in effect, changing the depth of this corner block into a frontage of small retail shops, 'with modern plate-glass windows. The upper floors of the remodelled building are laid out for small factories, with passenger and goods lifts, and connecting corridors. The old cellar of Levy Bros. Building has been remodelled as a modem billiard parlor, with dimensions of 36 feet by 120 feet. This has special ventilation, fire sprinkler service, and alternate means of escape. Factories throughout are fire-sprinkled, and stairways and fire escapes are provided to accommodate the maximum number of employes.The architect for the work is Mr I. G. Anderson, of 20 Queen Street, city.See also https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205535187.VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER(from Nomination report)CONTEXTUAL HISTORYThe Streamlined Moderne style became the fashionably commercial style in the city in the 1930s, for buildings such as office blocks, department stores and car show-rooms, and in the suburbs for cinemas such as the Rivoli, Camberwell (1940), and the Astor, St Kilda. In either faience or cement-rendered reinforced concrete the style expressed movement and symbolised speed.Sidney Myer established his Bourke Street Emporium in 1914. The Myer Emporium was expanded in Bourke Street and a new vertically streamlined facade added in 1933. The Lonsdale section of the store opened in 1926 and was extended in 1931..Illiffe Gordon Anderson (1890-1963)[Adapted from nomination report]I G Anderson was born in South Yarra in 1890 and moved to Geelong in 1910. He studied architecture at the Gordon Institute of Technology and later at the Atelier at the University of Melbourne. After winning an architectural competition for the design of the Mildura Club at Mildura in 1919 Anderson began practising in Geelong. His works there included the O'Connell Block (1923-5), Belcher's Building (1926), the former CML Building (1926), the Tait Block Building (1925-7), the Retail Market (1926) and the Corio Theatre (1926). He adopted the ideas of the Garden City Movement and designed an estate in the Geelong suburb of Corio, later renamed the Grandjean Park Estate. A major commission was the Geelong West City Hall in Pakington Street (competed 1924), a two storey building in the English Renaissance Revival style.Anderson moved to Melbourne in 1930 after receiving a commission to design the Brunswick Market (VHR H1307). This Spanish Colonial style building was the first of a number of market buildings designed by Anderson, including one in Smith Street, Fitzroy, next to Foy & Gibson's, and one in Wilson Street, Horsham. His work also included apartment blocks, factories, cinemas, houses and maisonettes, municipal buildings, cafes and golf clubs. Like many other inter-war architects his style changed dramatically as he embraced the Moderne style in the mid-1930s, and he became one of its leading exponents. At a time of economic hardship he was regarded as one of the new breed of architects able to reduce building costs by adapting functionalist architecture. However his grandson recalls that he gained much-needed revenue by undertaking small jobs of remodelling market stalls at the Prahran, St Kilda and Queen Victoria Markets.He is best known for his domestic commissions, particularly apartment blocks, which include the Garden Avenue precinct, East Melbourne, classified by the National Trust at a State level. Others are Ostend, Brighton (1934), Dorijo, East Melbourne (1934), Avenue Court, Albert Park (1934).Anderson also designed a number of buildings in Tasmania in the inter-war period. During WWII he was employed as the Chief Architect for the US Army in Victoria, during which time he was responsible for the remodelling of the Skipping Girl Factory in Richmond for use by a group connected to General Douglas MacArthur. In 1947 he left Melbourne to work in Tasmania, establishing a practise in Hobart in partnership with his son Leslie. The firm was prolific, and Tasmanian commissions included motels, hotels, houses, halls, a railway station, a swimming pool, government offices, and the magnet Court Shopping Centre in sandy Bay; many of these have since been demolished.Anderson's other great passion was painting, and in 1937 he was awarded a Fellowship of the British Royal Society of Arts, held a number of exhibitions in the 1940s and 1950s and designed the Coat of Arms for the City of Hobart.He died in Hobart in 1963. A second son, John, who had also joined the firm, closed the practice in the late 1960s..HISTORY OF PLACE[from nomination report]In 1931 Myer acquired two warehouse buildings at 269-273 Lonsdale Street, adjoining their Lonsdale Street store. These were the five-storey Levy Bros building and the narrower three-storey building on the corner of Caledonian Lane, formerly known as Hollowthorne Building. The architect I G Anderson was commissioned to convert the former warehouses to a modern office building. The original design was for the Levy building site at 271-3 Lonsdale Street, to be symmetrical and 'of simple and open appearance', with the top of the building designed 'to carry out the rhythmic feeling conveyed by long sweep of the horizontal bands below' (Age, 14 August 1934). The cantilever verandah span was to be the longest in the city at that time. The design included a light court in the centre of the block and a stairway finished in terrazzo with chromium balustrading. Each floor was to contain three 'factories' and served by electric passenger and goods lifts. The design provided for incorporating the adjoining Hollowthorne building, and when this was acquired the design was extended and revised to enable the differing floor levels to be integrated. The conversion of the building was completed in 1935 by the builder W P Denton at a cost of around ₤14,000. The building was known as Lonsdale House from the date of its construction..Newspaper accounts cite the remodelling and merging of the two existing buildings as a 'remarkable transformation'. Constructed in reinforced concrete, it is noteworthy for the high standard design of the cement-rendered surfaces, the use of the latest materials (such as steel-framed windows), and for the inclusion at the eastern end of a large tower topped with a flagpole. The conversion accommodated the differing heights and floor levels in the two buildings. The process was described in the Herald (1 January 1936) as follows: 'the facade floors, which would have indicated the differing original heights, have been made to appear level by the introduction of the balconettes, altering the apparent window heights in one building to conform with the heights of the other'..The new design provided for three ground floor shops on Lonsdale Street. The former basement of the corner building was filled in and five shops created along Caledonian Lane, all with modern plate glass windows. The upper floors of the remodelled building were laid out for small factories and businesses, with passenger lifts, goods lifts and connecting corridors. The factories were provided with fire-sprinklers, stairways and fire escapes. The former cellar of the Levy Bros building was to be remodelled as a modern billiards parlour, with special ventilation and fire sprinkler services, but it is not clear whether this proceeded (in the 1934 design it was proposed that this space be used for 'frock show rooms and other display purposes'). Myer occupied the fourth floor and the remainder was leased commercially. Tenants over the next two years included the Hellas Club and a number of businesses associated with the clothing industry, such as tailors, mantle and corset makers, pressers, furriers, manufacturers' agents, and a mannequin academy. The building was (and continues to be) connected to the retail section of the Myer Lonsdale Street store.Examples of Moderne style commercial buildings already included in the Register include the former McPherson's building (1934-7, VHR H0942) in Collins Street, by Stuart Calder and Reid & Pearson. This is considered to be an extraordinary example of the streamlined Moderne style, expressed in the continuous horizontal bands of terracotta, steel-framed windows and large display windows. It also has historical significance at a state level as a demonstration of the diversification of secondary industry in Victoria under the stimulus of population growth and tariff protection after WW1, and for its associations with the company that built it. McPherson's was a prominent manufacturer of hardware in Victoria, and its governing director, William McPherson, was an important figure in political and economic affairs, being premier and treasurer of the State in 1928-9. The Emily McPherson College is another substantial Melbourne building bearing the McPherson name. Alkira House (1937, VHR H397) in Queen Street by J H Wardrop, which has a facade clad in contrasting grey, green and black faience, is an exceptional and flamboyant example of the jazz Moderne style, and a reflection of the influence of contemporary European architectural philosophies in Victoria..ComparisonsSeveral key examples of the Moderne style are not included in the Register. The most important of these is Mitchell House on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale Streets, near Lonsdale House, by Harry Norris (1936), which is Norris's finest central city design in the Streamlined Moderne style. It is on a prominent corner site, with a curved corner and off-centre vertical element, and is a convincing amalgam of abstracted vertical classicism overlaid onto horizontal layers of concrete spandrel panels and broad expanses of steel-framed glass. Yule House (1932) in Collins Street by Oakley & Parkes is arguably Victoria's, and possibly Australia's, first example of a Moderne-style commercial building. Its emphatic horizontality is achieved by deep and protruding horizontal spandrel panels separated by horizontal strips of steel-framed glazing. Newspaper House (1932-5) by Stephenson & Meldrum was also a conversion of an earlier warehouse building with a horizontal Moderne facade with balconettes. It has on the exterior a Napier Waller mosaic mural which is included in the Register (VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER H0447).
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 105697 | 1 PDF : 1,216 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |