Sniders & Abrahams' warehouse, 5-7 Drewery Place, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
Sniders & Abrahams' warehouse, 5-7 Drewery Place, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 102598
Level of description:
Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
Type of materials:
Graphic materialsTextual material
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Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)
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UnrestrictedOpen access.
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UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.
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Period: EdwardianConstruction date: 1908-9Materials: Reinforced concrete.ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYStatement of SignificanceHistoryAn established cigar and cigarette manufacturing firm, Sniders and Abrahams Pty. Ltd., were party to the use of an `unique' structural system in the construction of their new warehouse. The engineer and designer, H.R. Crawford was the Australian agent for the American, C.A.P. Turner's Mushroom Reinforced Concrete principle. First published in 1908, Crawford was to suggest the principle's use in this warehouse early in the following year. Other known examples of the mushroom system include Robert Maillart's Zurich warehouse, Switzerland (1910) and the Bovey Building, Minneapolis (undated) which is claimed as the first to use Turner's method. `Building' magazine cited a number of American and Canadian buildings built with the principle by 1910.It is probable that the Sniders and Abrahams' warehouse was Australia's earliest use of a concrete structural system which was to eventually replace the earlier beam and slab systems. These systems often raised the floor to floor height, blocked the entry of light and hindered both the vertical and lateral installation of service lines. The formwork required was also more costly but the mushroom system had more complicated reinforcing, with its conical column capital(facetted at Snider's) and the required continuity of column reinforcing into the floor slab. Melbourne architect, Nahum Barnet, had designed two factories in Drewery Place (1890- 1) for Sniders and Abrahams and, given the stylised column capitals, it is possible that he may have designed the exterior. Alternatively, Crawford acted as architect for houses in Parkville and South Yarra as well as a number of reinforced concrete warehouses, both in the city and West Melbourne. Crawford also designed another brick-clad, reinforced concrete warehouse for Sniders and Abraham (1912-13), at 273-275 Little Lonsdale Street, north of the first. In 1910, the managing director J.J. Shuh, desired only a duplicate of their new building if an extension was ever required: a statement which was to be proved incorrect by the Little Lonsdale Street Building. Of passing interest is that this frim supplied the cigar box lids for the famed 9x5 Australian impressionist exhibition in the late 1880s.DescriptionOriginally of five levels the building was concrete framed and clad with stucco inside and out except for the off-form ceilings. It generously offered a `luncheon room' at the fifth level and its flat asphalted roof was intended as a recreation area and skating rink for staff. So confident were the owners of its fire-proof construction that only the timber windows and contents were insured against loss.The architectural treatment of the facade is limited to giant order Romanesque revival pilasters and a shallow arch segment at the top of each structural bay. Windows were mere slots, set between each pilaster. It is likely that Barnet may have had a role in the facade, given his previous commissions.External IntegrityA similarly finished and fenestrated storey has been added.StreetscapeIsolated but visibly common in use to the surrounding buildings.SignificanceThe first flat plate or (more precisely) Turner mushroom principle reinforced concrete structure in Melbourne and among the earliest built in the world..VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER H0802(DOVERS BUILDING)What is significant?Dovers Building, was constructed in 1909-10 to the design of the engineer/architect Hugh Ralston Crawford. The building was erected as a warehouse and factory for the firm Sniders and Abrahams, Manufacturing Tobacconists. It was originally a five storey structure, utilising the Turner mushroom reinforced concrete system, and an extra two storeys were added in 1938 also designed by Crawford. The facade features a five storey giant order arcade with segmental arches and ornamental capitals.How is it significant?Dovers Building is of scientific (technical) and historical significance to the State of Victoria.Why is it significant?Dovers Building is of scientific (technical) significance as the first Australian building to employ the Turner Mushroom System of flat-slabs. This system was first described in the U.S.A. in Engineering News in 1905 by C.A.P. Turner and his first flat-slab building was the Johnson-Bovey building of 1906. Between 1906 and 1909, at least eighteen other buildings were built in the U.S.A. using the Turner Mushroom System of flat-slabs. This system was so called due to the peculiar formation of rods around the column head and the rapidity with which they could be erected. The Turner system, as used by Crawford at the Dovers Building, employed thin concrete floor slabs, which were reinforced in four directions and supported by octagonal columns. The Dovers building remains as one of the still surviving examples in the world using the innovative Turner mushroom system of reinforced concrete.Dovers building is of historical significance as an indicator of the size and importance of the tobacco industry in Melbourne at the turn of the century and a reminder of the industrial character of this part of Melbourne until the latter part of the 20th century. The firm of Snider and Abrahams was founded in Melbourne in 1870 and by the turn of the century was a highly successful cigarette manufacturing enterprise. The northern part of Melbourne, around Little Lonsdale and La Trobe Streets, where this building is located, was home to a number of industrial establishments, before changing transport requirements, rising land prices and the outward spread of the metropolis pushed them to more practical locations from the 1960s on. This building, although now transformed into apartments (in itself illustrative of the process of urban change), is a reminder of the diverse industrial processes that once occurred within the CBD.[Online Data Upgrade Project 2004].NATIONAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA (VIC)A building of international interest in the context of the evolution of reinforced concrete construction, as the second example of the American C.A.P. Turner's flat plate system, begun in the same year (1908) and completed not long after Turner's Lindeke-Warner Building in Minnesota, USA; of further importance locally as one of the early attempts to break the monopoly of the Monier system, and reflecting in its design the fact that it began as a conventional concrete frame (probably Monier) and was altered after commencement, so that it retains octagonal columns and octagonally conical column heads, rather than round columns and flared heads: the whole now in a good state of preservation, including externally a five giant order arcade with the segmental arches and ornamental capitals provided by the engineer-designer, H.R. Crawford, although an inappropriate additional storey has been added to the top.Classified: 19/04/1984.NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)Construction and Local Government Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1913 - 1930)Tuesday 26 June 1917 - Page 18https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10967304 illust"MUSHROOM SYSTEM" OF REINFORCED CONCRETEMentioned in the Draft Regulations for Sydney's New Building Act -Factory for Snider and Abrahams, Melbourne. H. R. Crawford, Architect.-. ,..Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Periodic (National : 1977 - 2011)Tuesday 30 June 1992 - Page 2COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIAAustralian Heritage Commission Act 1975NOTICE OF INTENTION TO ENTER PLACES IN THE REGISTER OF THE NATIONAL ESTATE...Snider and Abrahams Building.`Building ' 11.6.1910, p57.VICTORIAN HERITAGE INVENTORY H7822-11701866 - buildings fronting Drewery Lane. 1880 Panorama appears to show 1 & 2 storey building on site 1905 - 5 storey building, Sniders & Abraham Tobacco factory.
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1197836
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 102598 | 1 PDF : 1,503 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |