Treasury Gate, 99 Spring Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
Treasury Gate, 99 Spring Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 108982
Level of description:
Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
Type of materials:
Graphic materialsTextual material
Part of:
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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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2023:__________________________________________________DATE: 1972;ASSOCIATIONS: Treasury Gate Pty Ltd;DESIGNER: Moore & Hammond P/L;BUILDER: Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEW_________________________________________What is significant?Treasury Gate at 93-101 Spring Street, Melbourne, built in 1971 to a design by architectural firm Moore and Hamond Pty Ltd.Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):• The building’s original external form, materials and detailing; and• The building’s high level of integrity to its original design.Later alterations are not significant.How it is significant?Treasury Gate at 93-101 Spring Street, Melbourne is of local historical, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Melbourne.Why it is significant?Treasury Gate is historically significant as one of the first wave of high-rise residential apartments constructed in the Melbourne CBD from the late 1960s, and before the introduction of a Victorian government policy in 1971 that directed where growth in Melbourne’s housing supply could take place. (Criterion A)Treasury Gate is a notable example of a new building typology that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s – the modern high-rise residential apartment building. Treasury Gate is also notable for its mixed-use typology with offices, retail and residential situated at different levels in the same building. A podium built to the property boundaries at the lower levels also accommodates a colonnade with retail spaces at ground level, six levels of offices above, and a recessed tower section with luxury residential living. 93-101 Spring Street is also notable for its high level of integrity. (Criterion D) Treasury Gate is aesthetically significant for its demonstration of modernism in mixed use apartment design. A notable attribute is the generous distribution of space for ground floor retail behind a colonnade on Little Collins Street. Aesthetically 93-101 Spring Street is significant for its composition and articulation of the various functions of retail, office and residential within a unifying material palette of face brickwork and concrete. Intact architectural detail extends to the distinctive wide timber handrail, ribbed metal cladding, bronze-coloured aluminium glazing frames and a cantilevered canopy. (Criterion E)Primary sourceHoddle Grid Heritage Review (Context & GJM Heritage, 2020) (updated March 2022).GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites Cityscope 33/56, noted reemergence of reisdential into the City._________________________________________City of Melbourne online mapsTreasury Gate:A twenty eight storey concrete residential and office building featuring a brick facade. Includes ground level retail to Little Collins Street, three levels of basement parking, first four levels of offices and the upper levels residential. Built and subdivided in 1972._________________________________________CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWSUMMARYDesigned by architects Moore and Hammond in 1971, this modern residential apartment building is an early example of this building type in Melbourne. It is distinctly modernist in form and aesthetic, and suggestive of the Brutalist style in its deliberate expression of concrete and brick..SITE HISTORYThe land at 93-101 Spring Street was part of the Crown Allotment 9, Section 9, purchased by A McKillop. Located on the corner of Spring and Little Collins streets, the site was associated with hotels dating from the 1850s. The Ulster Family Hotel or Ulster Hotel was established on the site in the 1850s and was later renamed as the New Treasury Hotel in 1876 (S&Mc 1859-1876).The New Treasury Hotel was sold in 1950 and again in 1967. An auction notice in 1967 described the site as having an investment potential suited for a maximum high-rise redevelopment (Age 12 August 1950:35; Age 18 October 1967:np). The property was sold for $42 a square foot, approximately one third of the estimated value (Age 8 June 1971:19).In 1969, the project group Treasury Gate Pty Ltd was established to develop the block at a cost of more than $5 million (Age 25 October 1969:7). Treasury Gate Pty Ltd was formed by a number of local businesses including:• J V Edgar & Co Pty Ltd, project consultants and managing agents,• Moore & Hammond Pty Ltd, architects,• Rider Hunt & Partners, quantity surveyors,• W L & W L Meinhardt, structural engineers,• Kuttner Collins & Partners, mechanical engineers,• R Terenyi & Associates, electrical engineers,• Leighton Contractors Ltd, building contractors, and• Russell Kennedy & Cook, solicitors (J V Edgar & Co Pty Ltd 1969).J V Edgar & Co Pty Ltd was initially declared as the sole selling agency, and later partnered with Abercromby & Beatty Pty Ltd and K Gardner & Lang Pty Ltd (Age 7 July 1973:5).J Edgar told the Age in 1971 that the project would be different from earlier city apartments, which struggled to attract local residents still reluctant to buy inner-city residences. Edgar emphasised that, while other early apartments were aimed at city workers, 93-101 Spring Street was designed as a premium apartment building targeted at a higher income bracket (Age 17 February 1971:12).Designed by architects Moore & Hammond, the 28-floor block comprised 19 residential floors, four levels of office spaces, a recreation floor, ground level retail floor and three levels of underground parking areas (Figure 1). According to the pre-development building catalogue provided by J V Edgar Pty Ltd, smaller sized duplexes were part of the original plan, but were not proceeded with (J V Edgar Pty Ltd c1969:5). The building opened in May 1971 (Age 24 April 1971:50).The top five residential levels were reserved for penthouses apartments, with two apartments per floor on levels 20 to 23, and a single roof penthouse on level 24. The roof penthouse was to be developed and designed to the purchaser’s own requirements (J V Edgar Pty Ltd c1969:6). The penthouse apartments, featuring more windows than typical units, were designed for panoramic views over the city.Figure 1. The development plan for 93-101 Spring Street, with floor levels coloured over the elevation plan in different shades as per proposed uses (Source: J V Edgar Pty Ltd c1969:9).From levels 12 to 19, two different types of apartments were planned, each on either the north or south side of the building, and centred on a service core of lifts and stairs. The floor plans of the apartments varied slightly to allow good views in all directions. Some differences applied in internal organisation: both A and B type of apartments had two bedrooms, one with an en-suite and the other with a dressing room; two bathrooms and a guest powder room; den; living room; dining room; kitchen; entrance hall; and a lobby and balcony facing Spring Street. The dining, living and hall areas were separated by slide screens for more internal flexibility (J V Edgar Pty Ltd c1969:4). These plans were able to be amended as per the buyer’s requests.Overlooking the city down Little Collins Street, the fifth-floor recreation space featured a heated swimming pool, a sauna, a Cabana reception area with a bar, entertaining facilities, and a gymnasium. There were also studio apartments and one-bed caretaker flats for in-house staff (J V Edgar Pty Ltd c1969:7).On the ground floor, the entrance to the residences and underground car park were accessed from Spring Street, while the offices were accessed from an entrance on Little Collins Street. The offices and commercial spaces were numbered 1-15 Little Collins Street.The offices on the first to fourth floors featured simple open workspaces measuring 73.6 by 129.8 feet, surrounding a central service core of lifts, stairs and toilets.During the development phase, the property was known as '93-101 Spring Street’. The name Treasury Gate first appeared in the newspapers from the mid-1970s, and mostly referred to the office spaces (Age 11 December 1975:31).Initially priced at $100,000, some of the apartments remained unsold for years, and subsequently the selling price of the north-facing middle-level flats dropped to around $70,000. However, the inner-city housing market rapidly grew during the following decades. In 1988, a typical fifteenth floor apartment was expected to yield a resale price nearing $1 million, when a higher-quality apartment of a similar size in Toorak were being sold for around $800,000 (Age 12 July 1988:21).The building at 93-101 Spring Street was home to some prestigious individuals, including Robert Holmes a Court, Australia’s first billionaire, who owned the roof penthouse; Sir Rupert and Lady Kathleen Clarke, who owned an apartment on the fifteenth floor; and Sir Ian and Lady Potter, who owned a double-size and extensively terraced apartment on the lower levels (Age 12 July 1988:21).Moore & Hammond, architectsWithin a few years after the establishment of his sole practice in the mid-1950s, David Moore (1928-1983) elevated one of his staff, Theodore Hammond (1929-2006), into partnership. Moore & Hammond remained in practice until 1974, when each of the two partners decided to pursue sole practice (Built Heritage n.d.).Moore & Hammond became a limited liability company in 1967, and with its expertise in the design of high-rise apartment blocks, the practice became one of Melbourne’s leading exponents of this typology. Moore & Hammond designed innumerable inner suburban examples, especially in Toorak and South Yarra. The 25-storey tower at 93-101 Spring Street completed in 1971 was one of the much-publicised projects of the partnership. The partnership dissolved a few years later in early 1974 (Built Heritage n.d.).Moore remained in practice for another decade as the head of David Moore & Company, until his sudden death in 1983. Hammond Moore continued practice under his own name, later merging with another firm to become Theo Hammond & Partners, Grant Heath & Wood. Hammond died in 2006 (Built Heritage n.d.)..REFERENCESContextual History references contained within City of Melbourne Hoddle Grid Heritage Review: Postwar Thematic Environmental History 1945-1975Age, as cited.Built Heritage Pty Ltd, ‘Moore & Hammond’ in Dictionary of Unsung Architects, https://www.builtheritage.com.au/dictionary.html, accessed online 1 March 2018.City of Melbourne Interactive Maps (CoMMaps) 2017, http://maps.melbourne.vic.gov.au/, accessed March 2018.Context Pty Ltd 2012, Thematic History: A History of the City of Melbourne’s Urban Environment, prepared for the City of Melbourne.Context 2018, Hoddle Grid Heritage Review – Volume 2: Built & Urban Heritage – Assessed Places & Precincts, prepared for the City of Melbourne.Heritage Alliance 2008, Survey of Post-War Built Heritage in Victoria: Stage One.J V Edgar & Co Pty Ltd 1969, 99 Spring Street, Melbourne, Stuart Taylor Pty Ltd, Melbourne.Marsden, Susan 2000, Urban Heritage: the rise and postwar development of Australia’s capital city centres, Australian Council of National Trusts and Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra.Ramsay Consulting 2012, A History of Built Form Control in Central Melbourne, Central City Built Form Review, prepared for the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.Ramsay Consulting 2015, The Evolution of Planning Controls in Melbourne, for the City of Melbourne.Sands & McDougall, Melbourne and Suburban Directories (S&Mc), as cited.Stent, Robert 2018, 'Urban housing in Melbourne', ArchitectureAu, https://architectureau.com/articles/urban-housing-in-melbourne/, accessed 11 April 2018.Storey, Rohan 2008, 'Skyscrapers', eMelbourne, School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au, accessed 12 April 2018.Tsutsumi, Jun and O’Connor, Kevin 2006, ‘Time series analysis of the skyline and employment changes in the CBD of Melbourne’, Applied GIS Vol 2 No 2:8.1–8.12. DOI:10.2104/ag060008.Stent, Robert 2018, 'Urban housing in Melbourne', ArchitectureAu, https://architectureau.com/articles/urban-housing-in-melbourne/, accessed 11 April 2018.Storey, Rohan 2008, 'Skyscrapers', eMelbourne, School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au, accessed 12 April 2018.
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1263196
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 108982 | 1 JPEG : 434 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |