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Barnett's Building, 164-166 Bourke Street, Melbourne

Butler, Graeme1985

Scope and contents

The earliest known example of rationalist Modern commercial design, preceding by 17 years the profusion of multi-storey aluminium curtain walls in the 1950s, with their brightly coloured spandrels.

Record details

Title:

Barnett's Building, 164-166 Bourke Street, Melbourne

Creator:

Butler, Graeme (Name details)

Date of work:

1985

Reference number:

BIF-CITY 101210

Level of description:

Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)

Type of materials:

Graphic materialsTextual material

Part of:

Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)

Access restrictions:

UnrestrictedOpen access.

Use restrictions:

UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.

General notes:

Period: Inter-WarConstruction date: 1936-1937Notable features: First to adopt curtain wall (spandrel metal window strips) type which predominated in the 1950s. Blue colour is original, hence the start of primary colour use..ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceHistoryRobin Boyd described this building as `…with its blue metal spandrels and white trims, was the most honest and happy city building ever to be despoiled by terrible advertisements'. Now, stripped of the stylishly muscular Weber and Rice mural and the 1350mm tall letters of the `Barnett's' sign, the building has achieved respectability, in the eyes of Modernists, for its architects, Seabrook and Fildes but lost some of the albeit superficial traits of its construction period. Louis Barnett & Sons Pty. Ltd., hairdressers and perruquiers, owned and part occupied the new structure which builder, G.A. Winwood, had costed at 10,000 pounds to erect.DescriptionContemporary descriptions termed it `severely functional' although its bright blue porcelain enamelled spandrels, used for the first time in Australia, more than compensated. It was Weber and Rice's Health and Strength College squash court which had contributed a further peculiarity to the building. Located at the building's top the extensive blank upper walls it created, badly needed the mural for relief, hence the vigorous graphics. Column-free space was also a fitness parameter and another plus claimed for the design:this was ably served by the concrete frame. Location of the lifts at the rear had originally determined a shop-lined corridor on the ground-level, since combined to one tenancy.Stripped to the aluminium- framed curtain wall and stuccoed concrete essentials, Barnett's Building appears top-heavy. Nevertheless the innovation of its original concept is clarified: only after the 1950s building revival was there to be any design like it. Only Buckley's Men's Store (1933) and Griffin's Leonard House (c1925) were earlier examples of multi-storey, glazed curtain walls. The fluting of the metal spandrels was originally repeated as reeding in the glass, some of which remains.External IntegrityThe ground floor top-lighting has been covered with a new spandrel and the shop fronts replaced in a bland form. Some of the reeded glass has been replaced, with clear, and the murals are gone.StreetscapeUnrelated.SignificanceThe earliest known example of rationalist Modern commercial design, preceding by 17 years the profusion of multi-storey aluminium curtain walls in the 1950s, with their brightly coloured spandrels..GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWhttps://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/c186-central-city-heritage-review-part-2.pdfStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?Robin Boyd described this building as `…with its blue metal spandrels and white trims, was the most honest and happy city building ever to be despoiled by terrible advertisements'. Now, stripped of the stylishly Moderne style and muscular Weber and Rice mural and the 1350mm tall letters of the `Barnett's' sign (the `terrible advertisements'), Barnett Building has achieved greater respectability in the eyes of Modernists for its architects, Seabrook and Fildes, but lost some of the albeit superficial traits of its construction period. Louis Barnett & Sons Pty. Ltd., hairdressers and perruquiers (wig maker), owned and part occupied the new structure which builder, G.A. Winwood, had costed at ₤10,000 to erect.Designers Seabrook (and Fildes from 1936) had won fame with the girls' secondary school design at Albert Park, sponsored by Sir Macpherson Robertson and completed in 1934; fire stations and associated flats at Brunswick (1937), Brighton (1939) and Windsor (1939-40); commercial premises such as those of Gair Manufacturing Co. Pty Ltd, Melbourne (1935-36), the Bank of New South Wales, Moreland (1936), the Royal Exchange Assurance, Pitt Street, Sydney (1936-37), and a store for Miller & Co. at Hamilton (1937); and `the largest rural example of the Dudok idiom', Warracknabeal Town Hall (1939). Phillip Goad has described this building as `A technically unusual design…an early example of a curtain-walled, high-rise building with a roof-top squash court and gymnasium…' in his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Seabrook. The Barnett Building was publicised in the RVIA and Architects' Registration Board of Victoria, Guide to Victorian Architecture 1956, and the `Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects' (R.V.I.A., Melbourne, monthly).Contemporary descriptions termed the Barnett Building `severely functional' although its bright blue porcelain enamelled spandrels, used for the first time in Australia, more than compensated for this severity. It was Weber and Rice's Health and Strength College squash court which had contributed a further peculiarity to the building. Located at the building's top the extensive blank upper walls it created, badly needed the mural for relief, hence the vigorous graphics that have since been removed. Column-free space was also a fitness parameter and another plus claimed for the design: this was ably served by the concrete frame. Location of the lifts at the rear had originally determined a shop-lined corridor on the ground-level, since combined as one tenancy.Stripped to the aluminium- framed curtain wall and stuccoed concrete essentials, the innovation of Barnett's Building's original façade concept is now clarified. Only after the 1950s building revival was there to be any design like it in terms of the glass curtain wall. Only Buckley's Men's Store (1933) and Griffin's Leonard House (c1925 demolished) were earlier examples of multi-storey, glazed walls. The fluting of the metal spandrels on the Barnett Building was originally repeated as reeding in the glass. The Barnett Building is a precursor to the many glass curtain walls of the 1950s in the City with their similar opaque spandrel panels alternating with glass between aluminium framing members but the aluminium mullions of this façade are not continuous as in the glass boxes of the 1950s.The ground floor top-lighting has been covered with a new spandrel and the shop fronts replaced in a bland form. The reeded glass has been replaced with clear and the murals on the upper-level are gone. The building is related to parts of the adjoining streetscape, with some stylistic affinity to the Moderne styled building to the east.How is it significant?Barnett Building is significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City ZoneWhy is it significant?Historically, Barnett Building is the oldest known example of a rationalist Modern commercial glass and aluminium-framed curtain wall design in the Capital City Zone, preceding by 17 years the profusion of multi-storey aluminium and glass curtain walls in the 1950s, with their similarly brightly coloured spandrels. The building was also one of the key works of the renowned proto-Modernist designers Seabrook & Fildes and was cited in Melbourne guidebooks prepared by the architectural profession as a good example of modern commercial building.Aesthetically, the building presents an architectural simplicity which underscores its pioneering Modernist concept and contrasts markedly with its contemporaries, such as the adjoining decorated Jazz Modern style example of Patersons P/L..FURTHER REFERENCES.Graeme Butler 1982, 20th Century Architecture Register of the RAIA (Vic) cites:RVIA and Architects' Registration Board of Victoria, Guide to Victorian Architecture 1956, (Melbourne, 1956): 34Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects (R.V.I.A.) (Melbourne, monthly): Sep/Oct 1938;Building Permit Application 19245 25/3/1938, also 15/10/1938 application for flood lamps.Statement of SignificanceArchitect: Seabrook & FildesBuilt: 1938DescriptionStripped to the aluminium framed curtain wall and stuccoed concrete essentials, Barnett's Building appears top heavy. Nevertheless the innovation of its original concept is clarified : only after the 1950s building revival was there to be any design like it. Only Buckley's Men's Store (1933) and Griffin's Leonard House (c1925) were earlier examples of multi-storey, glazed curtain walls. The fluting of the metal spandrels was originally repeated as reeding in the glass, some of which remains.SignificanceThe earliest known example of rationalist Modern commercial design, preceding by 17 years the profusion of multi storey aluminium curtain walls in the 1950s, with their brightly coloured spandrels.MCC i-Heritage: Central Activities District Conservation Study - Graeme Butler, 1984 : Building Identification Form (BIF): : `Alterations / Recommendations: Mural / sign gone from parapet (inappropriate - reinstate original design). New spandrel - 1st floor (remove or reinstate original design) New shopfront (reinstate original design or sympathetic alternative). Glazing new (obscured) (inappropriate - reinstate original design or sympathetic alternative) Other Comments First to adopt curtain wall (spandrel - metal window strip) type. Much predominated in the 1950s - blue colour is original hence start of primary colour use.'.ADBPhilip Goad, 'Seabrook, Norman Hugh (1906 - 1978)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002, p. 202:`SEABROOK, NORMAN HUGH (1906-1978), architect, was born on 12 January 1906 at Northcote, Melbourne, third of four children of Charles William Seabrook, a clerk from Tasmania, and his Melbourne-born wife Catherine Jane, née Brown. Norman attended Brighton State School, Wesley College, and Hassett's Commercial College, Prahran. While at Hassett's, he worked for the architect A. R. Barnes, with whom he served his articles in 1924-26.In 1927 Seabrook enrolled at the University of Melbourne Architectural Atelier, then under the directorship of Leighton Irwin. He gained his diploma in architectural design in 1931. On 26 January that year at her parents' Brighton home he married Linda May Millis with the forms of the Churches of Christ. Soon after, he and his wife sailed for England, where he worked in London and Birmingham. While in Europe, they cycled two thousand miles (3219 km) through the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium to study architecture.Back in Melbourne, Seabrook was admitted as an associate of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects in 1933. He set up practice in Little Collins Street and returned to the atelier as senior demonstrator in design. A brilliant renderer, he won a competition to design a girls' secondary school at Albert Park. Sponsored by Sir Macpherson Robertson and completed in 1934 to mark Victoria's centenary, MacRobertson Girls' High School was an early Australian application of de Stijl architectural principles and the first Australian example of the modern functionalist style of architecture developed by the Dutch architect Willem Dudok. The building was characterized by dramatic cubistic juxtapositions of horizontal and vertical forms, all in cream brick, with contrasting bands of blue-glazed brick and vermilion-painted steel windows.This striking style, later claimed by Robin Boyd to have heralded the '1934 Revolution' of modern architecture in Victoria, became a Seabrook signature. Notable examples of the idiom included his own home at Hawthorn (1934-35); fire stations and associated flats at Brunswick (1937), Brighton (1939) and Windsor (1939-40); commercial premises such as those of Gair Manufacturing Co. Pty Ltd, Melbourne (1935-36), the Bank of New South Wales, Moreland (1936), the Royal Exchange Assurance, Pitt Street, Sydney (1936-37), and a store for Miller & Co. at Hamilton (1937); and the largest rural example of the Dudok idiom, Warracknabeal Town Hall (1939). A technically unusual design was that of Barnett's Building, 164 Bourke Street, Melbourne (1937-38), an early example of a curtain-walled, high-rise building with a roof-top squash court and gymnasium.In 1936 Seabrook had formed a partnership with Alan Fildes at 84 William Street. Tall and bespectacled, Seabrook was the chief designer: he attracted clients while Fildes took care of production and office management. The practice prospered in the late 1930s with major projects for (Sir) Reginald Ansett, including terminal and hangar buildings (1937) at Essendon Aerodrome. Seabrook also designed another innovative house for himself at Croydon (1941). After World War II Fildes' involvement decreased. Newer associates, among them Eric Atlee Hunt, became prominent in the firm, which moved to Little Collins Street in 1954. In the following year Seabrook, Fildes & Hunt was formed. After Fildes died in 1956, the firm became Seabrook, Hunt & Dale (1958). It moved to Albert Park and then to South Melbourne. The practice undertook further work for Ansett Transport Industries Ltd and St Kevin's College, Toorak, but never regained the momentum for innovation seen in the 1930s. It closed in 1975, following Seabrook's retirement in the previous year.Seabrook had been divorced on 18 March 1943. Later that day, at the office of the government statist, Melbourne, he married Mavis Black, née Devling, a photographic retoucher and a divorcee. Survived by his wife, and by the daughter of each of his marriages, he died on 9 September 1978 in South Melbourne. He had bequeathed his body to the University of Melbourne..Select BibliographyR. Boyd, Victorian Modern (Melb, 1947); D. L. Johnson, Australian Architecture 1901-51 (Syd, 1980); Australian Home Beautiful, July 1935, p 6; Art in Australia, 61, Nov 1935, p 91; Herald (Melbourne), 9, 13, 14 Dec 1933; P. Dredge, Biography—Seabrook and Fildes (research report, 1981, Architecture Library, University of Melbourne); Seabrook and Fildes files (National Trust of Australia, Victorian branch, Melbourne'..Lewis, M. Australian Building: A Cultural Investigationhttp://mileslewis.net/australian-building/8.10.7 Metal Windows & Curtain Walling…`It (Melbourne) had what Donald Johnson has claimed was possibly the first curtain wall in the world, meaning the term in the more limited modern sense. This was the façade wall of W B Griffin's Leonard House, 44-6 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, of 1923-4, and was a curtain wall in the modern manner - containing a good proportion of glazing, and with a frame of rolled or extruded metalsections expressed as being continuous through the height of a number of floors. As RobinBoyd described it, 'Solid side piers held a single vertical panel composed of fixed andopening glass panes and a square cement device which marked floor lines …'Another early Melbourne example was Barnett's Building (the Weber & Rice Health & StrengthCollege) at 164 Bourke Street, by Seabrook & Fildes in 1937-8. Here, however, therewere full width horizontal spandrels in fluted sheet iron, so that the framing was notexpressed as a continuous vertical system.'.National Trust of Australia (Vic):File Number: B6348Level: LocalSTATEMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCEWhat is significant?Barnett's building was designed and built in 1938 by noted modernist architects Seabrook & Fildes. It was constructed for Louis Barnett and Sons to house their hair and beauty salon business, and their tenant, the Weber & Rice Health & Strength College..The façade of the four storey building incorporates three rows of metal framed windows, with bright blue enamelled spandrel panels in between, surrounded by a frame. The blank area above originally formed a backdrop for freestanding lettering spelling BARNETT'S, incised coloured lettering for the college, and a striking mural depicting the college's activities, all now removed or covered over..How is it significant?Barnett's building is significant for architectural and historical reasons at the Local level..Why is it significant?Barnett's building is architecturally significant for a current façade that is a rare example of the influence of European modernist trends, that was once also unusual and idiosyncratic for its use of colour and signage as an integral part of the conception, though these elements are largely removed. The use of metal framed 'strip-windows' with bright blue metal spandrels between was highly adventurous, and anticipated the look of the curtain walling that became standard on office blocks in Melbourne after WWII by 17 years.Historically, the building was unusual for providing both beauty facilities for women and physical improvement for men on the same site, and in a purpose designed building'First Classified State 10/6/92Downgraded: Classified Local 6/5/2002.Other references: Christine Phillips, ‘Planting the Seeds of modernism: the Work of Seabrookand Fildes, 1933-1950,’ M Arch. Thesis, University of Melbourne, 2007, p. 150.'.Newspapers:`The Argus': Thursday 8 September 1938Bright WallsAn interesting and new form of decoration has been adopted tor the finish to tile reception-room of a ladies' hairdressing business in the new Barnett's building in Bourke street. The walls have been covered with light blue leather cloth, and the fittings and partitions are in silver ash. The show cases are recessed into the walls, and all lighting is from recessed lights in the ceiling. The wall covering is a new idea which has proved very successful. The architects are Seabrook and Fildes.(image)'.The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954) Tue 15 Mar 1938 Page 8NEW BUILDING IN BOURKE ST.A five-storey, modern building in reinforced concrete will be erected for L. Barnett & Sons Pty. Ltd., at 164-6 Bourke Street, to replace the three- storey building now occupied by that firm. Immediate demolition of the old building will begin so that construction can begin in three weeks, The ground floor of the new building will take the form of two large shops. and a reception room for the Barnett business which will occupy the first floor, part of the basement and the fourth floor. leaving other floors available for renting. Architects for the new building arc 'Messrs Seebrook &.Fildes, of 93 William Street..DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALLD1939 "Melrose" boot storeWeber & Rice's Health & Strength College physical cult.J. N. M. Rice solicitorLouis Barnett & Sons Pty Ltd ladies hairdressersEpicure Continental Delicacies delicatessenD1944 - 45 "Melrose" boot storeWeber & Rice's Health & Strength College physical cult.Louis Barnett & Sons Pty Ltd ladies hairdressersA.C.Perl leather goods retailD1950 "Melrose" boot storeWeber & Rice's Health & Strength College physical cult.Louis Barnett & Sons Pty Ltd ladies hairdressersA.C.Perl leather goods retailD1955 "Melrose" boot storeWeber & Rice's Health & Strength College physical cult.Louis Barnett & Sons Pty Ltd ladies hairdressersA.C.Perl leather goods retailD1974Margies clothing knitted goodsSecond Skin frocksPatersons P/L (offices)

Names:

City of Melbourne

Topics:

Central Activities District Conservation Study 1985Conservation studiesInterwar period1930-1939OfficesRetail trade

Places:

Melbourne (Vic.)

Form/Genre:

Building Identification Forms (BIFs)

Record types:

Research and reports

Record number:

1189533