Australian Mutual Provident (AMP) Tower, St. James Building, 527-555 Bourke & 111-141 William Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
Archives
Total copies: 1
Constructed in 1965-69 to a design by Skidmore Owings & Merrill in association with Bates Smart & McCutcheon, the AMP Tower and St James Building Complex has a clear association with the postwar building boom which transformed central Melbourne into a modern high-rise city.
Title:
Australian Mutual Provident (AMP) Tower, St. James Building, 527-555 Bourke & 111-141 William Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 101155
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: Post WarConstruction date: 1965Materials: Reconstructed stone facing (granite) polished)Notable features: First project to enclose space mix low/high rise in CDB? Stone pseudo structural millions notable and use sun shading channelled form on the oblique.ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYStatement of SignificanceHistoryAlready well into a period of mannered commercial tower designs, the advent of American architects, Skidmore Owings and Merrill's AMP design was still a surprise to many Melbourne designers. Since the growth of sculptural facade expression, in the early 1960s, buildings had always taken the rectangular form. The decorative psuedo- structural facades, often of pre- cast concrete, had been draped over a rectangular frame which was apparent, if obscured. Pre-cast concrete facades like the Royal Insurance Building (1962-5) had reduced glazing and increased mass, using reconstructed stone on the pre- cast facade unit to further enhance the building's monolithic `carved from stone' character, in direct contrast to the assembly of parts so clearly visible in the 1950s glass boxes. Not since the Moderne and Expressionist Modern designs of the 1930s, had this occurred in the commercial centre but already, on its fringes, New Brutalism and other expressionist vehicles, such as that of the Frank LLoyd Wright followers, were unashamedly creating sculptural forms: Dr Enrico Taglietti's Wagga Wagga Town House Motel (1963) and Oakley & Parkes' Brighton Civic Centre (1962) were among the more extreme examples.DescriptionCommercial centre developments like Seidler's Australia Square had used forecourt modelling with low-rise and hi-rise tower interplay (albeit static), as had many large American developments previously. Even the Lever House Tower (1952), New York, had rested on a low-rise podium and its Australian progeny the ICI Building had a forecourt mate in the now demolished Felt & Textiles Building.The AMP Tower and St. James Building introduced new aspects to this interplay: the low-rise St. James building not only enclosed the space at the tower's base, it interacted with the void created by the insertion of giant outrigger piers into the plaza space. Despite the designer's talk of sun control, local Modernists were startled by this <$IBrutalist >Brutalist form and, its extension, as the monolithic treatment of the tower. Some said that the designer had made a valid mistake and as an American simply thought the sun rose in the west. To the 1950s Modernists it was a backward step. To add mannered detail to mannered mass, Clement Meadmore's forecourt sculpture `Awakening', having once been a super-size but otherwise common metal bar, had like the St James' Building been given a twist by its author to create something partly rational and partly art.Beyond the complex's form and the impact it had on local architects, the detailing and finishes were immaculate inside and out although less adventurous. Successful small spaces, within the low-rise building, such as the Little Collins Street entrance to the corner commercial core and the retail arcade hub, were spatially less predictable than the bland and monumnetal tower foyer and hinted at the 19th century scale it had replaced. Modern interiors like the former State Savings Bank in the St James Building were admired as a new approach to interior design (Bates, Smart &McCutcheon, the AMP project's Australian detailers and documenters ).External IntegrityGenerally externally original.StreetscapeThe five-storey St James Building is a neutral, similarly scaled, interface to adjoining streetscapes, particularly to the former Gollin Building, Bourke Street (qv). The BHP, Shell and AMP Buildings have been cited as an international intersection on many previous occasions (see Architect May- June 1970). It represents in three phases, the finest examples from each, of international commercial tower design in Australia.SignificanceThe epitome of, and main influence for mannered or Brutalist tower design in commercial Melbourne, the complex is the only CAD complex designed to enclose public open space.GRAEME BUTLER 1982-3, ROYAL AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS (VIC) 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE SURVEY and 20th CENTURY BUILDINGS REGISTERhttps://dynamic.architecture.com.au/i-cms_file?page=4048/VicRegister08xls.pdfVICTORIA HERITAGE DATABASEhttp://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/result_detail/64432National Trust of Australia (Vic)File NumberB6315Level of SignificanceStateStatement of SignificanceThe AMP/St. James square complex, designed in 1963-65 by the San Francisco office of the international architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), was completed in 1969. All documentation after the design development stage including the supervision of construction was the responsibility of Melbourne architects Bates Smart McCutcheon. The complex of high-rise tower, low-rise L-shaped horizontal block with covered arcades, open plaza and sculpture remains substantially intact. It is located in an area associated with the former St. James Old Cathedral and on a prominent city site. The twenty six-story AMP office tower on the north east corner is square in plan, constructed of concrete encased steel, and features vertical ribs clad in pre-cast reconstituted polished brown granite, horizontal panels of the same granite and tinted glass windows. The six story L-shaped St. James building, built of reinforced concrete, is also faced with polished reconstituted granite panels. It encloses the square on the west and south sides. The colonnades facing the plaza are formed by massive projecting piers angled at 45 degrees from the main building, which contrast with the verticality of the tower block and form deep sculptural recesses. Above the colonnade the piers create deep balconied window embrasures which also add to the play of light and shade across the facade. The stone paved plaza separates and differentiates the two blocks, and opens onto the street on the north and the east sides. The sculpture 'Awakening' by the internationally renowned sculptor, Clement Meadmore, partially encloses the space to the east, complementing the architecture and providing a human scale.Classified: 19/05/1993 NationalHow is it significant?The AMP/St. James Square complex comprising the AMP Tower, the St. James Building, the open plaza and the sculpture 'Awakening', is significant for architectural, aesthetic, cultural and historical reasons at a State level.Why is it significant?The complex is of architectural significance as a unique Australian example of a minimalist sculptural approach to the design of a large commercial project. The architecture is distinctly different from the sheer curtain wall or pre-cast panelized designs of the preceding generation, and the expressed structure, or heavy mass approach of later projects. It has a strong resemblance to the CBS tower, New York, designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1965. Saarinen was noted for the sculptural massing of his architecture, and his CBS tower is regarded as one of the most architecturally significant of the free standing towers in New York. It also heralded a return to a sense of permanence and dignity to the tower block. The influence is supported by the fact that Edward Bassett the design partner responsible for SOM's San Francisco Office previously worked for Saarinen. Aesthetically, the minimalist sculptural qualities of the design are important. The thick chamfered vertical ribs dominate the tower, and contrast with the abstract geometric patterns created by the projecting diagonal columns of the St. James building. These architectural features dominate and give dynamic life to the design. Apart from Meadmore's 'knotted' steel sculpture, also minimalist in form, the plaza is deliberately kept almost bare, the shops and foyers being obscured behind the columns of the arcades. The harmonious relationship between architecture, public space and sculpture, exhibited in the AMP complex, is unique in Melbourne and only equaled in Australia by Harry Seidler's Australia Square complex (1962) in Sydney.Culturally the complex is a major icon of the 1960's. Contemporary press reports (1969) describe the complex as a "visual symbol of an enterprise which has grown with Australia". Modern architecture in the 1960's was increasingly seen as a symbol of corporate culture in the Australian city, a visible expression of integrity and success. The design of the complex was also symptomatic of the environmental concerns of the period; that major corporations should be seen to give back something to the public in terms of open space and amenities. This culture of visual manifestation of corporate identity was continued on the site directly opposite the AMP complex by the construction of the BHP building in 1972. Historically the AMP tower is one of the three finest examples of the free-standing tower in Melbourne, and the complex is also, along with the State Offices at Treasury Place, unique for including a free-standing office tower juxtaposed against a lower building. It is the only one where the surrounding plaza is defined on all sides. Although not typical of the firm during the period, it is the only office development in Australia wholly designed by SOM, the American firm that led the development of the 'International Style' of post war office tower design which dominated corporate architecture worldwide in the 1960's.File note: Sculpture removed 2010. In storage.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEW: 141-https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/493810/Melbourne-C386melb-AMP-Tower-and-St-James-Building-Complex-Statement-of-Significance-527-555-Bourke-Street,-Melbourne,-July-2020.PDFSTATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEHeritage Place: AMP Tower and St James Building ComplexPS ref no: HO1310What is significant?AMP Tower and St James Building Complex, 527-555 Bourke Street, a multi-storey office building and plaza complex constructed in 1965-69.Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):· The original external form, materials and detailing of both buildings· The high level of integrity to the original design of both buildings· The form of the public plaza.Later alterations made to the street level facades of both buildings and the roof-top addition to the St James Building are not significant. The garden beds, ramped walkways and in-built furniture within the plaza are not significant.How it is significant?The AMP Tower and St James Building Complex at 527-555 Bourke Street is of historical, rarity, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Melbourne.Why it is significant?Constructed in 1965-69 to a design by Skidmore Owings & Merrill in association with Bates Smart & McCutcheon, the AMP Tower and St James Building Complex has a clear association with the postwar building boom which transformed central Melbourne into a modern high-rise city. The design of these commercial buildings from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s – many of which were architect designed – was driven by the commercial demands and the prestige afforded by a dominant city presence (Criterion A).The AMP Tower and St James Building are fine and intact representative examples of Post-War Modernist commercial buildings. Lead design by American architects Skidmore Owings & Merrill, the buildings strongly reflect the style which was popular in the 1960s to the mid-1970s, particularly in central Melbourne. Constructed as a 26-storey office tower on a prominent corner site, the freestanding AMP Tower clearly demonstrates typical characteristics of a 1960s to mid-1970s structure, including four identical grid-like walls formed from dominant vertical piers and repetitive square window and spandrel units, a podium base and deep crowning cornice, and the use of materials such as reconstructed granite-faced precast concrete panels, bronze-tinted glazing and anodised aluminium window frames. Utilising the same materials, the sloping and angled grid-like walls of the low-rise St James Building similarly demonstrate typical characteristics of a grid-like 1960s to mid-1970s structure. Despite alterations and additions made to the two buildings, the AMP Tower and St James Building clearly demonstrates the principle characteristics of a postwar multi-storey commercial complex (Criterion D).The AMP Tower and St James Building Complex is a well-considered and carefully detailed example of a designed urban space in the Melbourne CBD. Widely discussed and illustrated in contemporary architectural journals during and after construction, the site – with prominent corner tower, L-shaped building which encloses the site and associated public plaza – presents as a well-designed and now rare urban space in the CBD. Despite alterations, including the removal of the original Clement Meadmore sculpture ‘Awakening’ from the plaza, the overall form of the original 1960s urban space can be understood and appreciated (Criterion B & Criterion E).Primary sourceHoddle Grid Heritage Review (Context & GJM Heritage, 2020)
Related material link:
Names:
Topics:
Places:
Form/Genre:
Record types:
Research and reports
Record number:
1188197
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 101155 | 1 PDF : 1,649 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |