National Mutual Centre, 435-455 Collins Street & 38-70 Williams Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
National Mutual Centre, 435-455 Collins Street & 38-70 Williams Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 102100
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.
Use restrictions:
UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.
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Period: Post-WarConstruction date: 1961-1965Notable features: 1. First extensive plaza open on three sides, early freestanding tower. 2. Stone facing and aluminium and long casting self finished external materials. 3. Landscape in plaza, typical. 4. Mural.ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?This was the site of Melbourne's General Market later known as the Western Market which started in 1842 but was demolished for this development in 1961. The market took up the block surrounded by Collins Street, Market Street, Flinders Lane and William Street. Development options for the site were canvassed over an extended period, with one late 1950s option being that of Underhill Investments Ltd who planned a massive triple-tower structure which covered most of the former market reserve.This was also the era of civic development where the new vision of the Central Business District was one of elegant office tower blocks that because of their greater height, allowed adjacent landscaped forecourts such as the much maligned Gas & Fuel towers in Flinders Street and the associated Princes Gate Plaza. These however were not enough to provide the resting places for the general public roving and enjoying the City centre: there should be grand civic squares not incidental green spaces. To this end the Western Market site , having been considered for near 100% site coverage in the late 1950s, was reconsidered in the role of half investment office tower and half public plaza set over a large area, larger than any city green space before.Godfrey Spowers, Hughes, Mewton and Lobb, and Leith and Bartlett, were the joint architects and engineers (termed the National Mutual centre Architects), with E Hughes as the project architect. The client was National Mutual Life Association of Australasia Ltd (divisional manager, P Ryan) and the contracting builders were EA Watts Pty Ltd.: the project ran from 1962 to 1965. As with other recent insurance office towers the gold-anodised aluminium framed curtain façade walls were augmented with stone, in this case 1.1/4 inch thick white marble (requiring a modification of the Uniform Building Regulations). Observers pointed out that the contrast between the sparkling white and gold of the NMLC was a stark contrast to the all-black Royal Insurance tower opposite. Initial plaza plans (232 x 150 feet in area) showed more paving than eventuated, seating and planting area on the eat and west sides, and a large central fountain area.True to the promise of ground level activity there was two levels of shops facing the gallery and concourse or north plaza and an internal arcade. The first three occupied levels covered a larger area than the tower above (which had a 150 feet setback from Collins St), with two and three parking and service levels below. Of the total gross building area of 536,200 square feet, some 186,840 square feet was devoted to housing the car, as a partial answer to the recently opened Chadstone drive-in shopping centre.The first floor held ample staff facilities including a large cafeteria, a library, lounge, games and billiard rooms. There was also the encircling balcony which were rare among city buildings but allowed for easy window cleaning and shading of the glass facade, avoiding the cracking problems experienced by the ICI Building in 1960.`Cross-section' periodical noted in 1961 that the provision of these balconies on the NMLC tower demonstrated that `there are other alternatives to the architecture of multi-storey office blocks than the ubiquitous all glass curtain wall sheath'.Under the plant room level, there was the top 20th floor observation deck; the general manger 's office was one floor down at the 19th. The eight-lift lobby was on the west side and the rest of the typical floor was set out on a strict module, with 2.7m ceiling heights and 3.6m floor to floor- the office standard of the time. Most of the upper-level was leased out.The completion of the project coincided with the Fourteenth Australian Architectural Convention and the periodical `Building Ideas' created a special edition to display the City's architectural wealth, with tour guides compiled by architect and academic Neville Quarry and others.He wrote:`.. The creation of a much needed open plaza in the heart of the office district was made possible by the City Council's move in buying the whole block and leasing it back to National Mutual, with the requirement that only half the area should be built upon and the other half be paved and planted for the use of the public, with parking underneath. Accommodation for 512 cars is provided, 93 with access from Market Street and the rest from Flinders Lane.The plaza, 228 feet x 150 feet, is paved with hexagonal Mintaro slate and a 60-feet-high piece of sculpture, with its associated fountain and pools, will be placed off-centre near Market Street. Planting beds round the edges of the plaza are raised, with a broad wall for sitting on and there is a patch of lawn at the southern end, backed by planting intended eventuallyto serve as protection from southerly winds up William Street from the river.The overflow of office workers at lunch time will, no doubt, sit informally on the broad flight of steps down to the lower concourse, where there are service shops and a coffee house.Possibly, some day, a record shop will give lunch-time concerts......To keep the plaza alive when the office crowds are gone, there will be out-of-hours use of the theatrette, squash courts, observation deck and roof-top restaurant; and, although a littleout of the way for general pedestrian use, the fountain will provide a spectacle worth visiting. It is to be hoped that the restaurant clientele will enter by the plaza in fine weather, rather than from the car park, since gaily dressed diners or theatregoers provide a festive..'Thirty years on, Professor Miles Lewis wrote:`The building itself (NML) was a much more stylish one than the Southern Cross (the other City market site), designed by the architects Godfrey Spowers Hughes Mewton Lobb, and lavishly finished. But the dramatic aspect was the creation of a large forecourt to Collins Street, unparalleled in any other commercial development in the city. The development was open on three sides, with a freestanding tower slab set back on the southern most part of the site overlooking the landscaped plaza. The implications for the city were potentially dramatic. The modernist vision of a city of high rise towers set amidst landscaped greenery at ground level seemed imminent, provided that major corporations were able to purchase large city sites or consolidate a number of titles…'The building and plaza are general well-preserved with the exception of a four-level discrete glass clad box abutting the south lower level podium that has adopted some of the fenestration patterns of the existing building, has been set in from the podium perimeter, and is bland in its general effect.How is it significant?The National Mutual Life Centre is significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City Zone.Why is it significant?The National Mutual Life Centre is significant historically as a landmark private development within the City's history, distinguished by its scale and combination of office and retail uses, providing for the first major public plaza within the Capital City Zone, along with a major new underground car parking area. The development is also part of the boom eras of post-Second War insurance architecture that made this part of Collins Street the financial centre of Victoria.Aesthetically it is a well preserved and large example of curtain wall architecture of the time but is distinguished by its free-standing site, the high degree of external finishes and the encircling balconies, one on each floor, that had not been achieved previously for an office tower in the City..National Trust of Australia (Vic)File Number: B7099 File only.Building Permit Application3/4/1961,35439 piling, 35559 new building etc.Partitions1988 65871 $80,000 alterations to ground floor (447).Graeme Butler, 1982-3, Twentieth Century Architecture Register of Royal Australian Institute of Architects:cites Neville Quarry, `Building Ideas' (monthly published by CSR Building Materials Vol. 2, No. 11, March 1965, p 10; opening date March 1965, occupied Dec 1964..`Cross-section' 104, June 1961:model and details of building; WE Bassett & partners mechanical engineers, Lincolne Demaine & Scott lift and electrical engineers, Rider Hunt & partners, quantity surveyors..NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)`The Argus': Wednesday 1 March 1950COMPANY REPORTNATIONAL MUTUAL LIFE'S EXPANSIONA REVIEW of the tremendous expansion in business written by the Notional Mutual Life Association of Australasia Ltd. in recent years was given by Sir Harold Luxton, chairman, at the 80th annual meeting yesterday.Sir Harold said that of the £200 million of assurances in force on September 30 last, approximately £50 million, or 25%, were added in the last three years. It took 67 of the association's 80 years to reach £100 million of assurances in force, a further ten years to attain the £150 million mark and only three more years to attain £200 million..Thursday 5 November 1953Record new businessNational Mutual Life Association of A'asla Ltd wrote in the year to September 30, record new business of £42 443,130 This compares with the previous years record of £41826 000..Wednesday 27 October 1954`Big rise in life co.'s new businessNew assurances written by the National Mutual Life Association of Australasia Ltd. rose sharply to a new record of £49,502,833 in the year to September 30This means £7 million better than the previous year's record £42,444.000.'.`Building Ideas' March 1965:THE ARCHITECT CIVIC DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETYOpen Spaces in the Central City Area There are 320 acres of the central city of Melbourne almost devoid of open spaces for spontaneous use by the public. This is hard to reconcile with the well-known images of a restful, mellow city— the misty silhouette of cathedral spires beyond broad leafy thoroughfares or dappled sunlight in Collins Street—but these delightful glimpses are only of thoroughfares; there is nowhere really to rest and relax without seeking the outer parklands. There are only the steps and colonnades and setbacks of the older free-standing buildings, the churches and the Public Library that have always attracted informal use; there is no public gathering space. It was the modelling of these buildings set within their sites that gave a plastic quality to the walls of the grid-pattern streets, but the more recent flush facades have made rather severe corridors of them. Today's detailing, too, while disposing of the problem of pigeons, seems to have discouraged equally the gathering of people round the bases of buildings. In realisation of this there are now paved and planted areas being contributed to the city as part of development schemes, but these are either incomplete or too recent and untried as public spaces for their nature to be fully revealed as yet. It remains to be seen just what are the conditions, even now being moulded, that will give rise to those intangible qualities that induce the public to confer the spark of life on one space more than another.In evaluation of these qualities Philip Johnson (CIAM 8) asks of an open space: "Is it a symbol, is it an enclosure, is it the reason for coming to the place, and does it develop so that you turn and twist into a space in which you feel good? [If]…none of these exists, [then] my guess is that this will always remain just as an open space."
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 102100 | 1 PDF : 894 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |