Collins Gate, 377-379 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
Collins Gate, 377-379 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 105930
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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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2022:__________________________________________________Period: Inter-WarDATE: 1924-5;ASSOCIATIONS: William Baillieu, Collins House Group;DESIGNER: Barlow and Hawkins.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?Collins Gate at 377-379 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, a four-storey commercial building built in 1924 to a design of Grainger, Little, Barlow & Hawkins.Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):· The original building form and scale;· The original pattern of fenestration and decoration, including cornice and lettering;· The external wall surfaces of cement render and paint; and· The original multipaned steel-framed windows; and· The decoration to the principal elevation including the original pilasters and cornice.Later additions above the fourth level, new ground level shopfronts and other alterations such as the insertion of steel balconies are not significant.How it is significant?Collins Gate at 377-379 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, is of local historic and representative significance to the City of Melbourne.Why it is significant?Collins Gate at 377-379 Little Collins Street, built in 1925, is historically significant for the evidence it provides of Melbourne’s post-World War One demand for office space from service sectors related to the growth of manufacturing and retail development in the 1920s. During the economic boom of the 1920s, an increasing number of commercial enterprises constructed architect designed multi-storey premises in the city. Collins Gate was constructed as an investment property for William Baillieu, who with others, operated businesses linked to three Broken Hill mining companies from the neighbouring building Collins House, built in 1910. The Collins House Group exercised significant financial and political power in Australian society for the following decades. Collins Gate is historically significant for its long-term association Melbourne jewelry and gallery business Koziminsky. As a tenant from 1927 to 1976, the Koziminksy business (established in Melbourne in 1851) operated from the building for almost 50 years. From this location the business sold antique jewelry and by the 1930s the business became known as Koziminky’s Gallery. The Gallery exhibited works by a number of well-known artists. Australian artists shown at the Collins Gate gallery included the New Melbourne Art Club in 1941; Edith Holmes in 1943; Julius and Tina Wentcher in 1945; Arthur Boyd in 1949; Lorraine Whiting in 1949 and Geoffrey Brown in 1954 (Centre for Australian Art). (Criterion A)Collins Gate at 377-379 Little Collins Street is significant as a largely intact example of the wave of development in central Melbourne during the early interwar period that replaced the low scale masonry buildings dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This early wave of building most commonly utilised the interwar Commercial Palazzo or Chicagoesque styles. These styles employed the engineering benefits of steel and concrete frame structures to maximise window areas and to provide flexibility for external articulation and decoration. The use of reinforced concrete structural frames allowed these buildings to be constructed to greater heights, with larger windows and more open floor areas, than earlier load bearing building systems. The building retains key characteristics of the style. (Criterion D)Collins Gate at 377-379 Little Collins Street is of aesthetic significance as a low scale, and (notwithstanding the 1998 additions) highly intact example of the interwar Chicagoesque style. The Little Collins Street section is particularly notable and somewhat eclectic. While similar to many other examples of the Chicagoesque style in central Melbourne, it demonstrates a greater degree of decoration and details than is usual for the style. Its use of a range of stylistic devices provides three-dimensional interest to the façade (for example pyramidal raised panels to the spandrels), rather than the simple configuration of projecting pilasters and recessed spandrels. The façade is notable for the application of lettering to the spandrel at first floor level setting out ‘No. 377’, ‘COLLINS GATE’ and ‘No.379’. The rear section is more utalitarian in its minimal use of decorative detail but with large windows. Despite the irregular geometry and materiality of the 1998 additions, the original building is clearly legible and is not overwhelmed by the additional forms, and the outcome is an interesting albeit very eclectic composition. (Criterion E)Primary sourceHoddle Grid Heritage Review (Context & GJM Heritage, 2020).GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites source 80 MURPHY ARCHITECTS, JOHN AND PHYLLIS 1976. HISTORIC BUILDINGS STUDY OF PART OF THE C.B.D. MELBOURNE : { AREA 1} WITH MURPHY, JOCK, FOR HISTORIC BUILDINGS PRESERVATION COUNCIL, p271__________________________________________________MURPHY ARCHITECTS, JOHN AND PHYLLIS 1976. HISTORIC BUILDINGS STUDY OF PART OF THE C.B.D. MELBOURNE : { AREA 1} WITH MURPHY, JOCK, FOR HISTORIC BUILDINGS PRESERVATION COUNCIL377-379 Little Collins StreetBUILT: 1925…4 storey shop and offices. A typical, late example of the transition period where voids start to dominate solids. Detail is meagre, decoration non-existent, and the comparatively simple facade to Little Collins Street is capped by a 'plain, large cornice.Externally, sunblinds, signs and window air-conditioners have been added and internally some minor repartitioning has occurred.Reinforced concrete structure rendered.The building is now completely isolated with new office blocks to the east and Collins -Wales House under construction on the west.Its western facade, the majority of which consists of purely utilitarian windows and service oddments, is unfit for such expansive exposure.RECOMMENDATION: Retention not warranted.__________________________________________________VICTORIAN HERITAGE INVENTORYFirst land sale 1837, part Allotment 4, Block 13, Hugh Maclean. 1839 - building possibly on this site. 1877 and 1888 - two- and three-storey building, Jeweller; Fishing Tackle. 1905 -two- and three-storey building.__________________________________________________CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONSIndex card1924 Oct 6858 ₤20,000 Erection of office building1925 Oct Erection of shopfront etc.__________________________________________City of Melbourne online maps 20166 storey residential building with basement parking & gnd level retail. Formerly a 4 storey office building built in 1925. Refurbished with added floors and sub-divided 1998.__________________________________________________CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWSummaryHO1351Collins Gate377-379 Little Collins Street (1924)Architect: Grainger, Little, Barlow & HawkinsSignificance· Historically significant as evidence of the demand for office space related to the manufacturing and retail growth in the 1920s and for its long-term association with KoziminskyJewellers/galleries, who exhibited works by Arthur Boyd in 1949 at the site.· Aesthetically significant as representative of the interwar Chicagoesque style, demonstrating an unusual degree of decoration…SITE HISTORYThe subject site, part of Allotment 4, Block 13, City of Melbourne, was first sold to Hugh Maclean in 1837. By 1839, a building possibly existed on the site, and between 1877 and 1910, a two- and three-storey building was located on the site (Fels, Lavelle & Mider 1993, Inventory no 717; Mahlstedt Map section 1, no. 14, 1910).Plans for the subject building at 377-379 Little Collins Street, known as Collins Gate, indicate that at the time of construction in 1925 William Baillieu was the owner of the site. Grainger, Little, Barlow & Hawke were listed as the architects for the building, however no builder was named (see Figure 1). Constructed as an investment property for Baillieu, the building was designed to maximise its narrow rectangular block. It housed offices on the upper levels and shops on the ground floor (see Figure 2 and Figure 4) (PROV VRPS, 11201/1, item 86).Figure 1. Original Little Collins Street elevation drawings in 1923. (Source: PROV VPRS 11200/1, item 804)Figure 2. Showing an impression of the subject building in 1925. (Source: Herald 21 October 1925: 16)In October 1925, the Herald reported that the Collins House extension (the subject building at 377-379 Collins Street, Collins Gate) was nearing completion:The addition will provide further facilities to the portion of Collins House which flanks Little Collins street. There will be four storeys to the new building, which will be constructed of reinforced concrete, and it will contain first-class accommodation on all floors, designed in keeping with the parent structure, the fittings throughout being of the same high standard. The building, which will be named Collins Gate, is designed to accommodate the overflow of tenants applying for offices in Collins House [at 360 Collins Street]. Collins Gate will be separated from Collins House by an asphalted right-of-way. The entrance will be on the western side, and the building will be approachable from Collins street through Collins House. The architects for the addition are Messrs Barlow and Hawkins (Herald 21 October 1925:16).In 1910, the substantial eight- and six-storey Collins House was constructed for Baillieu on land at 360-366 Collins Street, adjacent to the subject site, which extended to the rear to 381-389 Little Collins Street. The architects were Butler & Bradshaw. The Collins House and Collins Gate buildings were connected by a gangway (see Figure 3; Figure 4).William Baillieu was a notable figure in Victorian society. Born in Queenscliff in 1859, Baillieu rose in society through his work as an auctioneer and estate agent as W L Baillieu & Co. In 1901, William Baillieu was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council, where he sat as a non-party member (Poynter 1979). Baillieu had significant interests in mining through his involvement with Broken Hill, as well as interests in the Melbourne Electricity Co. (Poynter 1979).The building was home to the notable Koziminsky jewellers and gallery for almost 50 years, from 1927-76, where regular art shows were held. Simon Kozminsky, a Polish immigrant from Prussia, opened a jewellery store on the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke streets in 1851. In 1921, after Simon’s death in 1916, his brother, Isidore Kozminsky took over the business and opened a gallery in York House at 294-298 Little Collins Street, where a collection of antiquities, art curios, pictures, bronzes, coins, china, glassware and Jacobean furniture were exhibited and sold (Argus 9 July 1923:7). In 1927, he moved the gallery to the Collins Gate building, opening as Isidore Kozminsky Pty Ltd Antiquarian and Art Experts. Kozminsky also sold antique jewellery (Argus 23 July 1927:30; Argus, 14 March 1928:21). By the late 1930s, the business was known as Kozminsky’s Gallery (Argus 7 June 1938:1). The gallery exhibited works by a number of well-known artists until its closure in 1976, when the business moved to 421 Bourke Street. Australian artists shown at the Collins Gate gallery included the New Melbourne Art Club in 1941; Edith Holmes in 1943; Julius and Tina Wentcher in 1945; Arthur Boyd in 1949; Lorraine Whiting in 1949 and Geoffrey Brown in 1954 (Centre for Australian Art). Kozminsky jewellers continue to operate today in a number of Victorian locations, with the largest store at Level 2, 349 Collins Street.Figure 3. Mahlstedt fire survey plan published in 1925, showing the newly built Collins Gate (shaded in red) next the Collins House first built in 1910 (shaded in Green), and the gangway (shaded in blue) connecting the two buildings over Collins Way (formerly Robertson Lane). (Source: Mahlstedt Map section 1, no 14, 1925)In 1947, Collins Gate was acquired by Electrolytic Zinc Co of Australasia Ltd to provide the company with space for office expansion. Collins Gate was described at the time as ‘a modern four and six storied building, on land nine by 45 metres (30 by 150 feet), on the south side of Little Collins [Street], and on the east of Collins House’ (Argus 28 November 1947:3)Various businesses were housed in the building at 377-379 Little Collins Street until 1997 (Age 5 April 1997:172). The building was refurbished, and additional floors added in 1998 when it was subdivided and turned into a residential building with the ground-floor retail spaces retained (CoMMaps; Age 8 August 1998:199). The advertisement for the redevelopment detailed that the top floor contained a two-storey two-bedroom apartment, and the rest of the building comprised one- and two-bedroom apartments priced over $300,000. It was said to be a ‘luxurious modern new apartment in charming Art Deco [sic] style older building…generous windows make this apartment light and airy overlooking the open space of Collins Gate’ (Age 8 August 1998:199).Figure 4. Subject site in 1948, showing Collins Gate. (Source: Mahlstedt Map Section 1, no. 14, 1948).Grainger, Little, Barlow & Hawkins, architectsMarcus Reginald Barlow (1890–1954) was amongst Melbourne’s most prolific architects of the interwar period. He entered partnerships with John Grainger between 1914 and 1917 and with John Little in 1917–1922, before forming a practice with F G B Hawkins in the years 1922 to 1924; from 1925 to 1927 Barlow was a sole practitioner. Barlow’s work was heavily influenced by domestic and commercial architecture in the United States and he promoted the bungalow as a modern style before turning his attention to city architecture including Temple Court, Collins Street (1925) and the celebrated Manchester Unity Building, on the corner of Collins and Swanston Street (1932). Barlow’s streamlined Moderne buildings included the Century Building (1938–1940) and the Manchester Unity Oddfellows Building (1941), both in Swanston Street (Schrader 2012:66).__________________________________________________STOREY, ROHAN 2019. HODDLE GRID INTERIORS THEMATIC STUDY (DRAFT): MAY 2019Collins Gate, 377‐379 Little Collins Street, 1925Has spatial drama, and the directory is a rare feature, but flooring is changed and the marble paneling and balustrades are typical rather than rich or detailed, and there are no other features.__________________________________________________NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Wednesday 21 October 1925, page 16, illustADDITIONS TO COLLINS HOUSEThis drawing indicates the nature of the extension to Collins House, now nearing completion. The addition will provide further facilities to the portion of Collins House which flanks Little Collins street. There will be four storeys to the now building, which will be constructed of reinforced concrete, and it will contain first-class accommodation on all floors, designed in keeping with the parent structure, the fittings throughout being of the same high standard. The building, which will be named Collins Gate, is designed to accommodate the overflow of tenants applying for offices in Collins House. Collins Gate will be separated from Collins House by an asphalted right-of-way. The entrance will be on the western side, and the building will be approachable from Collins street through Collins House.The architects for the addition are Messrs Barlow and Hawkins
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 105930 | 1 JPEG : 468 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |