100 Years of Registered Architects
A walking tour through the ages to celebrate the centenary of the Architects Registration Board of Victoria (ARBV). Hear and see how architects have contributed to the built environment of Naarm (‘Melbourne’) over the past 100 years.
Approximate distance: 5km, or 4km with a tram ride part of the way
Approximate duration: 2.5 hours
Since 1923, the ARBV has been working with architects in Victoria to ensure they fulfill their professional obligations to become registered and to maintain high standards of competency and practice. This tour showcases CBD buildings that depict the evolution of architecture and the growing needs of Victorians over the past century. Jill Garner and Giorgio Marfella visit one building per decade, from the 1920s to the 2010s.
Note: This tour does not move chronologically through each decade, and is instead organised around a suggested walking route.
About your tour guides
Jill Garner has 40 years experience as an architect. In 2015, she became the Victorian Government Architect and has maintained a hands-on role in many significant projects including the Melbourne Arts Precinct Regeneration, Melbourne Olympic Park masterplan rollout and the State Government review of Federation Square.
Giorgio Marfella is an architect with experience in residential, commercial, educational projects in Australia and overseas. He holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Melbourne, in which he researched the techno-economic evolution of Melbourne’s skyscrapers during the second half of the twentieth century. Giorgio is an international expert on the design, technology and history of tall buildings. He is Chairperson of the Architects Registration Board of Victoria.
Jill says Shell House is not just an important high-rise, it’s also ‘a genuinely beautiful building’. Shell House was designed by Harry Seidler and Associates and completed in 1988. Its modernist design is composed of reinforced concrete with a simple geometric form.
Rather than a square-cornered building, Seidler chose to address the south-eastern corner of the Hoddle Grid with a curved edge – a ‘radical’ choice at the time. The curvaceous form has a structural basis too, allowing for the passage of the City Loop train tool below the ground.
Jill and Giorgio also draw attention the Charles Perry’s Shell Mace public sculpture; even though the Shell Corporation no longer occupies the building, the sculpture is a reminder of that history. Arthur Boyd’s important mural Pulpit Rock, Bathers and Muzzled Dog is also visible in the foyer of the building.
Read more about Shell House on the Design Files and on Seidler and Associates website.
The Treasury Place buildings represent a unique modernist ‘urban ensemble’. They’re arranged in a way which emphasises their grid structure. Designed by Barry Pattern of Yuncken Freeman Architects.
Alcaston House is one of Melbourne’s first mixed-use buildings. Designed by A and K Henderson in a renaissance revival style, it’s an early example of multi-storey residential accommodation in the city.
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) House, known today as Orica House, was designed by Osborn McCutcheon of Bates Smart McCutcheon in 1955. When it opened in 1958, Orica House was the tallest building in Australia and the first skyscraper in the country. A ‘radical’ building for its time, it exceeded the city’s height limit. It heralded the construction of high-rise office buildings, and can be seen as a symbol of Melbourne’s first reach for a ‘steel and glass’ modern city.
With a ‘Gotham City’ silhouette, this building has a distinctly New York City style. Designed by Public Works Chief Architect Percy Edgar Everett and opened in 1943, this is a rare example of 1940s architecture given the building supplies shortages brought on by WW2.
This police headquarters was the site of the 1986 Russell Street car bombing. The entrance to the building was also used in the opening sequence of the long-running TV series Homicide.
Designed by Sean Godsell and Peddle Thorp Architects, RMIT’s Design Hub sits at the northern edge of the ‘city spine’. The building is enveloped in more than 16,000 glass disks, some of which broke and fell off in 2014 later to be replaced with ‘green energy generators’.
You can read more about the Design Hub on the RMIT website.
Completed in 1926 and designed by Harry Norris (who ended up running his architectural practice out of the building!), this is an example of a ‘Chicago School’ or ‘Commercial Palazzo’ style building. Jill points out some ‘neo classical’ features, and Giorgio explains some of the benefits of the building’s terracotta exterior.
The building’s use by creative industries from its origins ‘til today have sparked contemporary discussions about the cultural heritage value of buildings that goes beyond its architectural value. The Nicholas Building is open to the public, and its ‘vertical arcade’ stairwell features some fantastic interiors that are well worth visiting.
Read more about the building on the Nicholas Building Association’s website.
LAB Architecture Studio’s design for Fed Square reflects the spirit of ‘constructivism’ of its time, which Giorgio says required buildings to ‘fragment’. Click through to this 1996 image to see the Gas and Fuel buildings that were demolished in 1997 to make way for Federation Square.
Fed Square features complex and irregular junctions and corridors, realised by LAB Architecture Studio with Bates Smart Architects. The labyrinthine design continues underground, where there is a concrete labyrinth that circulates air in a natural heating and cooling system.
This was one of the first 21st Century buildings in the world to receive heritage listing, and Jill notes that this raises some complications in regards to how to maintain the dynamism and change required for such an active public space.
To hear more about Federation Square, you can visit nearby tour stops:
Jill says Evan Walker Bridge is an ‘iconic piece of Melbourne’s pedestrian trail’. The parabolic arch was designed by Cocks and Carmichael and completed in 1992. Previously known as the Southbank Pedestrian Bridge, and known by architects as ‘the coathanger bridge’, it was renamed in 2015 in honour of former planning minister Professor Evan Walker who was instrumental in developing the Southbank precinct.
The tied-arch bridge is constructed from steel, and is suitable for cyclists and pedestrians. It spans 45m over the Yarra River, connecting Southbank to Flinders Street Station.
To hear more about Evan Walker Bridge, you can visit nearby tour stops:
Designed by architect Roy Grounds and first opened in 1967. Grounds was previously a residential architect, and his own home was almost a tiny version of this gallery; he tested some of the details of the NGV on residential projects, then they were ‘blown up’ to the civic scale. After completing this giant bluestone-clad building, Roy Grounds dedicated himself to the surrounding arts precinct.
The building’s interiors were designed by the Featherstones. Jill and Giorgio also discuss later redevelopments of the NGV, including the need to protect the central stained glass ceiling.
This is the final stop on Jill and Giorgio’s 100 Years of Registered Architects tour.
Many thanks to Jill Garner and Giorgio Marfella for hosting this tour, and to the Architects Registration Board of Victoria.
