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Title:
Cross-Section [1954]
Date:
1954
Persistent Link:
http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24048
File Description:
Cross-Section, May 1954 (no. 19)
Issue No. 19
May I, 1954
The Brotherhood of St Laurence, a Melb Protestant
charity body, roundly attacked Govt inaction in slum
clearance. 3 days later, perhaps by coincidence, the
Central Executive of the Vic Labour Party decided to
disband the Housing Comm'n. Its Architects' Panel
also would go. This was a unique body. The 5 members worked for the Govt but in their own private
offices. They had been chosen fairly arbitarily shortly
after the HC's birth in 1937, & were appointed for life.
On the face of it they had spent the yrs churning out
thousands of almost identical cottages. Actually their
work involved town & estate planning, organ'sing imports, prefabs, transport, services, research—virtually
the total technical direction of State housing. Other
arch'ts, judging their work only on the indefensibly
mediocre units produced, pecked them from the start
with criticism, often petty, usually jealous. Doubtless
there were good reasons for the pastel-tiled, treeless
depression of the estates, but these were not known to
those outside the Panel. Public-Relations was never a
forte of the Comm'n. Now its arrogant handling of
applicants for houses contributed to its loneliness in
adversity. Bui to the arch'I profession the fate of the
Panel was more serious. Its dissolution by Vic's Labour
Govt could mean only one thing: another round in the
long struggle between private practice & Govt Arch'I
Depts was to be won by the latter. What would happen
to State housing now? Last month most Vic arch'ts
felt they would prefer the Devil they knew.
IT A helicopter-landing roof features in the designs
for Qantas Empire Airways' £I-m Syd bldg, one of the
Com'lfh group to build across Philip-st.
IT An old legal difficulty—owning space without owning
land—is tackled with a current bill to amend Victoria's
Transfer of Land Act. If adopted Vic will be a world
leader. Purchase of offices & flats on upper storeys
would then be facilitated.
¶ Brisb CC's Tennyson powerhouse is to be built by
Messrs M R Hornibrook Pty Ltd, their 20 mths, £268,250
tender being the lowest. This compares with £287,528
& 24 mths estimate for day-labour methods. BCC's
Opposition says that the delay during "messing around
with" comparisons has cost the Electricity Dept £10,000.
If The Spastic Children's Welfare League, Brisbane,
begins a £100,000 programme with a 2-storey brick
bldg by Messrs Goodsir & Carlyle in assoc'n with Mr
R A Shaw, arch'ts. A tender of £64,317 from Mr J
Hutchinson, Sth Bris, was accepted.
Circular rooflights illuminate the extroverted selling
space of this new Hobart men's wear store. (Philp,
Lighton, Floyd & Assoc'ts, architects.)
4 rnm c-s,o,ey nooses, a“anged in minor-pairs wrr;:
grouped services, fit across 50' in this urbane design
for row housing to be erected in Perth. Living-dining
& cooking are below, with 2 bedrooms plus bath upstairs.
By the Architects Associates (C-S Aug 53.)
¶ The NSW Housing Minister, Mr Clive Evat+, resigned from Cabinet after one of the biggest State
political upheavals.
¶ The first occupant in the Syd Univ of Techn'y
(C-S April), the Dept of Architecture, has enlivened
its environment with thoughtful colours chosen by a
lecturer, Mr Eric Parker: large neutral areas with concentrated strong colours.
If The Home Beautiful staff responded to a call from
the Aust Antarctic Team by providing them with a
colour scheme for their base-hut: sunshine yellow ceilings, sleeping cubicles in flamingo red & deep green,
or sorrel tan & blue, with one wall each of soft grey
for pin-ups.
¶ A frustrated English firm of home-estate-bldrs, Messrs
Taylor Woodrow (C-S April), were about to pack-up
when the Bank of NSW granted a £100,000 loan to
launch a Co-op Society for a Woolooware scheme,
which aims to build at the rate of I a week.
¶ Rheem (Aust) Pty Lid now operates the factory
built last year at Rydalmere, NSW, on its 27 acre site
bought up from 100 lot-owners. (Stephenson & Turner,
arch'ts; Stanley & Llewellyn & W E Bassett & Assoc'ts,
struct & meth eng'rs; Hutcherson Bros, bldrs.)
IT The Com'Ith Bank has let a £I-m contract to Messrs
Concrete Constructions, Syd, for their 12-storey bldg
at the George-Market-st corner. The excavation &
basements were done by Messrs Hutcherson Bros,
beginning 1949 (C-S, March 53). Ceilings are to be
of oven-baked perforated metal, acting both as acoustic
lining & as exhaust ducts for air-conditioning.
IT Insurance Companies are Australia's busiest and
wealthiest private promoters this year (C-S April 53):
the wreckers are working in Newcastle to make way
for National Mutual Assoc'ns 10-storey Bolton-st bldg;
the M L C has acquired another Syd site & in Melb
the Alliance Assurance Co released pictures of a
12-storey Collins-st-west bldg designed by Messrs A C
Leith, H Bartlett & Partners.
IT The contract for the PMG bldg at Berri went to
the Adelaide Bldg Co at £29,950; a similar job proceeds
at Balaclava. (Com'th Works Dept, arch'ts.)
If SA's brick shortage produced a spate of figures &
opinions ("State-owned brickyards should be established"—Mr H A Elliott, sec of the Bricklayers' Soc.)
Clay bricks will number about 57-m this year, cement
bricks 30-m. Concrete-block manuf're was begun at
Rosewater, SA, by Jaywoth Tiles Ltd, with their brand
new, Australia's first, Besser Vibrapac machine. /Meanwhile Tas is short of roofing iron: housing & schools
are standing still while the Minister for Hsg, Mr
Bramich, seeks authority to use stored imported Jap iron.
/NSW Sawmillers' Assoc'n, fearful of extinction through
import rivalry, seeks an increase of 48/6 per sup ft
(800% rise) in duty on Oregon.
Dr Walter Gropius arrives next week for the 4th
Aust Arch'I Convention, opening in Sydney May 10 at
the Hotel Australia. Other visitors incl: Prof Robert
Matthew of Edinburgh, Prof Szymon Syrkus of Poland.
Main show: a £10,000, 2-storey Town Hall exhibit with
co-ordinated commercial stands & a full-size "House
of the Future" (Harry Seidler, arch't; Architon Constr,
bldr.) The show is largely pre-fab'd & will be built
in 6 days next week. Other shows: International
Arch'ture at David Jones, arch'I drwgs at the Nat
Gallery.
TT 2 prizes, £1,000 (1st) & £100, in the Women's
Weekly house competition, professional section, were
won by Messrs Bernard Joyce, David Brunton & Jack
Lilly of Melbourne.
These wishbone frames of a 300-seat church at Wembley, WA (C-S Oct 53) by Messrs Summerhayes &
Assoc'ts, Arch'ts, are the first pre-stressed concrete in
WA & one of the most spectacular applications yet in
Australian building.
IT The £9/m Orsova, here on its maiden voyage,
included in its bag of artistic tricks: a first class lounge
dressed up as "an old wooden shack", plastic-finished
walls, a landscape mural by Australian Sali Herman.
IT Tasmania's roads may abandon concrete & bitumen
because of cost—£30,000 a mile in concrete with drains
—& experiment with a new technique from England &
Sweden. Sodium silicate or calcium chloride is added
to suitable soils & the traffic rolls it hard.
if The successful lender of the Boulder Dam builders,
Kaiser Engineers, USA, for the Snowy River tunnelling
task was £25,296,586, in competition with other Americans, Scandanavians, Germans, French & Australians—
there were no British tenders, despite a special invitation. The present spending rate at Snowy is £14-m p.a.
/The Kiewa Scheme is to reawaken. £25-m is needed to
complete the job.
if Melbourne's Plan is circulating the suburbs, with
public interest high. But the Com'Ith Govt refuses
to relinquish its scheme to build just where Victoria-st
might be widened for the ring road. /Melb CC
approved the scheme to build a 6 lane bridge over the
Yarra at King-st. Mr C T Hayes, Traffic Com'tee Chairman, said, "Councillors must not dally or argue now:
finance will look after itself—let's get on with the job".
The Western Market-site project stirred again (Leslie M
It is to be named Hume
Perrott & P'ners, arch'ts.)
Square in honour of the MCC's town-planning Com`iee
Chairman Mr G M Hume.
The "Rotolactor" propels the old cow-shed into the
General Motors era with a sharp kick. It is in the
vicinity of one of Australia's first, most famous farm
bldgs at Camden Park Estate, NSW. A sort of bucolic
Guggenheim Museum, it leads a cow up a ramp &
carries her round a circular production line bristling
with equipment. One revolution & she's milked. (Thomas
M Maloney, arch't.) Las+ month a bigger Rotolactor
was proposed in Gippsland, Vic.
The 8-storey own-your-own-flats at Elizabeth Bay,
NSW, by Mr H Stossel, arch't, were completed.
Ampol Ltd will market its petrol in Tas & WA this
year. It began a £500,000 building programme to
include big Hobart, Launceston & Devonport depots as
well as service stns. Their Tas architect is Mr K W
Shugg of Hobart.
jj The RAC, WA, accepted the £50,157 tender of
Mr R J Davies, Jolimont, for their new bldg in Adelaideterrace. This goes up in front of their present bldg,
whose current extensions cost £17,000. (Cameron,
Chisholm & Nicol, arch'ts.)
The confirmation of high-grade bauxite fields in
the Wessel Islands, NT, may well forshadow the
completion of the current swing-over from steel to
aluminium which began during Aust's steel shortage
& because of alum'm's low maintenance costs. Naval
surveys for suitable harbourage must now follow up
the discoveries, which predict supplies sufficient "for
well over 100 years".
¶ Cracks which developed in many of the 98 War Service Homes, Hectorville, SA, (C-S, Dec 53) were blamed
on "improper building technique" & owners were backed
by their Progress Assoc'n in demanding free repairs.
The Minister for Social Services had ex-service architects
examine the estate & granted, "because of doubt", the
requests—which will cost at least £30,000. Pavements
& porous drains may also be added round all houses.
IT
100 cars may park on the roof of this new Brown-st,
Adelaide bldg. (Lawson, Cheesman & Doley, arch'ts;
Wilckens & Burnside, bldrs.)
Messrs Stephenson & Turner's admin bldg of the
£17-m Altona, Vic, refinery for Vacuum Oil has glazed
n & s walls, adjustable steel louvres on e & w office
windows, air-conditioning, a modular plan, prefab panel
interior partitions, a general high level of luxury in
finishes, & elaborate plans for exterior planting.
Now a Melb theatre is under a Health Dept ultimatum: the King's, Russell-st, is to provide divided
access io gallery & circle, to clear the foyer of obstructions & to regulate surrounding lanes' traffic to provide
clear exits.
jj The Cumberland County C is pouring over the pros
& cons of 9 suggested sites for the proposed National
Opera House in Syd.
IT The High Court reversed the decision of Mr Justice
Dean (newly appointed Chancellor of Melb Univ) in
the test case of McWilliams v. State Elec Com'n, thus
legalising the Commission's acquisition of land near
Yallourn, Vic, for its model village of Newborough.
IT 'Quake-damaged homes in Adelaide are concerning
bldrs who have inspected them & pronounced many
dangerous.
IT Hobart CC's attitude to its own brick areas is:
"Do as I say; don't do as I do." It has extended the
Town Hall in timber, & now has permitted the Dept of
Social Services to extend in timber. The Dept's plea
was that the bldg "will be temporary". Further along
Macquarie-st the War Service Homes Div'n is in a
"temporary" bldg built in World War 11. In Davey-st
the Repat Dept is in a "temporary" wooden bldg from
World War I. Both are in "brick areas".
If The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority, to
cope with shifting populations and temporary townships,
has developed prefab, portable timber houses at below
site-constructed costs. A 3-bedrm type is in 2 sections,
2-bedrm type in 1 section. They are now produced 2
per week at Cooma workshop, are carried completely
furnished on low-loaders & assembled on site in I day.
IT 2 big SA country cold stores are completing: at
Ashton, £34,000, for 84,000 fruit cases; at Lenswood,
£50,000, for 113,000 cases (Lucas & Parker, arch'ts.)
if A Roman Catholic primary-&-secondary school at
Semaphore, WA, soon to begin, is io cost £36,000.
(E A Keel, arch't.)
IT A £90,000, 33 bedr'm hotel in Ellesmere-st, Perth,
is under way (Oldham, Boas, Ednie-Brown & Partners,
arch'ts.)
This new fire station at Devonport, Tas was completed.
(Bush, Haslock & Parkes, arch'ts; W M Williams & Son,
Devonport, bldr.)
Blackwood Hodge's new 30,000 sq ft factory at Sth
Granville, NSW, includes an engine-testing room whose
roof slides aside electrically for cranes to enter. (Lipson
& Kaad, arch'ts; A W Edwards Pty Ltd, bldrs; McMillan
& Britton, eng'rs.)
if A giant milk-processing plant costing nearly £I-m
was completed at Toora, Vic, for British United Dairies
Pty Ltd. A street of employees' timber houses & a
hostel for seasonal workers is included in the estate.
Landscaping embraces a VR siding, stores, labs, admin
& boiler house as well as the steel framed brick-walled
factory. (Godfrey & Spowers, Hughes, Mewton &
Lobb, arch'ts; Hansen & Yuncken, bldr.)
IT Waverly Hospital, NSW, is now using a new operating block which cos+ £25,000, contains 3 op theatres.
(N W McPherson, arch't; William Hughes & Sons, bldrs;
C H White, eng'r.) /For Port Pirie hostpital, SA, a
new theatres-&-men's-block (70 beds) contract has
been let by the Works Dept.
IT Tasmania's schools programme, attempting to cope
with growing-pop'n needs of 80 new classr'ms a year,
is costing £800,000 this financial year, £500,000 next
year. /The NSW Educ'n minister opened a £200,000
infants' school at Miranda, & announced that a contract
was recently signed for Syd Tech High School, Hurstville, for £234,000, with Messrs A R Hinwood & Son.
/Demolition at the Swan-st-Military-rd corner, Semaphore, SA, is preparing for a £36,000 Catholic School
to be finished by March '55.
(E A Keel, arch't; F
Fricker, bldr.) /The Vic Educ'n Dept let a contract for
a £9,428 infants' school at Kaniva, opened new High'
Schools at McKinnon & Footscray, finished 2 more at
Reservoir & Macleod, has another 6 High & 7 Tech
Schools building.
Russian Orthodox in religion, Russian Unorthodox in
archit'I style, this Cathedral (Australia's 1st) in Strathfield, designed just after the war by Mr R J Magoffin
arch't, was completed by Mr J P Cordukes, Concord,
bldr. The congregation is said to be delighted with the
design. /Lutherans at Box Hill, Melb, saved £2,500
by working-bees while building their church, opened
April II. li cost £11,000. /A new 7th Day Adventist
Church completed at Drummoyne, NSW, has a baby
crying room, free health treatment facilities & a hall
for vegetarian cooking demonstrations.
A new hospital for the
Sisters of St. John of God,
Ballarat, is designed to
give all wards maximum
sunshine.
Architects: P. J. O'Connor and Brophy,
Melbourne.
Contractors: S. J. Weir & Sons, Ballarat
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