Original post 3 April 2020
Good from any angle so here’s 4 ! #BHPbuilding (former), cnr Bourke&William, completed 1972, the apogee of refined modernism. Won the top prize at the Architects Institute Awards in 1973. Designed by #YunckenFreeman, lead architect #BarryPatten, who had travelled to Chicago to consult with #SkidmoreOwingsandMerrill, then completing both the #Hancocktower and the Sears tower in that city, the Hancock having similar expressed structure including the cross bracing. Like those buildings the black steel is actually cladding over the actual concrete encased steel structure, not the structure itself; so much for modernist purity of expression, it’s all about the look.
A follower on facebook pointed out that the top two levels have green glass instead of black, because the glass of the right strength for the plant levels didn’t come in black. I don’t mind it, but never noticed before !
A fascinating detail of the 1972 #BHPbuilding on Bourke & William corner – the piers actually get thinner as they go up.
original post Feb 2018:
#ModernistMonday. #BHPbuilding (former), cnr Bourke&William, completed 1972, the apogee of refined modernism, just before slick late modern and it’s opposite brutalist cane to dominate the 70s. Won the top prize at the Architects Institute Awards in 1973, apparently I some hisses from the younger set. Architects #YunckenFreeman, who had travelled to Chicago to consult with #SkidmoreOwingsandMerrill, then completing both the #Hancocktower and the Sears tower in that city, the Hancock having similar expressed structure including the cross bracing.
Storey of Melbourne 