The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter

Archived Newsletter No.408a - Open House Supplement

Contents

Overview
Heritage buildings
Photographs
Heritage buildings with contemporary refurbishments
Churches & synagogue
Preparation
Modern buildings
Planning your route and getting about
Inner city living & social and recreational infrastructure
ESD (Environmentally Sustainable Design)
An Interlude
SMET (Science, Mathematics, Engineering & Technology
The White Hat Quiz

Overview

With 61 buildings open over 2 days on the 24th & 25th July 2010, there is no way you are going to get to all of them, but not to worry. We will try to give some guidelines that might help you sort your priorities.

We will try to cater for three types of subscriber:

1. The local Melbournian or person who gets to the city from time to time. We will try to point out which buildings are open for this event only as against others which are open on a regular basis which you can pencil in for a later visit when the crowds are smaller. There are at least several places where your smug father-in-law (you know the one who has been anywhere that’s worth visiting in Melbourne) won’t have been. No need to tell him about them until you has come home with the photos.
2. The short term visitor. You’re only here for a few days and want to cram in as much as you can. We’ll try to point out what we regard as the highlights.
3. The armchair traveller. We know we have a number of overseas subscribers who still read every newsletter. Strange, isn’t it? We’ll try to point you at source that may give some more background on these places even if you can’t visit them this weekend.

In the meantime, the official site is your main source of information for price, location and other details. This is at Melbourne's Open House. Please remember that numbers of these tours require pre-booking.

Heritage buildings

For locals, top of our list for must-see venues is the Verdon Chambers above the Gothic Bank. The Gothic Bank is one of the glories of Melbourne’s 19th century architecture and the ornate banking chamber which is really a temple to money and commerce, is open to the public during banking hours as is the attached Cathedral Room from the old stock exchange and the small banking museum underneath. To White Hat’s knowledge, of those three spaces, only the Cathedral Room will be open this weekend. However, the Verdon Chambers, built above the banking chamber for the original general manager and remodelled in 1921 and now used for high level corporate activities will be open. It has rarely (if ever?) been open to the public. The few times White Hat has been there, the walls have been adorned with important Australian paintings from the ANZ collection, and I would expect that to be case again this weekend.

The Royal Society Of Victoria is an organisation that is intertwined with Melbourne’s history from the mid 19th century to the present day. Perhaps one of its best known ventures was to provide support for the Burke & Wills Expedition. Membership, at least currently, is not dependent on ‘who you know’ but ‘what you know’. If you have peer-reviewed scientific achievements you are likely to be accepted as a member for a relatively small annual fee. This small building on its triangle of land is every day passed by tens of thousands of Melburnians who have no idea what’s inside. That’s because it is rarely open to the public. However, this weekend it will be. Don’t expect soaring architecture, these are modest chambers, but do expect to see documents and artefacts with links with Melbourne’s history that are rarely seen by the general public. For those interested in the strange stone on display outside you can find an explanation at No.3 of The White Hat Guide to 7 Monuments of Melbourne.

Newman College (along with the Capitol Building which does not form part of this weekend) is one of the major works of Walter and Marion Burley Griffin in Melbourne. The chapel (which was not designed by the Griffins) is open to the public for Sunday services throughout the year, while the oratory, dining room and common room are open to students throughout the year. It is these last three which are particularly important because they still contain important examples of furniture and décor in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ style (which we discuss in next week’s City Design Newsletter). This tour requires pre-booking.

Parts of Victorian Trades Hall are regularly open to the public with various theatre, arts and comedy events regularly taking place there as well as the bar in the old ballroom being regularly open to the public. However, of all the buildings open this weekend, this is one that is best appreciated not by looking at the architecture but by knowing what happened there. White Hat suggests you take off your “Vote for Tony Abbott” badge before entering.

The Block Arcade is open to the public during shopping hours. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they have a guided tour which takes in the ‘private’ upper floors. The upper floors will not be open this weekend so we recommend that locals come back for a weekday tour. Don't forget to look out for the ceiling mural mentioned in The White Hat Guide to 7 Murals of Melbourne.

The State Library of Victoria and Shrine of Remembrance are fine buildings and important venues which every Melburnian should visit. However they are open most days and maybe you could leave them to another time since we are not aware of any special areas which will be open for this weekend only.

From what we can tell, the Treasury Reserve Walking Tour is not a regular tour that locals can book into at a later date. It takes in the foyer of 2 Treasury Place which is a sort ‘semi-public’ space. If it doesn’t fit into your itinerary, you can find a little background on the precinct in part 2 of our Podcast of September 2007 called The Missing Statue.

There are regular free tours of Melbourne Town Hall and Offices during the week so you might want to put that off for another time.

The Fire Services Museum, La Trobe's Cottage, Old Treasury Building and Hellenic Museum are regularly open to the public, so again you may wish to visit them on a different day. The Executive Chamber at the Old Treasury which was originally listed on the Open House website as being open, seems to have been removed, so we assume it will not be open this weekend.

We have found The Mission to Seafarers, while not a public building, always welcoming of strangers, so you may want to postpone your visit to another day.

The Supreme Court is a fine building and it will offer a chance to wander around one of its chambers. However, we would recommend that locals plan a visit during law week, when a number of other areas are also open.

As a commercial building with a number of tenants, nobody is likely to object to you wandering into the foyer of the Former Tramways Building (now Donkey Wheel House) during business hours. However it appears that the basement and other areas will be open this weekend so you might enjoy nosing around.

The Melbourne City Baths is a distinctive Melbourne Building. However most of its heritage features remain on the outside and can be viewed at any time. Inside it has had to move with the times to become a gym and, to White Hat’s knowledge, little of the heritage features remain on view in the interior. However, we may be wrong. If you have time, you might like to check it out and tell us how wrong we were.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria, housed in an Art Deco Drill Hall opposite Flagstaff Gardens is open on weekdays although there is a charge to use the library if you are not a member. The Officers Mess is the usual venue for regular public lectures typically held at about 5pm and for a small admission charge. If you go along to one of these meetings you are likely have the building explained to you by 27 knowledgeable members who are only too willing to fill any gaps in your historical knowledge.

The Atrium of the T&G Building is open to the public during business hours.

The ICI Building (now Orica Building) was built in the 1950s and was Melbourne’s first glass-walled skyscraper and still puts to shame some of the uglier city buildings constructed for three decades after it. We are not sure how much of the original conception will be on show, but we will be returning to find out.

Tasma Terrace houses the office and shop of the National Trust which is open to the public during office hours. However, we expect other areas of the building will also be on display this weekend so you may wish to investigate.

The Melbourne Athenaeum Library is open to the public during business hours so you wish to return at another time for a more leisurely browse.

Photographs

This weekend should be a great opportunity for photographs. Usually, inside private and even public buildings, the rule of thumb is ‘no photographs unless permission is given’. For more details and what can usually be photographed in Australia see The White Hat Guide to Taking Photos in Australia.

However this weekend, Open House has a photography competition. This means that in all venues it would seem a reasonable assumption that photographs are permitted unless there are signs or instructions to the contrary.

White Hat would particularly recommend that avid photographers visit some of the rooftops open that weekend for angles on Melbourne’s skyline that may not be available to them again. You might also use the opportunity to check the sightlines for overlooking spaces that may provide you with an opportunity to take an overhead shot of the garden you are in. Roof gardens open on the day are the Origin Roof Garden, 131-141 Queen Street, Elizabeth Street Common Ground, Pixel Building, The Harbour Family and Children's Centre (2nd floor only – nothing much in the way of external views), Council House 2 (CH2) and Society in South Yarra,

Heritage buildings with contemporary refurbishment

271 Collins Street is now a refurbished retail space that is open during shopping hours. We wrote a piece on its historical background in a newsletter several years ago but we can’t seem to find it. However, the main reason for visiting this weekend is that it also gives access to the Origin Energy Roof Garden which is not usually accessible to the public.

131-141 Queen Street was home to the Victoria Club in 1975 at the time of the Great Bookie Robbery. The Victoria Club has moved on, but there is now a roof garden that will be open this weekend and which is not usually accessible by the public.

RMIT Building 16 - Storey Hall. This building forms part of the pairing irreverently known as Legoland and the Batcave. It is open to students and staff at various times throughout the year, but this weekend provides an opportunity to see how the architects have used a postmodernist idiom to expand the functionality of a heritage hall.

The Malthouse Theatre is familiar to Melburnians as a venue for various theatre productions, but the weekend should provide the opportunity for a more leisurely inspection of the performance spaces and the heritage aspects of the building.

Intercontinental Melbourne incorporates heritage features of The Rialto Building most of which are visible to public during business hours.

The internal spaces at Central Pier Docklands have been converted to general purpose spaces suitable for exhibitions and receptions. Of great interest to brides-to-be but maybe slightly less for others.

Churches & synagogue

The five churches are all open to the public for Sunday services and also host a variety of concerts throughout the year.

Locals may therefore want to visit St Michael's Church on a Thursday lunchtime when there is a regular free organ recital.

St Patrick’s and St Paul’s Cathedral are open during the day, 7 days, and open to the public except when special services or events are being held. Locals may wish to visit St Paul's Cathedral at 5pm on a weekday when there is a regular short evensong with choir.

St Peter’s Eastern Hill is high church Anglican, so we recommend you go along to a Sunday service for the full ‘smells and bells’.

The Melbourne City Synagogue is not generally open to the public, so this weekend is a rare opportunity for non-Jewish Melburnians to venture inside this historic building.

Preparation

Once you have decided on your prime destinations, we suggest you do some extra research on those buildings using the internet or your local library. That way you can bore the pants off the person waiting next to you in the queue while your partner buries their head in the official program and pretends not to be with you.

Modern buildings

The ANZ Centre has quietly altered the centre of gravity of Melbourne’s weekday workforce. Instead of working in the CBD many thousands now make their way to Docklands courtesy of their almost private tramstop and some even make use of the private jetty. ANZ have secured a site with prime views down the Yarra and built a major workplace making heavy use of environmentally sustainable features. If you haven’t been to the Docklands for a while, a visit to the ANZ Centre may prove a useful update on where Melbourne is at now.

The public can wander through the foyer of 101 Collins Street during business hours, but this weekend they can also enjoy the wonderful view over the Yarra and the Botanic Gardens from one of the building’s boardrooms on level 23.

The Melbourne Recital Centre is open to the public during its many concerts, but this weekend provides a leisurely opportunity to wander around its variety of performing spaces.

The Kangan Batman TAFE at Docklands provides an opportunity to examine the training environment for those starting a career in the automotive industry. The building also incorporates a number of environmental features of interest. While you are there you may wish to note the neighbouring Lindsay Fox Classic Car Museum which is not open this weekend (to our knowledge) but is open to the public on Tuesdays.

Denmark House is a contemporary private club in the city with clean lines and understated Scandinavian style. It is not usually open to the public.

Tours of Federation Square are available most days so locals may choose to come back at another more leisurely time for this one.

Planning your route & getting about

When you have chosen your must-see venues, we suggest you visit the Open House website, consult the opening times and maps and plan your route.

A car is not going to be much use for getting between venues except perhaps for the small number in the inner suburbs. Bicycle, tram &/or walking are your best options. Remember that at weekends public transport costs next to nothing if you buy a Sunday Saver or Weekend 5pack. You may need to buy these at a premium station or convenience store because they are not available from the vending machines on trams.

Inner city living and social &recreational infrastructure

Curiously, the Open House website just describes Elizabeth Street Common Ground as apartments, but they are much more than that. They include a new initiative to provide supportive housing; safe, secure, affordable housing to a mix of low income wage earners and vulnerable people who have experienced long term homelessness. We are not sure, but think that this is integrated with ‘mainstream’ tenants and owners. Access will be available to the community roof garden. It could be that Open House has not mentioned this important function of the building because people wanting to integrate back into society will not be assisted by a flashing neon sign announcing “supportive housing”. We believe there will be people available to explain aspects of the project but that may be Sunday only. You can find more information at Elizabeth Street Common Ground.

The Victorian College of the Arts have gradually taken over and repurposed most of the old police precinct including the Police Hospital. However The Victoria Police Mounted Branch stables and facilities remain and function on a daily basis. They are not generally open to the public.

Rize 3121 and Hue Apartments in Richmond along with Society near the Prahran Market demonstrate environmentally responsible medium density apartment living in the inner suburbs. Society will also have access to its rooftop garden.

The City of Melbourne Bowls Club in Flagstaff Gardens received a modern makeover as part of a contra-deal for removing the bowls club in Carlton opposite Melbourne University. The public facilities and environmentally sensitive design features will be on display.

The Harbour Family & Children's Centre at Docklands gives an opportunity to visit this low-rise facility. If you are seriously interested in finding pre-school facilities for your child in this area, I am sure someone will show you over the facilities during the week.

The Icehouse is a major new piece of infrastructure in the Docklands. If you are interested in looking at the building and finding out how it works, then this weekend may be a good time. If you are interested in going skating, then we can recommend Tuesday nights which are half price.

ESD (Environmentally Sustainable Design)

Melbourne city and Docklands in particular have become places of international significance for incorporating ESD principles into new buildings and its refurbishment of older ones. You can find more details on ESD in Australia at:The White Hat Guide to ESD.and on energy efficient buildings in Melbourne at The White Hat Guide to Energy Efficient Buildings in Melbourne.

Council House 2 - CH2 – was built partially as a demonstration building to display what could be done in terms of Environmentally sustainable design. As a result, many of its environmental features are ‘on display’ rather than hidden away. Tours of the building are not generally available to the public, so this weekend would be a good time to get along.

The Pixel Building is a small building nearing completion on the old CUB site and seeks to demonstrate environmentally sustainable design in a commercial building of the scale suited to many of our suburbs. This weekend may prove an opportunity to see numbers of the features before they get tucked out of sight in the finished building.

Part of the Goods Shed at Dockland has been taken on as a site demonstrating how a heritage building can be developed in an environmentally sustainable manner. Public tours are not generally available so this weekend provides a good opportunity to view the results.

University of Melbourne Faculty of Business & Economics (officially known as ‘Spot’ and unofficially known as ‘The Cow’ because of its exterior patterning) will be open and demonstrating some of its design principles. The building is open to students and is home to a number of free lectures open to the public, but this weekend maybe provide the opportunity to see aspects not normally visible to the public.

200 Vic is a recently refurbished commercial building which will be displaying some of its environmental credentials that are not normally open to the public.

The Origin Roof Garden (not normally open to the public) is an example of a ‘green roof’. We discuss the issue of green roofs in next week’s City Design Newsletter. If you would like to subscribe to this free newsletter go to The White Hat City Design Newsletter.

An Interlude

If you find yourself standing in a lengthy queue this weekend, we thought you might like something to pass the time. Here is an excerpt from a White Hat Environment Newsletter:

This excerpt from the environment newsletter can be found here.

You can subscribe to our environment newsletter here.

SMET (Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology) Infrastructure

For those interested in the medical sciences there is a rare chance to visit the Radiation Therapy Bunkers and Research Laboratories at Peter Mac.

For those interested in the history of how this city works there is the Russell Place Substation and JA Substation. Pre booking is required. If you find yourself in a queue outside the Russell Place Substation make sure to have a look at the important building next door called Litte Hero. You can find some background as to why White Hat believes this to be important at The White Hat Guide to Little Hero.

However, if you are serious about learning how this city works, White Hat can recommend the forthcoming open days that form part of Engineering Week. Let us know if you would like further details.

The White Hat Quiz

Finally a little quiz about some of these buildings to fill in the time if you are waiting in a queue. If you don’t know the answers, it doesn’t matter. It gives you some intelligent questions to ask the friendly tour guides.

1. The glass block art pieces in the T&G atrium contain several errors of fact (which just goes to show that artists still need a good sub-editor). What are they?
2. The pillars outside 101 Collins hold up nothing. Why?
3. The Icehouse is currently Australia’s largest ice skating venue. However, at the turn of last century, Melbourne had the largest indoor skating venue in the world. Where was it situated?
4. One of the houses in the middle of Tasma Terrace has been removed. When and why was it removed?
5. Elizabeth Street Common Ground provides living quarters to low income families. A century earlier an entrepreneur/philanthropist combined with a vicar to build healthy accommodation for low income families in the city. What building was this?
6. Why are there so many steps at the entrance to Collins Street Baptist Church?
7. Which of the buildings on display during Open House incorporates a ‘hidden’ house for the caretaker?
8. Which of the buildings on display no longer stands on its original site?
9. The architect of one of the buildings on display never bothered to visit the site or view the completed building. Which one?

No prizes – just glory and a warm inner glow.

White Hat is dressed by the bespoke tailor at the top of Collins Street and dines at the Camy Dumpling House at the bottom of Tattersalls Lane.