Art Deco Carlton - First appearances can be deceiving ( & so can second ones)!

During a recent visit to Melbourne, I chanced upon a number of interwar functionalist buildings in Carlton during my short walks into the city. They provided lovely surprises, all the more so, considering that I was surrounded by many recent and newly-started high rise developments that were spilling out of the CBD and into the adjoining inner suburb of Carlton. Although known for its high concentration of 19th century Italianate Victorian architecture, particularly its semi-detached terraces, Carlton also had many old factories, stores and warehouses that marked a commercial precinct close to the northern edge of the CBD. 

One of the buildings I came across was the...

MODERN PRINTING COMPANY FACTORY 

Constructed using polychromatic facebrick, this former printing factory situated on the corner of Bouverie Street and Barkly Place is quite eye-catching. A repeated set of narrow geometric crystal-like motifs spaced along the top of its facade are set against a parapet that is capped by a single row of soldier bricks, so placed that their edges face outwards to give a continuous, dense, serrated pattern. 

Detail of Bouverie Street facade parapet showing the arrangement of narrow, vertically-oriented, crystal motifs and traces of painted signage "Frank Lee & Co. Pty".

The parapet steps up for short length before the rounded corner frontage, hosting a noticeably bulkier and enlarged geometric motif that protrudes further out from the facade and is itself set above a square recessed panel that has a distinctive regular pattern of square red brick headers.

Corner frontage of Bouverie Street and Barkly Place with stepped parapet to the left.

Along both the Bouverie St and Barkly Place frontages a series of elongate rectangular window that were fitted at some later date with brown metal-frames (all now boarded over).  

Rounded corner showing windows and factory door opening along Barkley Place and a concrete rendered framed entrance on Bouvier Street (obscured by tree).

Building history

Some on-line sleuthing lead to some more background information via Statements of Significance in MELBOURNE PLANNING SCHEME Incorporated Document City NorthHeritage Review 2012  page 13. 

It states that the building is an interwar building that was erected in 1934 to the design of architects A. C. Leith & Associates. It  is one of three known sites in the vicinity to have been developed by the Modern Printing Company during the earlier part of the 20th century. 

Although  the former factory is noted to be of aesthetic significance being an example of the Art Deco style, I think it is also mixed with stripped classical elements such as recessed brick work courses. Later in the 1960s – 80s the site was occupied by Frank Lee & Co who were textile importers and manufacturers.

Strange-goings-on ("Deception?" 1)

As one admires the variegated red-blue, and orange -grey clinker brickwork, some odd ordering and irregular placement of bricks become apparent.

Boarded-over windows on Bouvier Street marked by a square-framed concrete-rendered cream painted entrance.

Orange gray brickwork on Barkly Place with the right hand window cutting through an earlier brickwork panel.

On Barkly Place a square brick panel appears to have been block out with a brick insert, and then cut through and a new window placed into it. Where this window is different is in the poor quality mortaring employed along its lintel, a vertical break in the brick work continuing below the window sill, and the fact that it is not framed by a protruding brickwork border that characterises the other window spaces.

Similarly, a noticeable break in brickwork patterning occurs on Barkly Place facade where polychromatic brickwork gives way to monochromatic red earth-coloured bricks from the top of the parapet down to pavement level and window design also lacks the outer brick border. It looks as though a major restructuring and non-sympathetic rebuilding has taken place at some time.

Orange-grey poly-chrome clinker brick wall (left) meets a uniform red bricked wall (right) where a "newer" unbordered window panel has been formed.

What also becomes obvious is that "main entrance", bordered by a square concrete rendered frame is not the original entrance. Looking above the lintel, some newer brick work  defined by coarser mortared red bricks is apparent, and it doesn't take long to work out that two windows were previously located here and were at some time removed to make space for the large entryway. The upper panels of the previous windows have been infilled by three courses of protruding red brick and additional infill panel of three-tiered red brick has been placed between them to maintain a semblance of order and continuity.

Newer "main entrance" replacing two earlier windows (note the repeated pattern of three red brick rows that infill the uppermost panels of the two original window panels, L&R)

So this begs the question, "Where was the original main entrance?". A clue is given by the panel of red brick infill below the largest crystal motif. A red-bricked panel with a borderless window lies between two pilasters and probably is the location of original doorway entrance to the factory.

A red-bricked panel with a borderless window (between the parking sign and parking meter) probably marks the original entrance to the factory.

Stranger-goings-on ("Deception?" 2)

So although this former factory is listed as part of the heritage overlay of Melbourne (i.e. HO1127), it has befallen the fate of progress & development. After my return home I learned via an accidental browse though a general Google search that the site and its immediate surrounds is being developed as "UniLodge Bouverie St" a new dual-towered, 14 storey residential student accommodation building designed by Nettleton Tribe architects. Having a total ground floor area (GFA) of 7,806sqm and reaching 45.2m in height, it will dwarf and partly subsume the the former Modern Printing Company Factory leaving only a shell of its "significant heritage" in the form of its clinker face brick facade.

UniLodge Bouverie Street and the old factory facade. Planning image: Nettleton Tribe

Given the various irregular make-overs that the factory appears to have experienced over its life, perhaps it is the less than pristine heritage facade that is having the last laugh over the presence of its newer, pristine contemporary modern form towering over it?