Launceston Architecture B Preview

1

Civic Square Shelters/Landscaping

Location: City Square (St John Street side)Year: 2018Landscape Architect/Designer: Aspect Studios/City of LauncestonStyle: Expressionist/Neo-ModernistNotes: A blend of colourful street furniture, shelters and landscape, suggestive of a variety of possible uses.

2

Pilgrim Church Walkway

Location: Paterson Street/Civic SquareYear: 1983Architect: Glenn Smith/Robert Morris-NunnStyle: PostmodernistNotes: Pointed-arch forms employed to represent the form and structure of the adjacent church, with steel structure and glass infill used to counter the weight and opacity of the Gothic Revival with a light and transparent addition.

3

Tasmania Police

Location: Cimitiere St/Civic SquareYear: 1977Architect: Public Works DepartmentStyle: Modernist/BrutalistNotes: Note the texture of the off-form concrete and articulation of concrete frame and brick infill panels, as well as the rounded articulation of beam-column connections and window corners - prevalent in Brutalist architecture in the 1970s.

4

Macquarie House

Location: Charles Street/Civic SquareYear: 1830/2020Builder (original building): John SpruntArchitect (additions): HBV (Heffernan Button Vos)Style: (original building) Georgian vernacular, (additions) Modernist/MinimalistNotes: The original building is one of Launceston's oldest buildings. Originally constructed as a warehouse for the fledgling town. The recent addition is a restrained and minimalist composition to complement the older building. Note the relation of materiality and proportions to the original.

5

Henty House

Location: Charles Street/Civic SquareYear: 1983Architect: Peter PartridgeStyle: BrutalistNotes: Launceston's most polarising major building, a ziggurat of concrete on massive splayed supports, originally designed to be softened by vegetation hanging from its terraces. Architect Peter Partridge also designed the Supreme Court in Hobart

6

Hamilton House

Location: 46-54 Charles StreetYear: 1990sStyle: PostmodernistNotes: Note the relationship between the simple brick trabeated form of the façade and the applied decoration of the steel structure that echoes neo-classical neighbouring buildings in a Postmodernist manner.

7

National Theatre

Location: 107 Charles StreetYear: 1914Architect: Thomas Searell Builder: Harry GoodluckStyle: Art Deco/Neo-ClassicalNotes: No longer used as a theatre, but the auditorium is still intact (though you'll have to wait to see inside until the next Launceston Open House).

9

St Andrews Presbyterian Church

Location: corner St John and Paterson StYear: 1836Architect: Samuel JacksonStyle: GothickNotes: In a style already out-of-date when completed. On the site of a former watch-house.

10

Former Bank of Australasia

Location: corner Brisbane Street and St John StreetYear: 1885Architect: Reed, Henderson & SmartStyle: Neo-ClassicalNotes: Designed by Melbourne Architects (still in business as Bates Smart). Look closely at the rusticated quoining around the ground floor walls and the use of vermiculation (little worm pattern)

11

Shaw's Drapers

Location: 88 Brisbane StreetYear: 1932Architect: Colin PhilpStyle: Art DecoNotes: The original ground floor altere beyond recogntion, but the upper floor has metallic elements, slightly evocative of international Art Deco such as the Chrysler Building in New York.

12

Brisbane Arcade

Location: 70-72 Brisbane StreetYear: 1888/1916/1978Style: facades from 1888 (former Brisbane Hotel) and 1916 (former Majestic Theatre): Neo-Classical; arcade from 1978: Brick VernacularNotes: The former Majestic Theatre, designed by architect Thomas Tandy, has an expressive and eclectic façade with a free combination of elements evoking ancient Greek temples as well as Renaissance styles. The adjoining former Brisbane Hotel was the most eminent hotel in town in the early 20th century. The arcade occupies the space behind these facades, along with the long-established Neil Pitt menswear shop. The arcade's interior occupies three storeys, using brickwork and timber in a style popular in 1970s domestic architecture.

13

Shops in Quadrant Mall

Location: Quadrant MallYear: variousStyle: variousNotes: There are several shops of architectural interest, particular above the ground floor. Look up at the distinctive window in the shape of an old analog television above one shop and the Modernist composition of another surrounded by mosaic tiles. At number 13, note the contrast here between the symmetrical façade and the freer composition of the side entry and the way the external stair is cut into the side wall.

14

Shepherd's Building

Location: corner St John St and The QuadrantYear: 1923Architect: H.S. EastStyle: Art DecoArt NouveauNotes: A prominent and strikingly composed building. Note the details that utilise vegetal motifs in a manner reminiscent of ancient Roman decoration.

15

City Block

Location: 111-113 St John StreetYear: 1970sStyle: BrutalistNotes: Trabeated composition of precast concrete panels with textured surface, including C-shaped vertical blade/column elements in front of floor-to-floor glazing

16

Medibank House

Location: 90 St John StreetYear: 1940Architect: Roy Smith and WillingBuilder: Hinman, Wright & ManserStyle: Art Deco/Streamlined ModerneNotes: A fine composition of horizontal and vertical elements (also see the Star Theatre in Invermay for a similar composition).

17

Intersport

Location: corner St John Street and York StreetYear: 1960sStyle: ModernistNotes: An interesting composition of curved and angled walls, as well as a mixture of panelled, glazed and brick wall treatments

18

Synagogue

Location: St John StreetYear: 1844Architect: Richard LambethStyle: Egyptian RevivalNotes: A rare example of this style, though the Hobart synagogue is in the same idiom. Use of the Egyptian idiom makes symbolic reference to Jewish Exodus from Egypt. Note the slanted sides to the facade, matched by the central window.

19

St John's Anglican Church

Location: corner St John and Elizabeth StreetsYear: 1829 (plus several more recent additions)Style: Regency/variousNotes: The oldest parts of this church - the west end and tower are in Regency (early Georgian) style but the rest of the building is in a variety of Gothic-Revival idioms, completed at various times in an ad-hoc manner

20

Chalmers Hall

Location: 163 St John StreetYear: 1927Architect: Thomas TandyBuilder: J & T GunnStyle: Neo-RomanesqueNotes: The entire façade makes single symmetrical composition around an arched entry, with a semi-circular window and pediment above.

21

various houses

Location: St John Street, Canning Street and Charles StreetYear: variousStyle: variousNotes: Take a walk up St John Street, then turn right down Canning Street and then left up Charles Street to see a sample of th range of styles of Launceston's 19th century domestic architecture.

22

Semi-detached houses

Location: 249 Charles StreetYear: 1840sStyle: RegencyNotes: Simple but elegant pair of houses, representative of early Launceston domestic architecture in the refined Regency/Georgian style prevalent in Britain just prior to colonisation of Tasmania.

23

Kosaten Restaurant

Location: 254 Charles StreetYear: 2019Architect: Cumulus StudioStyle: Expressionist/Pop Art (interior)/Utilitarian (exterior)Notes: Unassuming exterior to a functional brick building has an recently completed expressive and spatially interesting fitout to create a Japanese restaurant, with mulitiple levels, seating/dining booths and a sushi train that appears and disappears into the joinery (order some food if you want to take a look around).

24

House/Clinic

Location: 261 Charles StreetYear: 1882Style: Gothic RevivalNotes: An fine and elaborate example of 'gingerbread Gothic' domestic architecture with extensive timber fretwork decoration to gable ends, a mixture of pointed and ogival arches, timber panels emulating stonework and quoining, and a steeply pitched slate roof. With a gloomier colour scheme, the Addams family would love it.

25

Launceston Eye Hospital

Location: 262 Charles StreetYear: c1990Architect: Robert Morris-NunnStyle: PostmodernistNotes: The horizontal banding of brick and stone and the curved façade that arcs into the entry evokes the architecture of James Stirling (refer to his Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart). Also note the downpipes at the sides. The best example of Postmodernist architecture in Launceston (the interior is interesting too, but its a working medical facility, so you'll have to wait until the next Launceston Open House to see inside).

8

Examiner Offices

Location: 73-5 Paterson StYear: 1911Architect: Harold MastersBuilder: J & T GunnStyle: Neo-Romanesque/Art NouveauNotes: A flamboyant composition. The arches of this building also recall the 'Indo-Saracenic' British architecture of colonial India and Malaya.