From the archive: City reaches new heights

Fifty years ago this month, the St Georges Terrace skyline was transformed by the completion of the MLC Building, Western Australia’s first ‘skyscraper’.

The building, which was described in newspaper reports as a “monument to enterprise”, was 11 storeys tall and had the latest modern features, including automated elevators, open-plan offices, lino tiles and Venetian blinds.

A crowd of 300 people gathered at 171 St Georges Terrace, opposite King Street, for the official opening of the avant-garde building by (then) premier Albert Hawke on October 29 1957.

Mr Hawke told the audience that, like many other Perth people, he initially shook his head in disbelief at the construction.

“My first impression was to talk to lord mayor Howard and ask him who permitted this building,” according to press reports at the time.

“Today we see the building completed and… I’m now 100 per cent in favour of this mighty and impressive building.”

The building was completed in 19 months and cost $820,000 to erect.

The MLC building – now known as the Kingsgate Apartments after a major renovation in the 1990s – took its original name from the Mutual Life and Citizens Assurance Co Ltd, which embarked upon a post-war building program of unprecedented scale.

The company commissioned Melbourne architects Bates, Smart and Cutcheon to design six office buildings in Australia between 1954 and 1957, in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

Perth’s MLC building was designed in association with Perth architects FGB Hawkins and Desmond Sards.       

It was the first building in Perth to feature lightweight construction, cubiform shape and curtain wall cladding, which had become the features of commercial architecture and construction favoured by large corporations around the world.

The façade was an early example of curtain walls in Australia. Imported from England: the original technique provided control of internal heat through the use of Venetian blinds located between the glass layers.

The MLC building was also one the first Australian constructions to incorporate the fully automated Otis Autotronic Elevators.                                                   

“A passenger has only to press the button for the floor he wants,” a startled journalist reported in 1957. “The elevator’s automatic and electronic controls do everything else.”

Other novelties included the fully air-conditioned open-plan office space, which offered “one of the most spectacular panoramas of Perth waters to be seen from the city”, a reporter wrote at the time.

Several local businesses proudly advertised their involvement in the project.

Boans, which was best known for its department stores, congratulated its workers who “were responsible for installing, washing, sealing and polishing 6,000 square yards of Nairn Inlaid Lino Tiles”.

Sandovers, which installed the building’s air conditioning system, Claude Neon Ltd, which was involved in the construction of the building’s weather beacon, and WA Venetians Blinds Pty Ltd, all boasted about their input in the construction.

The MLC building won the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects’ bronze medal for excellence in 1958.

It was listed by the National Trust in April 1994 as the only remaining example of high-rise curtain wall construction in Perth, and was nominated by the Heritage Council of WA for inclusion in the register of heritage places.

A symbol of architectural and technical innovation, its heritage value was put in question when the City of Perth endorsed a refurbishment plan for the building 40 years after its completion.

National Trust chief executive Tom Perrigo said the renovation would destroy the heritage value of the building.

“The MLC building is not a pretty building but it does have great heritage significance,” he said at the time.

Architect Ron Bodycoat, who helped manage the building in the 1960s, told WA Business News that since the curtain walls weren’t designed for the Perth weather, they were fairly damaged when the refurbishment was proposed and might have been very expensive to renovate.

The objections to the revamp were rejected in February 1997 and the MLC building became the Kingsgate Apartments residential tower. The original 1957 features were not kept.