Manchester Unity Building

Manchester Unity Building
200px The building viewed from ground level looking north west.
General information
Location	Melbourne, Australia
Coordinates
Completed	1932
Opening	1932-12-13
Height
Antenna spire	64 metres (210 ft)
Roof	40.2 metres (132 ft)
Top floor	12
Technical details
Floor count	12
Lifts/elevators	3
Design and construction
Architect	Marcus Barlow
Main contractor	W E Cooper Pty Ltd
Website
www.manchesterunitybuilding.com.au

The Manchester Unity Building is a neo gothic skyscraper in Melbourne, Australia, constructed in 1932 by the Manchester Unity I.O.O.F. in Victoria.

History

The site, on the north-west corner of the intersection of Collins Street and Swanston Street, was purchased by the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows of Victoria in 1928, reportedly for the sum of £250,000. Architect Marcus Barlow designed the building, which was built by W E Cooper Pty Ltd, contracted for the price of £215,000. Construction commenced at midnight on 1 January 1932 with the demolition of the prior buildings on the site, and proceeded around the clock in eight-hour shifts.

For the first time in Australia a construction progress schedule was used to track and manage the construction of the building:

"Upon [the schedule graph] is shown the progress of every section of the building as it must go forward... the exact time in which the excavation must be completed, when the escalators will be completed, and when the external painting will be finished... Progress payments to the builders are made upon the architects' certificate that the work is going forward to schedule."

Such was the speed of construction that in May the basement and ground floor arcade were structurally complete and ready to be fitted out, and by the end of July the roof had been laid, floors having been added at the rate of one a week on average. The shopping areas in the ground floor arcade, the basement and on the first floor were opened on 1 September.

A dinner for several hundred guests was held on 12 December 1932 in the building's basement to celebrate its opening, with Sir Stanley Argyle, the Premier of Victoria, giving a speech. On declaring the building open, Argyle pressed a button which turned on, for the first time, the lights illuminating the tower and spire.

During World War II, it was used by the Australian Army, Victorian Lines of Communication, Southern Command HQ. Once the war was over, the government moved other departments into the building that had been distributed over Melbourne.

The building was compulsorily acquired by the Commonwealth in 1947. It became the headquarters for Trans-Australia Airlines and centralised offices for the Department of Munitions and Department of Aircraft Production.

Design

The building is of concrete-encased steel construction, with the exterior cladding consisting of two hundred and fifty tons of terracotta faience tiles. Australian marbles are used extensively on interior walls throughout the building. Two escalators, the first in Melbourne, were installed by Austral Otis to provide access to the basement arcade and first floor from the ground floor arcade (though only one now survives). Three high-speed elevators were installed, capable of speeds of 600 feet per minute (3.0 m/s).

The building's roof reaches 132 feet (40 m), which was the height limit for buildings in Melbourne at the time of its construction, but the ornamental tower and spire extends a further 78 feet (24 m), as was permitted for non-habitable portions of buildings. The building was influenced by the Tribune Tower in Chicago, Illinois, US, USA, ), UA.

Current tenants

Smile Solutions is situated in the Manchester Unity Building. General dentists and dental specialists operate in its 25 surgical suites spanning across three floors and the multi-level tower of the building. Level 1 caters for all general and cosmetic dentistry. Level 11 including the restored Manchester Unity Building Boardroom and the original Grand Secretary's office houses the Smile Solutions Institute, and executive offices of Smile Solutions management and patient co-ordinators. Level 12, originally a Wood Marsh Architecture residential penthouse development from the late 1990s has been converted to a dental specialist centre facility.

The multilevel Manchester Unity Building tower is utilised as the Smile Solutions orthodontic centre. Rob Mills Architects, Andronas Conservation Architects and Paul Bangay landscapers have supervised the restoration of these spaces. Dr Kia Pajouhesh, managing director and principal dentist of Smile Solutions, has been the Chairman of the MUB Owners Corporation since 2003.

The Manchester unity building is also home to a number of long established dental practices, including Collins dental image on level 2, and the Manchester Unity dental centre on level 4. The building is also home to a large number of Melbourne's jewellery traders.

Gallery

• Manchester Unity Building east facade.jpg

  Upper portion of the eastern facade, including the tower and spire.

• Manchester Unity Building east facade detail.jpg

  Detail of the eastern facade, showing second-floor bay windows and third-floor balconies.

• Manchester Unity Building spire.jpg

  Detail of the tower and spire, as pictured from the roof terrace.

• Manchester Unity Building lift door.jpg

  One of the ground floor lift doors.

• Manchester Unity Building from CH2.jpg

  The building viewed towards the south west from the rooftop of Council House 2.