Lascelles & Bostock Memorials and Gordon Technical College Carpentry Wing
6 Fenwick Street, GEELONG VIC 3220 - Property No 213201
Civic Centre Heritage Area
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Statement of Significance
B Listed - Regional Significance
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Historically, the complex is symbolic of two important figures in both Geelong's and serving as quasi-public buildings over the seventy years since they are commenced.
Architecturally, the complex is a stylistic hybrid but nevertheless a skillful one in the integration of two contracting aesthetics. It also relates closely to the adjacent Peace Memorial and, as a sequence of three major design concepts probably by the same architect ( Percy Everett) it throws some illumination on the apparent successful fusion of differing stylistic eras. As a hybrid, it also provides as visual transition from the earliest buildings to the 1940's design.
REFERENCES
WD 1880
GTP P. 38
Willingham Card 186
Long p22 quote
September 1921
F>ST laid by the Jon Don McKinnon 13.7.28
V & R V2, p 1076
GA 14.7.28 p1076
GA 14.7.28, p1; Gibney & smith V1, p71
Investigator 3.81, p 25f
GA 14.7.28 p 1
see Long, p43, 1947 view; p.35
see Long p.51.
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Lascelles & Bostock Memorials and Gordon Technical College Carpentry Wing - Physical Description 1
DESCRIPTION
Resembling at first the nearby Peace memorial, this now three and two-storey cement-rendered building complex was described as Modern Roman Renaissance, once the one-storey first stage was completed in 1928. Similar to the contemporary Creek Revival government-designed schools such as the Melbourne Emily McPherson School of Domestic Economy, its design showed more affinity to the Public Works Architect, E Evan Smith's neo-Georgian and neo-Baroque civic architecture of the late 1920's (234 St Kilda Road, former Police Depot; Ivan hoe Primary School, Waterdale Road) although more eclectic in concept.
Stylized Ionic Order columns and pilasters provide most of this complex 1928 architectural character. Their bold forms, the rich string-mouldings, balustrading, and smooth-rusticated backing walls assist in emphasizing the ground-level, as counterpoint to the severity of the 1946 upper floor and new west wing.
A 1937 aerial view shows the two memorial as originally conceived, contrasting with a 1947 view which shows the Modern-Classical styled 1944 Textile and Wool wing superimposed on the existing complex. At the entrance of the 1944 wing was a bas-relief bearing the official title of Gordon Institute of Technology, providing the vehicle for the school's new modern image.
Today's complex is a successful fusion of three buildings and two complementary but contrasting stylistic eras: the Beaux Arts classical revival legacy and the Modernistic interpretation of the same classical inspirations. One's severity and asymmetrical massing counter the other's ornamented symmetry and trabeated design.
Early views also show Date Palm and Cotton Pals (?) specimens, as part of what is now an almost non-existent landscape treatment for the adjacent nature strip (road widening)
External Integrity
(Integrity to 1928 form)
The parapet wall has been substantially replaced with a new storey; the eastern arcade has been glazed-in (sympathetically) and the segment-arched pediments over each north-facing pavilion removed from the surviving parapet wall.
Streetscape
A major corner building in the complex, given its transition from he late Victorian era stylism of the first Gordon wings, on the south, to the Modern-Classicism of the Textile School on the west.
Heritage Study and Grading
Greater Geelong - Geelong Region Historic Buildings and Objects Study Volume 2
Author: Allan Willingham
Year: 1986
Grading: BGreater Geelong - Geelong City Urban Conservation Study, Volumes 2-5
Author: Graeme Butler
Year: 1991
Grading: BGreater Geelong - Geelong City Urban Conservation Study Volume 1
Author: Graeme Butler
Year: 1993
Grading: BGreater Geelong - Geelong City Urban Conservation Study, Volume 4(a)
Author: Helen Lardner
Year: 1995
Grading: B
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FORMER GEELONG WOOL EXCHANGEVictorian Heritage Register H0622
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FORMER SCOTTISH CHIEFS HOTELVictorian Heritage Register H0662
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GEELONG TOWN HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0184
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