Wednesday, December 16, 2009

T&G Building, Melbourne

T&G Building, Melbourne

At one time the T&G Building dominated the Melbourne Skyline. It is still a landmark but no longer the city's tallest building and no longer housing the T&G Insurance Company.

The building was designed by Anketell & Kingsley Henderson and constructed during 1928-29. Around this time, Napier Waller completed a mural which still sits above the inner doorway at the Collins St entrance.

Napier Waller Mural

Better Than to Squander Life's Gifts is to Conserve Them and Ensure a Fearless Future shows a group of figures, an old man, two woman and a young boy in a orchard setting with other figure in the background tending the land and watching the sheep.

T&G Building, Melbourne

Orignally the building had two towers then in 1938, A&K Henderson, extended the building removing one of the towers and increasing the size of the remaining tower.

In the early 1990s, the upper floors of T&G Building was effectively gutted and the structure was incorporated into KPMG House by architects Meiter3.

The ground level Banking Chamber became the public face of the new combined building retaining many of the original features from the T&G Building including the glass dome which is lit in a rotating sequence of colours using fibre optics.

T&G Building, Melbourne

The T&G Building/KPMG House was one of the highlight buildings of Melbourne Open House 2009.

9 comments:

  1. Those horizontal lines remind me of Legos.

    and that's a cool glass dome!

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  2. It's great they were able to keep the glas dome and make a feature of it.

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  3. The Napier Waller mural reminds me of all those rousing Depression-era images of the dignity of labour and the united nature of the population. What a joy! Even better, it survived!

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  4. I agree completely Helen. Seen lots of this type of mural in 30s buildings.

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  5. My Mother was the Model for one of the woman in the Mural in the T&G Building. It is a great history for our family.

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    1. I'm sure it is a great history. I'd love to know more. Has the story been told anywhere?

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  6. The insurance chamber was actually demolished and rebuilt! (The dome removed and reinstated).

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  7. Just love what I've seen if this lovely building. So wish I'd done the 2009 Open House tour. Perhaps some other I wonder if the visitors that day were taken through the magnificent doors in Collins Street.

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