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.
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.
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.
The T&G Building/KPMG House was one of the highlight buildings of
Melbourne Open House 2009.
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Those horizontal lines remind me of Legos.
ReplyDeleteand that's a cool glass dome!
It's great they were able to keep the glas dome and make a feature of it.
ReplyDeleteThe 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!
ReplyDeleteI agree completely Helen. Seen lots of this type of mural in 30s buildings.
ReplyDeleteMy 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.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it is a great history. I'd love to know more. Has the story been told anywhere?
DeleteThe insurance chamber was actually demolished and rebuilt! (The dome removed and reinstated).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification.
DeleteJust 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.
ReplyDelete