reading the past in the Grace Building
Roy Lumby, Chairman of the Twentieth Century Heritage Society of NSW for the Teaching
Heritage Website
Building opened October 1930. Architects D T Morrow & Gordon. See also attached notes,
which were prepared by the Society for the Grace Hotel.
York Street facade
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The building has a colourful terracotta cladding. Terracotta manufacture was a recent
development in the local building industry. Terracotta was selected at this time to clad
the exterior of buildings: it was colourful; it was relatively inexpensive; the manufacture
of building elements from moulds meant that individual pieces could be mass produced;
the inclusion of glazed surface gave it the capacity to be "self cleaning" dirt would be
washed off by rain. This was feasible at a time when there was less atmospheric
pollution.
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Terracotta cladding indicates the existence of craftsmen skilled at sculpting and making
intricate work in the initial manufacture of building components. Such craftsmen no
longer exist.
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"Gothic" appearance of the building: At the official opening of the building on 3 July
1930 Albert Grace, one of the Grace brothers is reported to have said, " It is not what
we get out of it that counts, but what we give out of it. The building will help the
youngsters, it will put more heart into them and inspire them to make Australia a better
country." Evidently it was the beauty of the building that was to inspire youth, and in
fact its very large facades, long but not high in proportion to their length, were quite
skilfully designed to avoid monotony. Soaring Gothic-inspired vertical piers balanced
the lengths of the facades, and window bays of differing widths contained by narrow
sections at each corner provided subtle and balanced rhythms.
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Modulation of the facade by means of piers and grouping of windows bays of three and
four separated by wider piers. This is one way that the architects of the period
endeavoured to reduce the monotony of large repetitive facades. The piers also
emphasise the height of the building and suggest a steel structural frame concealed
behind the cladding.
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The original windows have been replaced as a result of the recent conversion of the
building to a hotel. They are fixed, indicating air conditioning.
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The location of the building reflects an anticipated shift on the part of the two Grace
Brothers that some types of activity taking place in the city would shift their physical
location after the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the North Shore railway
line.
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Continuous awnings above footpaths were only found attached to buildings that
contained retailing. The Grace Building originally contained two levels selling
furniture. The awnings protected window shoppers and the large display windows from
the sun and rain. Entrances were emphasised in some way, such as in the arched section
raised above the main awning.
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External materials -almost all tall city buildings of the 1920s and 1930s were clad a
similar fashion, with a hard, polished stone base that extended over one or two of the
lowest levels (in this case trachyte) and the major part of the building clad in a
contrasting material, in this case terracotta.
Roof level
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The tower that rises above the roof of the building is evidence of the height restrictions
that were then in force in the City of Sydney. Habitable floors could rise to a height of
only 150 feet or 45.72m above ground level, but non-habitable towers could extend
further into the sky for another 50 feet, or 15.24 metres). This reflects concerns dating
back to the first and second decades about fire fighting and the appearance of the city
from a distance.
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Architects exploited the additional height by designing distinctive towers such as this
that made the building appear taller and "advertised" the owner of the building on the
skyline.
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Often the towers contained equipment such as water tanks or lift machinery. Here it
contained the water tank for the building's sprinkler system.
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The tower is "Gothic", like the rest of the building exterior. The Gothic style was
appropriated for the design of tall buildings in America after the architect Cass Gilbert
won a competition for the design of the Woolworth Building in New York, which was
completed in 1908. The style did not reach Australia until the second half of the 1920s
and only lasted for a few years, but shows how Australians looked abroad, increasingly
to America, for inspiration during the twentieth century. It formed a transition between
the conservative architecture used for tall buildings in the 1920s and the Art Deco style.
It reflects a concern for the convincing and proper architectural expression of tall
buildings. What makes the tower Gothic are the narrow windows that are pointed at the
top, the shape of the decoration in the panels above them, and the flying buttresses.
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The flat-roofed portion of the building visible at left is a later addition associated with
the conversion of the building into a hotel. What makes this evident as a recent addition
is the relationship of the spaces inside with the outside, visible in the wide glazed
openings and the terraced area decorated with potted plants, the flat panels that cover
the exterior of the addition, the simple steel canopy above the tall openings, and the
simple modulation of the openings themselves. It also shows that there are now fewer
craftsmen available in the construction of buildings materials are designed for speedy
and quick manufacture and installation by relatively unskilled labour. This in turn
shows how the costs of labour have risen since the Grace Building was completed in
1930. The skilled craftsmen who moulded the terracotta cladding, for instance, would
now be far too expensive to employ.
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The major piers between the bays of windows extend above the parapet to give the
building more height - a reflection of the influence of American skyscraper design. The
bright colour emphasises the way that they stop and makes the act of stopping apparent
from a distance.
Marble lined stair and landing
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Expensive finishes such as marble were used in the important public spaces on the
ground floor level of large interwar office buildings, to impress visitors and impart
prestige to a building's tenants.
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The light fittings are all later introductions. The original light fittings were designed to
harmonise with the Gothic character of the building and were suspended from the
ceiling. The large suspended light fitting is more "Art Deco" in character, whilst the
small lights in the underside of the beam are of a type that was not available in 1930.
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The decoration of the ceiling and the sides of the beams carries the Gothic character of
the exterior into the building and so relates inside and outside to each other.
Tile lined stair
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Above ground floor level stairs in large interwar city buildings were generally less
lavish in finish, as is evident here in the use of ceramic tiles on the walls indicates that
this is a secondary stair.
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Ceramic tiles were popular during the interwar period for a number of reasons: they
were relatively inexpensive; they were durable; they were colourful, with a gleaming
surface that reflected some light; they could be used with decorative accents.
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Carpet seldom if ever appeared in tall city buildings at this period. In the later 1930s it
only appeared in executive spaces such as the boardroom or the managing director's
office, but not in public corridors. So, the carpet on the floor in this image has been
installed recently.
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The ceiling in the top right is a recent intrusion. This can be seen in the way that it has
simply been stopped off against the stair in the 1930s it would have been stopped
against a beam. The ceiling is lower than the original ceiling to allow for the
accommodation of introduced services such as air conditioning and fire sprinklers, one
of which is visible next to the rectangular light fitting. The light fitting itself is of a type
that was not available until the late 1930s.
Foyer
This is recent construction. It is made evident by a number of things seen in the photograph,
which include the following
1. the recessed downlights in the ceiling - these only came into popularity in the post war
era;
2. the simple, if not crude, recessed panels in the ceiling, which is itself suspended from the
underside of the floor slab over- suspended ceiling systems only became available in the
second half of the 1930s;
3. a shadowline at the junction of the wall and ceiling also shows that the ceiling is a later
modification - the ceiling and beam sides visible at the top of Photograph 3 show how it
would have been done;
4. the fluted piers and pilasters with the large "Art Deco" capitals, complete with lighting
underneath, and panelled timber bases are disjointed and not well proportioned-one would
expect that elements such of these would have been better proportioned and related
visually to the floor and ceiling in a building of the 1920s and 1930s.
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A study of the history of the building tells us that this space was originally an open
retail area, then became a post office in the post war years. Therefore, the introduction
of a corridor and objects associated with the hotel foyer immediately indicate that this is
largely recent building fabric.
reproduced with permission of The Twentieth Century Heritage Society of NSW