Lovell Chen is providing advice in relation to conservation works and circulation at Melbourne's former General Post Office, a grand 19th century edifice that was adapted for use as a retail centre following a major fire in 2001.

The primary focus of the works is the completion of external restoration, including the sandstone façades and elaborate lead capped mansard roofs. These works are programmed to be undertaken over the next two to three years.

The principal outcome of the advice in relation to the circulation is the proposed construction of a freestanding lift shaft in the former sorting hall, to provide access to first floor retail tenancies. The concept of a freestanding structure was driven by the requirement to limit visual and physical impacts on the historic fabric, and for the introduction to be reversible. This is a challenging task which is currently subject to consideration by relevant heritage authorities.

Melbourne GPO was built in stages between 1857 and 1917. In 1919, the former sorting hall was converted to public space to designs by Walter Burley Griffin and John Smith Murdoch. It was one of Burley Griffin's first Australian projects after winning the National Capital competition in 1912.

Our association with the GPO building dates back to the 1990s when we were involved in providing heritage advice on a scheme to adapt the building for hotel and retail use.

Pictured is a perspective of the former mail hall.

[ photo: Jane Joyce ]

We have been engaged to provide conservation and adaptation advice to Ormond College, The University of Melbourne.

Ormond College, originally designed by Reed and Barnes (1879-81), is a landmark of high Victorian Gothic architecture. The most recent major phase of works at the college, carried out by Roy Grounds, Frederick Romberg and Robin Boyd, dates to the 1950s-60s.

Lovell Chen is advising on the creation of additional space in the roof and the refurbishment of the J M Young Room at the college library, to accommodate rare books. We have also designed the 'Transformer', a solution to the challenge of providing facilities suited to 21st century requirements in the student's rooms without unacceptably impacting on historic fabric.

The 'Transformer' is a freestanding multi-feature unit comprising a bed, shelving, hanging space and pull-down clothes store. Additional shelving is fixed to the metal side panels by magnetic force. The only additional item of furniture that students will require is a desk.

A prototype of the storage and sleeping unit has received the college approval.

Lovell Chen is preparing reports on three of Victoria's historic timber bridges — a disused rail bridge near Warrnambool, and two former road bridges near Sale.

Timber bridges have been a feature of the Victorian landscape since the earliest 1840s. A study prepared by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) in 1998, estimates that there are over 2,000 timber bridges in the State.

Australia is home to some of the world's longest-surviving timber bridges, a legacy of the strength and weather resistance of local hardwoods, and the relatively late settlement of the colonies. Timber remained in use in Australian bridges long after steel and concrete had come to dominate the northern hemisphere.

Pictured is a detail from Standard Victorian Railways Timber Bridge with 15ft span, January 1885.

[ illustration courtey: VicTrack Archives ]

Following a two-year research and assessment project undertaken by Lovell Chen, seven of Australia's air traffic control towers have been recommended for nomination to the Commonwealth Heritage List.

The towers include a pre-World War II integrated 'Operations and Administration' building at Adelaide's Parafield Airport (1940), and the present tower at Sydney Airport, designed by Ken Woolley in 1995.

We were engaged by Airservices Australia to assess the heritage values of the 29 control towers under its control in 2007. It may be the first detailed study of the building type in the world.

The air traffic control towers assessment project was the subject of a paper delivered by Kate Gray, Lovell Chen Associate Director, at the '(Un)Loved Modern' Conference (7-10 July 2009), organized by Australia ICOMOS.

Read this paper in full online.

See also Lovell Chen News, December 2007.

Pictured are the Parafield control tower (in 1948) and Sydney 5.

[ Parafield image source: Civil Aviation Historical Society ]
[ Sydney 5: Lovell Chen ]

At the recent '(Un)Loved Modern' Conference, organized by Australia ICOMOS, Lovell Chen Director Peter Lovell gave a paper titled Heritage and the Modern House.

The paper addresses the tension that can arise between expectations of the modern domestic environment and the physical limitations of modestly scaled-modernist houses of the early post-war period.

Read this paper in full online.

The conference took place in Sydney, 7-10 July 2009. See also news item above.

Our heritage team is preparing a Conservation Management Plan
for Osborne House, a mid-19th century bayside estate in North Geelong, Victoria.

The property has a multi-layered history. It began life in 1857 as a two-storey bluestone house with a stables complex to the north. In 1905, the expanded estate was considered as a possible country seat for the Governor. It became a guesthouse in 1910, followed by the first headquarters of the Royal Australian Naval College, a military convalescent hospital and offices for the Shire of Corio.

Each occupant left their mark but despite the extent of modifications, the surviving elements of 19th century fabric provide substantial evidence of the origins of Osborne House as a private property.

The CMP considers approaches to the development of the estate. It is part of a range of conservation services being provided to the City of Greater Geelong.

Pictured are the house and stables in 1954.

[ photos courtesy: State Library of Victoria ]