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design
mag |
103
STAR
QUAL I TY
In the 1960s,“22 Bendigo Street, Richmond”was probably the best
known address in Australia. It was the Melbourne home of the Channel
Nine television network and more particularly of In Melbourne Tonight,
a phenomenally successful variety show fronted by the legendary
Graham Kennedy.
IMT, as it was popularly known across Australia, had a following today’s
television programmers can only dream of.The nightly program had a
16-piece studio orchestra, as well as a 14-member ballet and a chorus!
In the four decades from the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, Channel Nine
dominated Australian television, due in no small part to the constant
stream of programming emanating from a ramshackle collection of
industrial buildings surrounding a former piano factory in inner-city
Richmond.
Following masterplanning by Hayball, the old industrial buildings were
cleared from the three hectare site, with the exception of the Wertheim
Piano Factory, a red brick building designed by the prolific Melbourne-
born architect Nahum Barnet and opened by Prime Minister Alfred
Deakin in 1909.
Stage Two of the redevelopment of Melbourne’s former
Channel Nine site is ready for its close-up.
Project:
Studio Nine
Location:
Richmond VIC
Function:
Medium to high-density residential
Developer:
Lend Lease
Architect:
Hayball (masterplanning of overall development and design
of second and subsequent stages)
Structural engineer:
Robert Bird Group (apartment buildings),
Structural Works (townhouses)
Builder:
Lend Lease (apartment buildings), Glenvill Homes (townhouses)
Bricklayers:
Byrne Construction Systems (apartment buildings), Glenvill
Homes (townhouses)
Featured products:
Austral Bricks Elements
®
semi-glazed clay bricks in
Mercury and Zinc
Bowral Bricks dry-pressed clay bricks in Charolais Cream
Photography:
Michael Laurie, Mike Scully