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Former Royal Insurance Group Building

Location 430-444 Collins Street,, MELBOURNE VIC 3000 - Property No B6854 File Number B6854 Level State

[1/1] B6854 Royal Insurance

Statement of Significance

The Royal Insurance Group Building, designed by Yuncken Freeman Architects, and completed in 1965, is of architectural, aesthetic and historical importance at the State level.
Architecturally and aesthetically, it is one of the most elegant of Melbourne's post war skyscrapers. The pre-cast concrete cladding panels are executed in a sombre black polished granite, relieved by vertical ribs which provide a restrained yet textured skin to the large box-like volume. The small set back from the street and the position on the corner of a lane allow the building to appear free-standing, aloof from but not dominating the surrounding Collins Street commercial development. The ground and first floor are clad in larger versions of the panels, lending a lightness and transparency at ground level, the mass of the main building hovering above.
Historically, Royal Insurance was the most accomplished of the early pre-cast concrete clad office blocks, leading the field away from the light-weight curtain wall facades in Melbourne of the previous seven years. It was also the first notable central city office block by the firm of Yuncken Freeman and was a prelude to a number of important black modernist commercial designs by the firm (heavily influenced by the work of US firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill), and who were also responsible for a number of the city's best skyscrapers, most importantly BHP House.
The Royal Insurance Group Building, designed by Yuncken Freeman Architects, and completed in 1965, is of architectural, aesthetic and historical importance at the State level.
Classified: 26/06/07