Back to search results »

Back to search page »

Former Provident Life Building

Location 37 - 41 Queen Street,, MELBOURNE VIC 3000 - Property No B6297 File Number B6297 Level State

[1/1] B6297 Provident Life Building

Statement of Significance

The former Provident Life Building, is architecturally of state significance as one of the few commercial buildings in the Central Business District during the 1930s to employ the principles of European Modernism. Designed by the architects A.S. & R.A. Eggleston, and built in 1937, the piers of the extended portal frame on the Queen Street facade reflect the more general stress on verticality in a number of city buildings of the 1930s, notably H W and F B Tompkin's Myer Emporium and Marcus Barlow's Manchester Unity and Century Buildings. The polished granite facing and abstraction of the neo-classical podium base of the former Provident Life Building create a formal Queen Street elevation, while the Flinders Lane elevation employs the simple spandrel pier combination more typical of the 1960s. Free interior planning, the creation of interior/exterior space flow thorugh the use of a large glass screen, placed midway across the entrance lobby, and allowance for air conditioning, are further significant Modern features of the building. The building stands as an important precursor of the commercial rebirth in Melbourne some twenty years later.
Classified: 11/12/1991