Introduction In 2007 NH Architecture, with its client Colonial First State Global Asset Management, won the commission to rejuvenate Myer’s flagship Bourke Street store.
The Myer city store has long held a position as a civic elder to the public life of Melbourne. Centrally located in the Bourke Street Mall and adjacent to Melbourne’s historic GPO, the store has witnessed a century of the city’s evolution and has played host to many of its most memorable rituals and festivals, becoming an iconic symbol of Melbourne. After years of retail service the city store could no longer compete as an internationally recognized department store in the rapidly evolving and sophisticated consumer market. In 2007 NH Architecture, with its client Colonial First State Global Asset Management, won the commission to rejuvenate the store and return Myer to its place as an admired city landmark and sit alongside internationally renowned stores. The project was delivered through a Design and Construct methodology and delivered within 3 years. The redevelopment of the Myer store involved complex upgrade works over nine levels and the rejuvenation of an inner CBD heritage building. NH Architecture was required to carefully stage this project to ensure minimum disruption to the store’s operation and deal with the complexities of construction on such a built-up, tight site. Myer maintained full operations seven days a week throughout the construction process including the peak Christmas trade period. This task was compounded with two thirds of the store being new construction. The concept for the redevelopment was driven by bold ideas; an upgrade setting new standards in department store design; environmentally sustainable initiatives, and an architectural achievement contributing to Melbourne’s design accomplishments.
Project Details Location 314-336 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia Client Colonial First State Global Management Completed December 2010 Contractor Probuild Constructions Project Value AUD$225m Gross Floor Area 47,000m2 Awards ++ AIA (Vic) Architectural Awards Sir Osborn McCutcheon Award for Commercial Architecture 2011 ++ AIA National Architectural Awards Commercial Architecture Award 2011 ++ API Excellence in Property Awards (EIPA) 2011 Charter Keck Cramer Development Award ++ Oracle World Retail Awards Store Design of the Year 2011
The most striking emblem of Myer’s new face to the city, visible from many surrounding buildings, is its faceted gold roof. It defines a new upper level event space – a destination within a destination. It is a hub of calendar events: launches, shows, exhibitions, and dining. The crystalline form of the pavilion roof has been architecturally sculpted with gold metal and glass to choreograph certain city views from within the space and to bring the cityscape of Melbourne into the heart of the store. The new upper level event space is the culmination of the store’s new retail experience and is accessed via a dramatic eight level atrium. The shopper is first greeted by the inclined and tapering atrium at the centre point of the busy ground floor of the store. From here, the eye is led upward through a visually and spatially dynamic volume to a large diamond skylight bringing daylight into the depths of the store. Meanwhile a busy flow of customers on the vertically stacked escalators play their part in this kinetic connection. The project also offered the opportunity to carefully restore the significant heritage features of the original store, including the 1930’s Art Deco façade on the Bourke Street Mall and the famous Mural Hall complete with its major paintings by the artist Napier Waller. The Bourke Street façade had undergone many alterations over the last century, most noticeably with the painting-over of the upper level windows and the addition of a dark and sombre street canopy. The heritage restoration of the façade has reopened all the upper level windows to allow the inner life of the store to be revealed to the city, while a new transparent street canopy ensures an uninterrupted view of the façade from the Bourke Street Mall. The Little Bourke Street façade has been completely rebuilt as a contemporary counterpoint to its 1930’s Bourke Street companion. The distinctive harlequin pattern across the façade is a geometric interpretation of the Art Deco motifs found throughout the old store. The façade pattern is further extended into a series of three dimensional display windows designed to allow views into the upper levels of the store from the narrow street below. The redevelopment of Myer’s city store represents a vision of a contemporary department store for a new generation of Melbournians and ensures it will continue to be a contributor to the life and times of the city.
Myer & The City
1788 European settlement
1835 Melbourne founded by John Batman
1837 Hoddle Grid laid out (dimensions of 1 by 0.5 miles (1.6 by 0.80 km)
1850’s During the goldrush Melbourne transformed into one of the world’s largest and wealthiest cities
1933 Myer designed by HW & FB Tompkins
2010 Myer Melbourne redevelopment completed
2011
Population
Melbourne continues to be a centre for the arts, commerce, industry, education, entertainment, sport and tourism
4,158,178
Growth of Melbourne The retail core of Melbourne was already established by the 1890’s. Bourke Street had become Melbourne’s premier shopping Street by this time, particularly the land between Elizabeth and Swanston Streets. The majority of tenancies were drapery stores, however there were other retail types selling a variety of goods as well as a boot and shoe manufacturer. At this time Little Bourke Street comprised a number of small businesses offering a range of services. The development of the Myer Emporium signified a change in the way retailing was offered in the city. By 1934 the Myer Emporium occupied two of the largest buildings in the central city area. Whilst the central city of Melbourne has continued to grow over time and extend beyond the traditional Hoddle Grid, the location of the Myer Bourke Street store within the pedestrianised section of Bourle Street continues to be the heart of Melbourne’s ‘retail core’.
Melbourne Central
QV
Federation Square
Myer in the context of Melbourne
The Emporium Myer Bourke St GPO 385 Bourke St Australia on Collins
Federation Square
The Myer Emporium is historically significant in the history of retailing in Victoria. At the time the Myer Emporium was constructed, it was the largest department store in Melbourne and heralded a new retailing format which was influenced by the major trends in retailing in America at the time. The Heritage Victoria Listing notes the following on the significance of the Myer Emporium: “The Myer Emporium is of social significance as a Melbourne institution, a social, retailing and geographical landmark in the city. The entire complex is connected with these social associations, in particular the wide Bourke Street facade, evoked in the colloquial phrase ‘more front than Myer’s’ and the Bourke Street Myer Christmas window displays visited by generations of children as part of the annual Christmas holiday ritual.” Myer Melbourne has been an active contributor to the life of the city - a destination for retail, a venue for events and an instigator in Melbourne’s cultural calendar. The Myer city store has long held a position as a civic elder to the public life of Melbourne. Centrally located in the Bourke Street Mall and adjacent to Melbourne’s historic GPO, the store has witnessed a century of the city’s evolution and has played host to many of its most memorable rituals and festivals, becoming an iconic symbol of Melbourne. The city store could no longer compete after years of retail service the city store could no longer compete as an internationally recognised department store in the rapidly evolving and sophisticated consumer market. In 2007 NH Architecture, with its client Colonial First State Global Asset Management, won the commission to rejuvenate the store and return Myer to its place as an admired city landmark, sitting alongside internationally renowned stores. The redevelopment of Myer’s city store represents a vision of a contemporary department store for a new generation of Melbournians and ensures it will continue to be a contributor to the life and times of the city.
Southgate
The Arts Centre
RAIN
WATER r te fil
wind
r ate dw ate tre
nic ga or
ial ter ma
So lar
recycled mat erials fer ns tra
management
sto re
Laneways Melbourne’s extensive lanes and service street network has been revived in recent years as vital circulation of its street life. The best of these lanes are orientated along north-south lines – they catch the lunch hour sun, provide a finer grain of urbanism and encourage diverse activities.
Centre Place
Project History
Architectural Significance The original Bourke Street building was constructed in 1914 and designed by prominent architects H.W. & F.B. Tompkins. Only the steel-framed structure from the original construction still survives in the current building. The eight storey building prior to redevelopment was an amalgamation of three existing buildings. It was constructed in 1933 in extension to the original Bourke Street sotre to give the appearance of one building. The existing Bourke Street façade and Mural Hall were constructed at this time and further redevelopment of the site occurred. The building is a notable example of the Interwar Art Deco style and was finished in snowcrete (a kind of British white Portland cement; a new product in the 1930s). It was built with cheap labour from the depression and new construction records were set with shifts undertaken over 24 hours. Prior to the recent redevelopment, the building was used for retail up to level 5, with the Mural Hall underutilised. There have been limited upgrades to the building over time, and works such as painting out the Bourke Street façade windows occurred, which affected the quality of the heritage façade. The building sits within the heart of the retail core on the now pedestrianised Bourke street mall and the wide Bourke street façade gave rise to the expression “more front than Myers”.
The Myer Melbourne store signified a change in the way that retail was being offered in the city based on trends in the United States at the time. The introduction of large display windows was also part of Myer’s retailing success, due to the innovative use of these windows as a way to display new lines of clothes or merchandise. At Christmas time the windows are dressed with festive scenes and have been visited by generations of children. This tradition commenced with the 1956 Olympic games in Melbourne, with the windows featuring Santa Claus and the Olympic Games.
The Heritage Victoria listing notes the Myer Melbourne building as a “notable example of the Interwar Art Deco style”
Myer Bridge, Melbourne, Photograph by Wolfgang Sievers 1968
New Retailing Format
Economic and Philanthropic Significance Sir Sidney Myer arrived in Melbourne in 1899 as a penniless Russian immigrant and ended up creating one of the largest retail businesses in Australia. He and his brother worked briefly at a drapery store in Flinders Lane before moving to Bendigo, where they opened the first Myer store in 1900. In 1911 Sidney bought a drapery store in Bourke St, Melbourne. After buying up a number of the adjoining properties, he built a department store in 1914 called the “Emporium” – a name derived from a prominent store in San Francisco, where he frequently travelled to.
After establishing himself in Melbourne, Sidney expanded the business setting up in Adelaide and later across Australia. Not only did Sidney Myer achieve great business success, he also became a leading philanthropist. The business he created, and personally embodied, won extraordinary community acceptance through the way it met customer needs and respected its employees, and became part of the fabric of Australian Society. That “Myer is Melbourne” is as much due to Sidney Myer as to the business he created. In 1934 Sidney Myer died suddenly at the age of 56 collapsing near his home in Melbourne; newspaper reports of the time describe the seven mile funeral route as lined with more than 100,000 mourners.
Social Significance The historic Myer Mural Hall on the sixth floor is the last surviving period room of its kind and is a rare and intact example of a streamline modern department store dining room capable of accommodating 1,000 people and a venue for fashion parades and events.
The Mural Hall was completed in 1933 with the possible involvement of the architect Harold Dresbowe Annear. It is a large rectangular space with a decorative plaster ceiling and balconies. It features a pair of “mannequin stairs� leading down from two balconies at the northern end and three large and elaborate chandeliers. The Hall is decorated with Napier Waller mural panels. Waller, a leading neo-classical mural painter of the Interwar period, painted the ten murals in 1935. They are the best remaining series of large scale interior murals undertaken by Waller.
The Mural Hall is considered one of the finest Art Deco interiors in the state.
Public & Private Agenda
NHArchitecture has long held the belief that architecture must ultimately serve the public good, with the enhancement of the public realm acting as the generator of most of our ideas. This is not done in ignorance of the nature of our mixed economy. Rather, our urban planning and architectural responses are driven by the desire to mediate community issues with economic imperatives.
In redeveloping Myer’s Bourke Street store, NHArchitecture negotiated the duality of its roles as both public infrastructure and a commercial venture. The Bourke Street site, adjacent to Melbourne’s GPO, is at the city’s physical heart but also at the centre of its cultural life. The historic Myer building is embraced as part of the city’s collective fabric.
Design Process
A remarkable store requires remarkable responses for this remarkable site – it requires a vision. Myer’s inheritance with Bourke Street and Melbourne can here – the largest single landholding in the city for a generation – be projected into the future. This proposal offers a vision driven by ideas that includes increased area to the Bourke Street address, an upgrading that can set new standards in department stores and environmental sustainability and an architectural achievement that contributes to Melbourne’s design accomplishments.
MYER Melbourne is a vital and requisite vison.
Facade Design Process The new Little Bourke Street faรงade makes a positive contribution to the streetscape both by day and night, and draws upon the grain of the surrounding laneway buildings. At ground level the faรงade has a number of contemporary display windows. In contrast to the historic Bourke Street faรงade, the Little Bourke Street faรงade utilises appropriate scale, contemporary materials and technologies. It partly reveals the retail activities and displays behind.
Jennifer For the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale, NH Architecture submitted an entry based on conceptual and form studies for the design of the Myer redevelopement for exhibition in the Australian Pavilion. The title of the Australian exhibit for this year was “Abundant”, a theme exploring architectural abundance and richness. Architectural practices were asked to contribute models of their future work and ideas. The NH Architecture team created “Jennifer” (named after Jennifer Hawkins, the model appointed as Myer’s spokesperson). The architectural model’s angles and corners and dynamic form simulate the posing and swagger of a catwalk model. The “Jennifer” model represents the vibrant character of the retail world and the tradition of memorable, showcase department store buildings which are all about exhibitionism and glamour, the perfect setting for the flaneur. “Jennifer” does not reveal the entirety of her form all at once. She is an elaborate figure. She is architecture as model.
Our practice operates as a single design studio, not separate parts or cells. We engage in open studio debate and encourage the input, expertise and skills of all our team, including urban designers, architects, AND interior designers.
the completed Myer Flagship Store in the Bourke Street Mall was an award winning outcome able to achieve both the commercial imperatives of our client, Colonial First State Global Asset Management and the benchmark of design excellence required by the City of Melbourne and 100 years of civic history.
4
5
2
8
8
4
5
2
7
7
7
8
3
1
1
1
6
5
6
5
4
2
2
4
7
7
3
3
1
6
1
1. Royal Gold KD2E97020
2. Classic Gold KD2E97040
3. Champagne Gold KD2E97479
4. Champagne KS2E97629
5. Mid Gray Silver Smith KM3E97017C
6. Medium Silver Smith KM3E97011C
7. Dark Bronze KN2E97111
8. Light Bronze KD2E97071
1
MYER REDEVELOPMENT - FACADE PANELS
South Elevation
North Elevation
West Elevation
East Elevation
Typical Plan
Atrium Plan
The roof is an ‘icon’, an architectural spectacle that can be admired from the surrounding towers and buildings. It also overhangs Little Bourke Street and is visible at street level.
The Roof & Skylight
The Roof The gold roof began as an idea about the nature of Myer as a contemporary landmark at the heart of the city. The great 19th century examples, such as Galeries Lafayette in Paris or Harrods in London, used their grand façades and wide boulevards as the mechanism for creating an urban presence in the midst of the busy metropolis. In the case of Myer this technique was not available. The main Bourke street address is occupied by the existing heritage façade, while the Little Bourke street frontage is constrained by the dimensions of one of Melbourne’s “little” streets.
The Roof The design team therefore proposed a new elevation, namely the roof, intended to address the new urban landscape liberated by the digital world of satellite imaging such as Google Earth or Nearmap. The traditional mapping of the “old� city via the public street and square has been replaced by the search engine and the satellite photograph. The iconic gold roof also addresses the city via the highrise tourist platforms around the CBD and the view from the corporate towers located at each end of the city grid. The aerial image of the city is often the signature image relayed to the world during global events such as the Australian Open Tennis Championships or the Australian Grand Prix.
The Mural Hall The redevelopment of Myer offered the opportunity to carefully restore the significant heritage feature of the famous Mural Hall, complete with its murals by the artist Napier Waller The paintings for the Myer Mural Hall are significant at a national level. They were specially commissioned by the founder of the Myer Emporium, Sidney Myer, to enhance the Mural Hall, designed as an elegant restaurant in line with the leading London and American stores of the day. It is a consciously decorative scheme, the last surviving period room of its kind, and one of the most impressive, with few parallels anywhere in the world. Napier Waller presents a homage to the Arts, the Seasons, and to Women and their achievements.
The completed interior has been described as “the finest example of the Art Deco period in Australia�. (Draffin)
The Historic Facade The Bourke Street facade had undergone many alterations over the last century, most noticeably with the painting over of the upper level windows and the addition of a dark and sombre street canopy. The heritage restoration of the facade has reopened all the upper level windows to allow the inner life of the store to be revealed to the city while a new unobtrusive, transparent street canopy ensures an uninterrupted view of the facade from the Bourke Street Mall.
The Myer Bourke Street faรงade has resumed its former role as a benevolent urban participant. The grandeur of the Bourke street faรงade has been reinstated and consideration given to respecting its architectural detailing and historic significance.
The facade, constructed in bright white snow-crete, was built during the final expansion of Myer in 1932-33 and is a striking example of vertical commercial Gothic.
The Atrium The new upper level event space is the culmination of the store’s new retail experience and is accessed via the dramatic eight level atrium. The shopper is first greeted by the inclined and tapering atrium at the centre point of the busy ground floor of the store. From here, the eye is led upwards through a visually and spatially dynamic volume to a large diamond skylight bringing daylight into the depths of the store. A continuous flow of customers on the vertically stacked escalators play their part in this kinetic connection.
Design Philosophy
NH Architecture is committed to continuing the evolution of the practice as a creative centre for new ideas and as an industry leader in the delivery of major projects.
The Studio NH Architecture is a leading Australian design studio established in 2004. The practice is founded on the principles of collaboration and open debate and is represented by a number of leading architects and designers united by a common commitment to contemporary architecture.
We are seeking a new expression for architecure as a public construction unencumbered by the traditional and narrow definitions of function or type. We believe design is no longer the domain of the egoarchitect. Instead we believe projects are complex and inclusive events, where the architect is creator and mediator, providing the platform for clients, engineers, planners and the broader community to engage with the process of design. NHArchitecture is leading the thinking towards integrated and flexible environments and an architecture capable of engaging with the complexities of the contemporary Australian city.