The Tower Allowed Above Melbourne’s Height Limit (1958)
The Tower Allowed Above Melbourne’s Height Limit (1958)
ICI House rose above Melbourne’s usual height limit with official approval. Completed in 1958, its glass tower helped change what the city allowed on its skyline.
The story behind the scene
Melbourne’s long standing height restriction was 132 feet, or roughly 40 metres. ICI House received an exception to that rule.
Bates, Smart and McCutcheon designed the building as a freestanding glass tower with open space around it. It offered a different arrangement from commercial buildings that filled their street frontage.
Now known as Orica House, it became an important early example of the taller office buildings that would follow. Its height was permitted, rather than an unlawful breach of the limit.
What you’re seeing
Wolfgang Sievers’s 1958 photograph records ICI House in the year it was completed. Its glass exterior and separation from the street edge show the design more clearly than a distant skyline view would.
Why this photo matters
The photograph records a new kind of office building at the time of its arrival. The tower and the space around it were both part of the change.
Photograph: Wolfgang Sievers, ICI House, 1958, gelatin silver photograph, State Library Victoria, H2003.100/194. View the library image record.
Sources: National Museum of Australia; City of Melbourne, Central City Heritage Study.