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Heritage Register

Parliament House Vista Extension - Portal Buildings, Anzac Parade, Parkes, ACT

Finance ID Number DFD-61005 (East)DFD-61006 (West)

Commonwealth Heritage List Place ID Number

105474

OwnershipOwned by Finance on behalf of the Commonwealth

Anzac Park East original entrance.

Location

Anzac Parade, Parkes ACT Anzac Park East is Block 1 Section 4, Parkes ACT and ANZAC Park West is Block 7 Section 3, Parkes ACT.

Landscape Setting The Portal Buildings are located adjacent to the north side of Lake Burley Griffin, flanking Anzac Parade between Constitution Avenue and Parkes Way, Parkes and are included in the Parliamentary Triangle.

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Description of the Place The Portal Buildings are commonly known as Anzac Park East and Anzac Park West. Anzac Park East is composed of one five storey and one six storey building arranged in an asymmetrical ‘T’ configuration effectively presenting their major facades to both Anzac Parade and Parkes Way. Anzac Park West is a mirror image of Anzac Park East directly across Anzac Parade and the ‘Land Axis’. Both buildings present major facades to both Anzac Parade and Parkes Way.

The buildings are important for their framing twin ‘portal’ arrangement and siting on the intersection of Walter Burley Griffin’s ‘Land Axis’ between Capital Hill and Mt Ainslie and the ‘Municipal Axis’ between Civic (Canberra CBD) and the Russell Offices Precinct (and the Australian American Memorial) and the alignment with the ‘water axis’ along Lake Burley Griffin. They are listed for their significant contribution to the Parliament House vista.

Physical characteristics

Designed by National Capital Development Commission (NCDC)1 architect Gareth Roberts, in conjunction with Department of Works Chief Design Architect, Richard Ure, the buildings clearly illustrate the historical NCDC policy in form and scale. The two buildings are important examples of the prevailing use in Canberra during the 1960s of the stripped classical interpretation of the international style of architecture. This style of architecture is particularly evident in many public and government buildings constructed in Canberra and throughout the world during the 1950s, 1960s and on through the 1970s.

The structural system consists of concrete encased steel columns, reinforced concrete slab with drop panels and a reinforced concrete shear wall bracing system. The structural bay width is 20 feet. The façade in all cases is articulated with distinguishing architectural separation of the basement plinth, ground floor, typical floors and full storey height roof parapet louvered screen. The structural bays are strongly expressed and modelled by the vertical expression of the columns.

Each building comprises a combination of five (Constitution Avenue) and six (Anzac Parade) standard floors above a partially excavated basement plinth and is capped by a screened parapet level at the roof. Above the ground floor, the concrete encased steel columns are additionally clad with sandstone panels, as is the first floor perimeter beam, the roof slab perimeter beam and the parapet beam. The sandstone was reportedly obtained from the Pyles Creek Quarry and the finish is fine sawn. Above the first floor perimeter beam, a terrazzo “grid” five windows wide articulates window mullions and heads. It comprises full height mullions supported top and bottom at each floor and terrazzo window heads cast as one unit with precast spandrel panels of ‘pebbledash’ texture. Full-length silver aluminium mullions run between the ground and first floors, with precast ‘roughcast’ spandrel panels infilling below the silver-coloured, aluminium windows. The roof parapet screens are in filled with vertical, aluminium louvres. External windows to typical floors are framed in extruded aluminium sections, all anodised a gold colour.

Anzac Park East retains some internal original features, while Anzac Park West has been internally refurbished and many details are altered.

Anzac Park West following the 2006 and 2010 refurbishment works and additions retains all of the

1 NCDC is now National Capital Authority

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same externally visible elements of Anzac Park East except for where the ‘internal’ facades have been altered, namely the north and west facades of blocks 1 and 2 respectively. Floor plates have been extended and incorporated into a new section grafted onto the north side of block 2 and partially extending out from the west side Block 1. Original fabric to the external skin of the building has largely been retained except where the new entrance and extension have been included.

Extensions to the floor plates of block 2 have produced wider floor plates to 5 levels and a new large open entry level has been created also serving as access to both blocks via lifts and stairs. Fire stairs have been retained and new balustrading installed. External finishes are contemporary and internal paint finishes are generally white in colour including walls, doors, ceiling and sills.

Anzac Park West Redevelopment

History and summary of Uses of the PlaceAnzac Parade was officially opened on 25 April 1965 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Gallipoli. The two portal buildings, Anzac Park East complete by 1965 and Anzac Park West complete by 1966, flanked the vista from the War Memorial to the Provisional Parliament House. Anzac Park East was occupied by the Bureau of Mineral Resources until 1997. The Department of Defence continues to occupy Anzac Park West.

The early 1960s was a period of massive construction work for the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC). The lake edge construction was substantially completed by the end of the 1962-63 financial year and Lake Burley Griffin was filled and opened by Prime Minister Menzies in 1964. At that time, major government buildings completed or partially completed for occupancy included: the Law Courts of the ACT, the Royal Australian Mint, the Commonwealth Avenue Offices, the National Library, the Russell Offices, the Canberra Theatre and ANZAC Park East and West.

The future sites of the Portal Buildings were clearly defined on Griffins plans of 1911, 1912 and 1913

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at the intersection of the municipal and land axes, with massive buildings accentuating and framing the transition from land to water. Griffins plan found expression under the Federal Capital Advisory Committee (FCAC) and the Federal Capital Commission (FCC) in the years to 1930 with the new Provisional Parliament House opening in 1927.

As the Australian nation and its economy grew and began to flourish from the mid 1950’s, the Menzies government initiated a period of accelerated growth and development in Canberra. This process was to continue and expand during the 1960’s and 1970’s under successive governments. It is in this period and context that the Portal Buildings, and later the West Portal Cafeteria were designed and constructed, and during which their landscape settings were developed.

In 1957 the Government set up the National Capital Development Commission with full responsibility for the planning, development and construction of the National Capital. (Sir) John Overall was selected as Commissioner. Also in 1957 Prime Minister Menzies commissioned eminent London Planner, Sir William Holford to advise and report on the future direction of the planning of Canberra. The Canberra Plan was submitted by Sir William Holford in 1958 and stressed the need for Canberra to become a 'unified city' with a bold design. Holford advised on the adaptation of the Griffin plan to progress the development of Canberra. This plan is a significant milestone in the development of the National Capital.

NCDC's acceptance of Holford’s vision of a lakeside Parliament House dominating the centre of the Parliamentary Triangle, and it's subsequent endorsement by Parliament, set the context for the design of the Portal Buildings. ANZAC Park East and West were then conceived as landmarks on the opposite bank of the lake and a portal gateway to the long vista up Anzac Parade to the War Memorial. The Portal concept had even greater impact in framing the vista of Parliament House seen from the War Memorial and Mt Ainslie.

The Portal Buildings were designed and constructed by the Commonwealth to accommodate Government Departments being relocated at the time to the National Capital. The contract was let in June 1963 to Concrete Constructions Pty Ltd to construct the two buildings, with ANZAC Park East scheduled for completion first in the 1964-65 financial year, and ANZAC Park West to follow and be complete in the 1966-67 financial year. By the winter of 1965 ANZAC East was substantially complete with occupation commenced by the Bureau of Mineral Resources, moving from temporary accommodation in Canberra (at the Acton Huts) and from Melbourne. Landscaping of the site was commenced in the spring of 1965.

The Portal Buildings and their setting have undergone a gradual process of change over time. The gradual change includes the physical and visual characteristics of the land axis and is visible particularly from Mount Ainslie. The originally prominent Portal Buildings have been obscured by the landscape associated with Parkes Way, Commonwealth Park and Anzac Parade. The vista to the War Memorial has a dramatically narrower focus, accentuating the apparent distance to the primary object. However, the Portal Buildings remain an integral part of the vista from Mt Ainslie towards the new (1988) Parliament House as they mark approximately the halfway point and give scale to the ‘Land Axis’

The removal of the new Parliament from the lake side site originally intended by Holford and the

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NCDC to its site well to the far side of Old Parliament House, has considerably extended the horizontal dimensions and scale of the vistas to and from the primary vista nodes of the Parliament, and the War Memorial. The affect of these changes has been to increase the capability and importance of the Portal Buildings to perform their originally intended urban design functions. Combined with the change due to the maturing landscape, the visual significance of the Portal Buildings has remained important if more complex. Whilst the ‘portal’ concept remains entirely valid, it is also appropriate to regard Anzac Park East and West as buildings that serve to mark the junction of the Land Axis with the Water Axis and as background elements of importance to the urban form on the north shore of the lake.

Throughout their life ANZAC Park East and West and their settings have been maintained by the Commonwealth.

The West Portal building, Anzac Park West was quite extensively refurbished and modified in 2006. ANZAC Park West has been further extensively internally refurbished and re-fitted for a new Defence occupant and is now occupied by them as of February 2012.

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Statutory Heritage values

The Portal Buildings East and West, as the Parliamentary Vista Extension, are Commonwealth Heritage places and are protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Commonwealth Heritage List

Statement of significance

A two times magnification view of the Monumental Vista from Mt Ainslie and of ANZAC Park East under construction. Photograph circa1962.

A two times magnification view of the Monumental Vista from Mt Ainslie and of ANZAC Park East under construction. Photograph circa1963

The Portal Buildings are important for their association with the push to transfer public servants from Melbourne to Canberra in the 1960s under the Liberal Government of Sir Robert Menzies. They are also important for their association with the consultancy of Sir William Holford and the views of the Senate Select Committee, which saw Canberra as a unified city in which background buildings in a monumental style functioned both as symbols of government and Australian unity. In this respect the Portal buildings are an expression of the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) which adopted the views of Holford and the Senate, and interpreted them in terms of the formal composition of Walter Burley Griffin's plan for Canberra, with its cumulative massing, axiality and avenues

As symbols of government, the monumental Portal Buildings are located on Walter Burley Griffin's land axis, Anzac Parade, and the municipal axis, Constitution Avenue, which defines the northern side of the Parliamentary Triangle area in the heart of Canberra, and frame the Parliamentary vista at its transition from land to lake. The Portal Buildings exhibit a monumental character through strongly modelled structural bays, emphasised by the vertical emphasis of the columns and the use of sandstone cladding to the structural elements of the elevations, and are important elements of Civic Design in the urban setting of Canberra.

Designed by NCDC architect Gareth Roberts in conjunction with the Commonwealth Department of Works Chief Design Architect Richard Ure, the buildings clearly illustrate NCDC policy in the form and scale of the building envelopes which were determined by the NCDC architect, with the architectural expression developed by the consultant architect. The two buildings are important examples of this design process and the prevailing use in Canberra during the 1960s of the stripped classical interpretation of the International Style of architecture.

Criterion A Gazetted Commonwealth Heritage values

Processes The Portal Buildings are important for their association with the push to transfer public servants from Melbourne to Canberra in the 1960s under the Liberal Government of Sir Robert Menzies. They are also important for their association with the consultancy of Sir William Holford and the views of the Senate Select Committee, which saw Canberra as a unified city in which background buildings in a monumental style functioned both as symbols of government and Australian unity. In this respect the Portal buildings are an

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expression of the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC), which adopted the views of Holford and the Senate, and interpreted them in terms of the formal composition of Walter Burley Griffin's plan for Canberra, with its cumulative massing, axiality and avenues.

Criterion D Gazetted Commonwealth Heritage values Characteristic values Designed by NCDC architect Gareth Roberts in conjunction with the

Commonwealth Department of Works Chief Design Architect Richard Ure, the buildings clearly illustrate NCDC policy in the form and scale of the building envelopes which were determined by the NCDC architect, with the architectural expression developed by the consultant architect. The two buildings are important examples of this design process and the prevailing use in Canberra during the 1960s of the stripped classical interpretation of the International Style of architecture.

Criterion E Gazetted Commonwealth Heritage values Aesthetic values

A two times magnification view of the Monumental Vista from Mt Ainslie showing the current urban landscape setting and land axis vista. Photographed 2004.

As symbols of government, the monumental Portal Buildings are located on Walter Burley Griffin's land axis, Anzac Parade, and the municipal axis, Constitution Avenue, which defines the northern side of the Parliamentary Triangle area in the heart of Canberra, and frame the Parliamentary vista at its transition from land to lake. The Portal Buildings exhibit a monumental character through strongly modelled structural bays, emphasised by the vertical emphasis of the columns and the use of sandstone cladding to the structural elements of the elevations, and are important elements of Civic Design in the urban setting of Canberra.

Criterion H Gazetted Commonwealth Heritage values Significant people The Portal Buildings are important for their association with the push to

transfer public servants from Melbourne to Canberra in the 1960s under the Liberal Government of Sir Robert Menzies. They are also important for their association with the consultancy of Sir William Holford and the views of the Senate Select Committee, which saw Canberra as a unified city in which background buildings in a monumental style functioned both as symbols of government and Australian unity. In this respect the Portal buildings are an expression of the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) which adopted the views of Holford and the Senate, and interpreted them in terms of the formal composition of Walter Burley Griffin's plan for Canberra, with its cumulative massing, axiality and avenues.

AttributesTheir role as public service offices, their monumental character, their massing and their axial location within the Parliamentary Vista's formal

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landscape composition.

Non-Statutory Heritage Listings

Register of the National Estate: Place ID 101058. In February 2012, the RNE became a non-statutory archive.

Property or Information Access Restrictions or Requirements if Any

The Portal Buildings, Anzac Park East and West are not open to the public.

Conservation Documents or References

Woodhead 2012, Anzac Park East and Anzac Park West (the Portal Buildings) Heritage Management PlanFischer KF Canberra Myths and Models, Institute of Asian Affairs, Hamburg 1984

Sparke E, Canberra 1954-1980, AGPS 1988 Australian Construction Services, Conservation Plan for the Portal Buildings, Anzac Park East and West, for AEM, 1994.

Record Last Updated

30 October 2013