Langdon Park Estate in Richmond. The latter, opened in 1974, was one of the last high-rise towers built by the HCV, and was designed by P O’Neill, who became Chief Architect after Roy Prentice’s retirement in 1971. Park Towers also stands out on many other levels. Of the 21 highrise estates developed by the HCV, all but seven comprised multiple blocks. Park Towers, with single tower on a landscaped 3 acre block, is by far the most considered example amongst these few single-block estates, which comprise the Crown Street Estate at Flemington, Floyd Lodge in Williamstown, Frank Wilkes Court in Northcote, Gaskin Gardens in Footscray, Layfield Court in Albert Park and Nelson Heights in Williamstown. Park Towers is also notable for its unique E-shaped plan, which is a contrast to the far more ubiquitous square and rectangular blocks (and the occasional Y-shaped or T-shaped block) that characterised virtually all of the Commission’s high-rise projects. With its tinted concrete panels, aggregate finishes and mosaic tiling, the tower also demonstrates a somewhat higher level of architectural articulation than many of the earlier towers, which were initially lambasted for their starkness and plain concrete finishes. Park Towers also stands out as the HCV’s most celebrated project, in terms of the sheer amount of attention that it generated not only from the general public but also from the architectural and construction community – the latter, moreover, at an international scale. Finally, Park Towers represents the pinnacle of the distinguished career of the HCV Chief Architect, Roy Prentice, who retired two years after its completion. To this day, the architect considers it to be his best building. At the local level, Park Towers can be compared to three other HCV estates in what is now the City of Port Phillip, namely Emerald Hill in Moray Street, South Melbourne, Inkerman Heights in Henryville Street, East St Kilda, and Layfield Court in Victoria Avenue, Albert Park. These, however, are far more generic in the broader context of HCV developments, generally lacking the superlative qualities of Park Towers. Layfield Court (1966) is a single-block estate with a modest 12-storey tower, while Inkerman Heights is a typical multiblock development, of some interest for its atypical (but certainly not unique) T-shaped plan. Emerald Hill, despite its low scale (15 storeys) and stark appearance, is nevertheless of some historic significance in its own right as the Commission’s first high-rise flat development, opened in 1960. Claims that Park Towers was the tallest buildings of its type in Victoria, Australia or the world need close scrutiny. When highrise flats were first built in this country from the late 1950s, the tallest examples rarely exceed twenty storeys. Australia’s tallest apartment block in 1960 was the Torbreck flats at Highgate Hill, Brisbane (Job & Froud, 1957-59), at 21 storeys, while Melbourne’s record was the Domain Park Flats in Domain Road, South Yarra (Romberg & Boyd, 1959-62) with 20 storeys. Both were eclipsed with the completion of the Blues Point Tower in Sydney (Harry Seidler, 1962), with 25 storeys. Even at the end of the 1960s, highrise flats in Australia only occasionally exceeded 20 storeys – eg the 23-storey flats at 99 Spring Street in Melbourne (Moore & Hammond, 1969-70), or the 20-storey Apollo flats in Queensland (1971), the latter then the tallest apartment building in Surfer’s Paradise. This also seems to have been the case internationally. An survey of post-war highrise apartments in 15 countries, published in 1961 under the title Modern Flats, illustrated very few examples over 20 storeys – most notably the Lake Shore Drive apartments in Chicago (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1956-57), at 28 storeys. By the late 1960s, the tallest public housing estates in London included Ronan Point in Newham (1966-68; demolished) with 23 storeys and the celebrated Trellick Tower (Erno Goldfinger, 1968-73), with 31 storeys (98 metres) – only slightly taller than the contemporaneous Park Towers. Contrary to some claims, Park Towers was not the tallest building in Melbourne in the late 1960s. The first building to exceed the 40 metre limit (enforced from 1916 to 1957) was ICI (now Orica) House in East Melbourne (Bates, Smart & McCutcheon, 1958) at 81 metres (20 storeys). This was later exceeded by CRA House in Collins Street (Bernard Evans, 1966, demolished) at 96 metres (26 storeys) and thence by AMP Square (1969) at 113 metres (28 storeys). Although, strictly speaking, Park Towers had more storeys, its total height was still only 92 metres.
Recommendations Schedule to the Heritage Overlay Table in the City of Port Phillip Planning Scheme.
References Sun, 11 November 1967, p22; 29 May 1968, p5; 24 October 1968, p35; Herald, 2 October 1969, p 3; 5 November 1969, p 5. Renate Howe (ed). New Houses for Old: Fifty Years of Public Housing in Victoria, 1938 to 1988. Housing Commission of Victoria, Chief Architect’s Files, VPRS 1808/P0. Public Record Office.