ICI Orica House: How Australia’s first modern skyscraper changed Melbourne’s skyline forever

ICI House – more than 40 metres above that limit – was only approved because it offered public spaces: a garden on the ground floor, public car parks, and the cafeteria on the top floor, where most other buildings reserved space for executives.

Loading

Modernist buildings combining towers and publicly accessible plazas – like Collins Place, AMP Square and the state offices at Treasury Place – followed its lead. So, too, did offices with open-plan spaces where workers could socialise.

ICI House’s design was “incredibly foresightful”, offsetting the office floor part of the building entirely from its amenity block of stairs and toilets, said Copolov, who was appointed Bates Smart’s interior design director in 1995.

“It really changed the whole notion of pop ratios and heights,” Copolov said.

“You kind of have to look at [through the eyes of my grandfather]. This thing was twice as high as anything else around. It stood out like some beacon cathedral on a hill.”

ICI House was Australia’s tallest building until 1961.

As of 2001, explosives company Orica was the building’s only major tenant.

Bates Smart’s tenancy elsewhere was ending at the time, and Copolov was tasked with finding the firm a new office. He chose Orica House as its “natural home”, and has lovingly refurbished much of the space.

As he walks the storied building’s halls, he points out some of its heritage features: pre-cast concrete coffers from when there was no technology to pour floors above the sixth level, and window-accessible gantries to wheel along and clean the outside of the building.

Loading

Orica House’s old bank – now the Bates Smart gallery – is an apt venue for this year’s Open House Melbourne Weekend “stories of the city” exhibition, where Melburnians’ own stories will line its walls, Open House Melbourne executive director Tania Davidge said.

Melburnians will be able to submit their stories from April 29.

The Open House Melbourne Weekend, which opens private buildings and spaces to the public for tours, runs July 26 to 27.

Our Breaking News Alert will notify you of significant breaking news when it happens. Get it here.