A Melbourne council has voted unanimously to continue its bid to protect a significant Robin Boyd house in North Balwyn, despite a setback in its efforts.
Wood House at 12-14 Tannock Street came to the attention of council when it was listed for sale and marketed for redevelopment in 2020.
Melbourne academic and practitioner Jacqui Alexander launched a petition calling on the council to protect the building, which has now received more than 6,000 signatures. Boroondara councillors voted to proceed with the preparation of a permanent heritage overlay for the property and asked the state’s planning minister to place an interim heritage protection order on the house. The request was refused on the grounds that there were no active planning applications on the property, but the minister authorized the public exhibition of the permanent overlay.
The proposed planning amendment was placed on exhibit from 3 December 2020 to 1 February 2021, with 20 submissions in support and six opposing. One reason put forward in opposition to the heritage protection was the potential impact on the price of the property – council officers noted in a report recommending approval of the overlay that “The potential private economic impacts are not a valid consideration when determining whether a property should be included in the Heritage Overlay or not.”
The Tannock Street house by Robin Boyd, documented in 1948.
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Council officers found that Wood House was remarkable for representing a variety of stages in Boyd’s career. Boyd designed the building for pharmacist Don Wood in 1948, and client commissioned Boyd to expand the house two more times, in 1959 and 1971, the year of Boyd’s death.
“The additions, made by the original architect, cannot be considered unsympathetic or intrusive; rather, they add an additional layer of significance for the way in which they demonstrate how Boyd, at various later stages of his career, approached the problem of extending one of his earliest houses,” the report states.
The house is one of relatively few surviving examples from the early stages of Boyd’s career, prior to his partnership with Roy Grounds and Frederick Romberg. A 2015 heritage study of the area, which recommended heritage protection for the Tannock Street house along with 17 other post-war houses, found the house provided “rare and valuable evidence of the innovation, boldness and fresh design approaches of a young architect on the cusp of an illustrious career.”
Jacqui Alexander, through a statement read at the council meeting on 12 April, called on the councillors to concur with the 6,000 community members who had signed her petition and protect the home.
“The house encapsulated many ideas such as opening planning, spilt levels and window walls – in this case an improbably large plate glass window – that were extremely innovate at the time, particularly in the context of post-war Melbourne, when materials and labour were till limited,” she said. “It is a symbol of Australia’s growing optimism and enthusiasm when Melbourne’s eastern suburbs were expanding and new ideas about contemporary living were explored through the vehicle of the modern home.”
Another person to speak in support of the heritage overlay was Mary Dross, a former councillor of the City of Camberwell who had been instrumental in instituting measures to protect heritage in the area.
“We have to save our history…we have to protect the heritage for future generations.”
The council will now request the state planning minister to appoint a planning panel to consider the proposed heritage overlay.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
