52-60 BRISBANE ST, LAUNCESTON

Holyman House, at 52-60 Brisbane Street, Launceston is a five-storey commercial building commissioned by Wm. Holyman and Sons Pty Ltd to house a booking hall, shopfronts, and offices for the Holyman group of companies, as well as tenants (Examiner 21 May 1936, p.7).  The building was designed between 1935 and 1936 by HS East (ARIBA, FRAIA) and Roy Smith (FRAIA) Architects of Launceston (HS East and Roy Smith Architects 1935, 1936) with the Melbourne based Clive Steel as consulting engineer, and construction being undertaken by J & T Gunn from 1936-7 (Examiner 2 May 1936, p.9). The structure is built up to its boundaries to a height of around 20 metres, with a steel frame encased in concrete, the first building in Launceston to use this system (Examiner 2 May 1936, p.9).  The ground floor shopfront glazing is surrounded by Tasmanian red granite cladding sourced from Coles Bay, while the upper levels consist of concrete panelling with decorative stucco work in a typical Art Deco style and regularly placed vertically proportioned windows with distinctive steel framing.  The third floor (top visible storey) is vertically delineated by decorative rendered finials rising above every third window. The smaller fourth floor structure has a flat roof and is well set back from the street facades.  The remainder of the roof to the third floor is flat and parapeted, and at the curved corner to George and Brisbane Streets, an elaborate vertical protrusion which has been likened to a ship’s prow, rises from the parapet to a height of 26 metres, creating a strong and dynamic feature in the streetscape.  At the time of construction this element, topped with a flagpole and emblazoned with the Holyman name illuminated with recently developed electric neon tubes, was appropriately described as a ‘beacon’ (Examiner 2 May 1936, p.9). The building name formed in metal in a font fitting the Art Deco style is attached to the centre of the main façade fronting Brisbane Street.  A smaller version of this sign is located above the entry doors to the offices on the same façade, while a later painted sign occupies the north-western wall, visible from the northern end of George Street.  The neon sign to the corner beacon has not survived. While there have been alterations to the inside of the building to adapt to changing office and retail uses since construction, many elements of the 1937 interiors are still in place.  Most notably the curved staircases; custom designed electric lift with stylised chrome plated vents; original amenities arranged around a light and air well, timber wall panelling (including blackwood and other Tasmanian species); distinctive timber, glazed, and strong room doors; matching door furniture; and timber, concrete and plaster mouldings have been retained.  Most of the original floor coverings appear to have been replaced.  The diagonal blue striped carpets familiar to those who travelled with Ansett in the 1980s-90s appear to have been lost, however some red carpets with gold ‘A’ shaped logos from the Ansett era survive on the upper office levels.