An anonymous heritage enthusiast has launched a bid to save a 1960s office building in Adelaide, designed by John S. Chappel, by submitting a nomination to the SA Heritage Council.
The modernist office building at 1 Bagot Street, North Adelaide is at risk of demolition under plans submitted to Adelaide council to build four two-storey town houses.
The heritage nomination claims the building should be protected as it is a rare example of a surviving building in the late twentieth century Adelaide Regional style.
Its architect, John Chappel, is one of Adelaide’s best known and most influential modernist architects, with the SA Architecture Awards top residential prize named after him.
1 Bagot Street office by John S Chappel.
In the book Modernist Adelaide: 100 Buildings 1940s-1970s, Stuart Simons writes of the building: “This compact, perfectly formed and exquisitely detailed office highlights Chappel’s ability to apply domestic natural materials to a commercial setting. The timber beams and eaves, red brickwork with hit-and-miss pattern sunscreening on the ground floor and the exposed first floor concrete slab deliver functional requirements to an aesthetically pleasing effect. The juxtaposition at right angles of the two volumes forms an entrance canopy supported by fine steel columns.”
The nomination also notes that the building has been occupied by a number of architecture practices, most recently Damien Chwalisz.
Chwalisz, who relocated his office last year, told The Advertiser, that it would be a “great tragedy” if the property was lost.
“It’s a really lovely building and a great building to be in, it’s a quintessential example of Adelaide mid-century modernism and is almost original,” he said.
The proponents behind the townhouse development application and the anonymous heritage advocate will be given the change to argue their case at the City of Adelaide council meeting on 8 April.
