ARCHITECT: Porter and Thomas (hotel) and Cameron Chisholm and Nicol (tower)
YEAR: 1897, 1988
ADDRESS: 108 St Georges Terrace, Perth
CLIENT/DEVELOPER: Bond Corp
The driving leg of this tour terminates at a site that draws together two of the state’s significant real estate investor developers. Here we can transition from Alan Bond to John De Baun, of whom with equal levels of opulence and grandiosity, had a significant impact on the shape of the urban realm in Western Australia, albeit funded by mining not yachting. (Booms and Busts link here.)
Bond’s namesake tower was funded through a joint investment between R&I Bank and Bond Corp. Designed by Cameron Chisholm and Nicol the tower negotiated De Baun’s Palace Hotel by splitting the plan and utilising a 45 degree L-shape to create an internal atrium space that connected William Street and St Georges Terrace. Although situated in the heart of the CBD, Bond retained a connection to his yachting heritage by stipulating that all offices should face the river and look back toward Fremantle where he lost the Cup Defence. The view was complemented by the acquisition of Van Gogh’s Irises that hung briefly in his penthouse.
Link to The Architect, 1989.
