![]() |
|
Home | Introduction | Contents| Feedback | Map | Sources | Glossary |
46
Former John Batman Motor Inn
As an architectural student in
He was a member of
John Batman Motor Inn, 2002
In 1947, he founded the RAIA-The Age
Small Homes Service, which offered architect-designed houses at affordable
budgets. His architectural endeavour was recognised by the RAIA in awarding him
its Gold Medal in 1970, its youngest-ever recipient. Initial awareness of the
significance of architects such as Harold Desbrowe-Annear
(45) and Robert Haddon is due to Boyd’s work. He was a founder of the
National Trust and a member of its first council. He was instrumental in the
Trust’ acquisition of its first property:
After an early partnership with Kevin Pethebridge and Frank Bell, he developed a partnership with (Sir) Roy Grounds and Frederick Romberg as Grounds, Romberg & Boyd (known as Gromberg: 1953-62) and with Romberg alone, until his death.
Following his addition to their famous Capers
Gold Door Restaurant,
Boyd scooped a porte-cochere out of eight bays of the ground floor, replaced Evans extremely exposed north-west facing picture-windows, with discrete vertical glazing ribbons and extended the frame up to support a sweeping curved over-arching roof, which concealed the lift over-run and water tank as well as a embracing a two-storied, honeymoon suite; where I spent the first night of married life, it’s views sweeping across the Domain, Melbourne’s skyline and Port Philip Bay. This was the first of hundreds of high-rise apartments in St Kilda and Queens Roads to savour these views and be frequently more exposed to the fierce late afternoon sun. Colours at the John Batman Motor Inn, as it was renamed, were carefully zoned by floors: ‘each floor was monochromatic...a play of various golds on the first floor, of greens on the third, blues on the fourth...The penthouse...is in black and white’. All carpets and most furniture were designed by the Boyd firm. Eliza’s restaurant occupied the first floor.
As well as being the earliest first class
urban motel in
In 1960 in The Australian Ugliness, Boyd had written scathing criticism of (American) motels: In its approach to the public, in social and aesthetic values, in style, the motel often turned out to be a substantial offspring of the ... jukebox. Even the picture theatre in its heyday never sank to this level ... Why should anything with the serious duty of housing weary travellers choose to deck itself in a buffoon’s costume patchwork and parti-coloured trappings?
But Boyd’s attention was soon drawn to the
Mitchell Valley Motel in Bairnsdale (which survives today, largely intact),
which had been designed by distinguished architect John
Mockridge and developed by builder David Yencken
in 1957. (Yencken was later founder of Merchant
Builders, first chair of the Australian Heritage Commission, Professor of
Environmental Planning at
As a result, of Boyd’s surprised admiration
for the
... when they were planned, each of these buildings set out its own way to challenge practically everything in design that the established motel chains stood for at the time, from their floral carpets to their multi-coloured chequerboard tiling. Each was a highly personal private enterprise, although each aimed its sights higher than the known average taste, the two were necessarily different. For the John Batman named after one of Melbourne’s founders was highly urbanised in concrete; and the Black Dolphin, named to evoke a holiday mood used thick trunks of gumtrees as columns throughout. Nevertheless, in the choice of finishing and furnishing materials and in the surrounding vegetation, both establishments consciously sought to produce an Australian character They were the first motels to do so.
Ironically the working drawings for the John
Batman were mostly completed by Graeme Gunn, who was later David
Yencken’s principal architect for Merchant Builders
house designs and head of the Architecture Department at
During the 1970s, the Motor Inn closed and the building was sold to the ANZ Bank as a residential training centre for its management. It later became the Ambulance Officers’ Training Centre. In the process, its thoughtful colour scheme was lost and there were other major alterations to Boyd’s design. Its current use is unknown.
In 2004, the National trust declared the Year
of Robin Boyd, including exhibitions and an extremely popular opening of ten of
his houses in September. The year culminated in the establishment by the Trust
of the Robin Boyd Foundation with Hon. Gough Whitlam
as its patron. On 15 December, the Trust secured the purchase for the Foundation
of Robin Boyd’s spectacular and most intact house,
References
Boyd, Robin.
Living in
Edquist,
Harriet, (Ed). Transition No 38 Special Issue.
Robin Boyd. RMIT
Goad, Philip.
Conversation with Neil Clerehen,
Harnann,
Conrad. Report: For the Historic Buildings Council on
National Trust
of
Peterson,
Richard. Town of
|
![]() |
St Kilda Historical Society Inc. © 2005 |