WHEN architect Kerstin Thompson set about designing apartments in the historic Channel Nine building in Richmond, it was with a sense of responsibility to respect the past but also excitement at the task ahead.
The 103-year-old building represented not only a fine example of industrial architecture, but also encapsulated the various stages of Victoria's economic history.
Built as the Wertheim piano factory in 1909, it was an important showpiece for the Australian manufacturing industry championed by prime minister Alfred Deakin, who laid the foundation stone that still exists.
It subsequently became a Heinz food factory before GTV9 called it home in the 1950s. Now, it will be a real home - 34 heritage apartments, part of modern Melbourne's inner-city boom in residential units.
''We started by looking at the building - what key aspects needed to be retained, conserved and restored, what needed to be transformed,'' said Thompson told BusinessDay.
This required close collaboration with Heritage Victoria. The upshot was that the external perimeter of the building was largely preserved and the brick work restored, with some aspects such as windows reinstated. ''Inside, in the courtyard , we had more latitude for dramatic changes. They are still changes that are subtle, but retain the key attributes of the original building,'' she said. ''Some apartments will have upgraded steel-framed windows … it was about making the building work thermally and acoustically. Looked at from the outside, every apartment has its own variation, is not uniform. Each apartment has its little quirks.''
Studio Nine, as the building will be called, is the focal point of Lend Lease's $450 million development on three hectares of land. The master plan, by Hayball, creates new roads, pedestrian and public access through what is a full-size city block. The 449 apartments and 68 townhouses are deigned around a central garden square - Studio Square.
Hayball director Rob Stent said the heritage building was a fantastic site to work with. The plan's aim was to combine in a cohesive way Richmond's industrial heritage with the surrounding streetscape and residences, he said.
Heritage Victoria said the former Wertheim factory, designed by Melbourne architect Nahum Barnet, was architecturally significant as a fine and intact early 20th-century factory built in Federation Free style. Built by German immigrant Hugo Wertheim, who came to Melbourne in 1875, and his son Herbert, it was the first piano factory in Victoria and the largest in Australia. Its construction was encouraged by the Commonwealth government's new protection laws of 1907 that aimed to nurture manufacturing.
The factory employed 300 workers and could produce up to 2000 pianos annually, using mainly Australian materials. Nellie Melba is said to have refused to play on any piano other than a Wertheim. The factory became a victim of the 1930s Depression and the growth of wireless, closing in 1935.
The food manufacturer Heinz then took over the building, producing beverages, canned foods, cereals, pasta and other foods. Its success led to Heinz shifting to a big new factory in Dandenong and selling the site to GTV9 in 1955.
The Melbourne Olympic Games were broadcast from there in 1956, and GTV's flood of famous shows were produced there until 2001.
