Marcus Barlow

Marcus Barlow (1890 – 1954) was an Australian architect in the interwar period, who designed a number of notable central city buildings in his home-town of Melbourne. He is best known for the 1932 Manchester Unity Building, whose Gothic corner spire dominates the major intersection of the city.

Biography Marcus Barlow was born in 1890, in Melbourne. It is not known where he gained his training, and first appears as a partner in the firm of Grainger Barlow & Little in 1917. Grainger and Little were late career architects with a long history of substantial designs to their names, and wide professional networks, which no doubt helped Barlow in his later career. In 1922 FGB Hawkins became a partner, and in 1924 they left to form Barlow & Hawkins, until Barlow left to head his own firm in 1927. A vital moment of his career was being appointed by the trustees of the Howey Estate, owners of about a quarter of a city block since the first land sales in 1837, to design the 12 storey Howey Court (demolished in about 1989); Barlow went on to design three other buildings in the estate, the Manchester Unity, the Presgrave Building and the Century Building over the next decade. Barlow managed to maintain a thirty-strong team during the economic turmoil of the Great Depression, no doubt largely due to the construction on the estate. Barlow was an enthusiastic adopter of the latest overseas styles and trends, advocating for instance for car-parking structures in the 1920s, the scrapping of the 132 ft height limit to allow for skyscrapers, and installation of air-conditioning. He was innovative on a domestic level as well, as seen in his Strawbale Home Building, in which he used straw bales as a more economical alternative to brick construction. He also had a strong social consciousness and public interest. He was also part of Oswald Barnett's Slum Study Group (1934), Housing Investigation and Slum Abolition Board (1936). These endeavors led to him becoming the first consulting architect appointed by the Housing Commission in Victoria in 1937. He continued to practice after WWII, but 'his best days were behind him', and he died in 1954. It is in a style known locally as 'Commercial Gothic', and drew strongly from the design of the Chicago Tribune Tower (1922) by Raymond Hood. It was also the first building in Melbourne to be constructed with an escalator. Barlow prepared immense amounts of preliminary work to ensure the construction time of his works was kept to a minimum. Believing that speed is beneficial to up to a point where it increases capital cost and stating that "this point must be accurately determined by the architect before the tenders are called for the erection of the building", the Manchester Unity Building was erected in record time with works progressing exactly to the detailed schedule that Barlow had prepared.

Century Building Marcus Barlow's 1939 design for the Century Building, at the other end of the same block as the Manchester Unity Building, is a vertical Moderne interpretation of his earlier design. The vertical piers and small round tower are clad in off-white glazed faience tiles; Wunderlich Limited, manufacturers of faience, often used the Century Building in their advertisements, claiming that the cladding 'gives a permanent freshness and sparkle to this fine building. Window spandrels are in hand moulded terracotta glazed neutral grey to achieve an arresting architectural contrast'. The Century Building was not only fresh and modern looking, it was also the first building in Melbourne to be air conditioned. The Century Building's most prominent feature is the tower which is positioned at the corner of Swanston and Little Collins streets.

Croydon Baby Health Centre The Croydon Baby Health Centre was built along with many other such centres in response to the changing social attitudes towards maternal and child health during the early twentieth century. Barlow himself held a deep interest in issues surrounding community health and it is thought that he completed the project with no commission. Built in 1930, it was designed, like Colinton, in a particularly delightful version of the Tudor or 'Old English' style. Features include picturesque massing, half timbering, diamond pane windows, a lych gate, and a wrought iron sign. 1932 Midway Court 256 Collins St 1929–32 Manchester Unity Building 91 Swanston St 1933 Hardy Brothers two storey shop 338 Collins St 1933 Miller House 357–359 Collins St 1936 Albany Court 230 Collins St 1938 Presgrave Building 273–279 Little Collins St 1939 Strawbale Home Building Maidstone St Altona 1938–1940 Century Building 125–133 Swanston St 1944 IOOF Building (later Jensen House) 339 Swanston St