Rowes Building is an Australian heritage-listed

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

at 235

Edward Street, Brisbane Edward Street is a busy thoroughfare in the Brisbane central business district, Queensland, Australia. It is a one-way street located between Albert Street and Creek Street, and runs from Upper Edward Street to Alice Street. It is named ...

. It is also known as Rowes Arcade. It was built from 1885 to 1926 by W Macfarlane. It was added to the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As a ...

on 21 October 1992; the address on the heritage register is 221 Adelaide Street as the Rowes Building is on part of an L-shaped piece of land which has frontages onto both Edward and Adelaide Streets with Adelaide as the official address of the land.

History

Rowes Building was erected in 1885 along with the adjacent Rothwells Building. These buildings were erected together for their respective owners,

Thomas MacDonald-Paterson Thomas Macdonald-Paterson (9 May 1844 – 21 March 1906) was an Australian politician, a member of the Parliament of Queensland, and later, the Parliament of Australia. Early life Macdonald-Paterson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, he was educat ...

and John Forsyth. MacDonald-Paterson was a solicitor and also served as a Member of Parliament. The buildings cost £13,000 to erect and the contractor for the project was W. Macfarlane. The ground floor was designed to be used as offices while the other floors were intended for either offices or warehousing. Macdonald-Paterson took an office in his half of the premises and leased the remaining floorspace. In 1903 William Effy signed a ten-year lease which covered the basement, ground floor and first floor balcony of the site. Effy, whose mother Minna Rowe had established the highly successful Rowes Cafe in Queen Street, continued the catering establishment at the new address and by 1909 the site contained a ground floor dining room with seating for 380 guests. Effy purchased the building in 1914, and in 1925 he engaged architects

Hall and Prentice Hall and Prentice was an architectural firm established in 1919 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, through the partnership of Thomas Ramsay Hall (T. R. Hall) and George Gray Prentice (G. G. Prentice). The firm designed many prestigious building ...

to design major alterations and additions. The scheme, which cost £162,000, included the purchase of what was known as the City Garage, over which Rowes ballroom was built, and additional Adelaide Street frontage. The Adelaide Street building was demolished and a six storeyed building erected, the ground floor containing a shopping arcade (known as Rowes Arcade) with access to Rowes Cafe. The upper floors were divided into office accommodation. The T-shaped complex had its original frontage to Edward Street, but an increased depth to an approximate distance of . Further alterations to the Edward Street facade were undertaken in late 1926. In 1958 part of the original cafe was converted to an arcade of shops with extensions in 1961.Rowes passed into the ownership of National Mutual Life Association and a major redevelopment of the combined Rowes/Rothwells buildings took place in 1984.

Description

Rowes Building is a five storeyed masonry building with a basement. The classical detailing of the front facade contains individual classical variants common in late Victorian commercial buildings. Most of this ornamentation is executed in plaster. The lower floors have wide arched openings with wide flanking

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

topped by decorative capitals. The windows on the upper floors have arched

architraves In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also ...

with

keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...

and are separated by engaged columns with elaborate capitals. At the parapet level there is a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

supported by bracketing, and centrally above this is a narrow

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

bearing the name "ROWES". The lower level shopfront has also been refitted and a first floor

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

removed. The laneway elevation is a simplified version of the street facade, with round-headed windows in an articulated brick wall. Internally the timber

trusses A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembla ...

have been left exposed on the upper level and the French doors with lead lights which opened onto the first floor balcony remain. The building is similar in design to the adjacent Rothwells Building.

Heritage listing

Rowes Building was listed on the

on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. The Rowes Building is significant as it demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1880s commercial building with an elaborate facade. The Rowes Building is significant as it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, it has a fine, classically detailed facade. Its form, materials and scale make a strong contribution to the Edward Street streetscape. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The Rowes Building is significant as it demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1880s commercial building with an elaborate facade. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. The Rowes Building is significant as it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular, it has a fine, classically detailed facade. Its form, materials and scale make a strong contribution to the Edward Street streetscape.

References

Attribution

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Rowes Building Queensland Heritage Register Heritage of Brisbane Office buildings in Queensland Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register Edward Street, Brisbane