A Marvellous Melbourne icon is coming back to life

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(Free-Press-Release.com) April 23, 2008 -- One of Melbourne’s premier historic buildings of the marvellous Melbourne period is coming back to life as work on Denton Mills in Abbotsford gathers pace.
Denton Mills, originally designed and built in the late 1880s, housed Australia’s first steam powered hat factory in an era when it was essential to have one.
Its architect, William Pitt, designed some of Melbourne’s most landmark buildings of the era, including the famous Princess Theatre, and the Olderfleet Building in Collins Street.

The architect appointed to revitalise the building was Peddle Thorp and the practice’s design director Peter Brook said it had been a pleasure to help restore the icon.
“William Pitt was an inspired architect who gave Melbourne much of its identity. His buildings are simply beautiful and so it has been a real pleasure to design ways to restore this Melbourne gem,” he said.
“I believe it was a model for future developments as many options exist to simply knocking down buildings,” he said.
“We should be looking to reinvigorate what is there, instead of always putting up a new building and losing something great,” he said.

Peddle Thorp was also involved in restoring another major Melbourne institution - the Chevron Hotel – which faced demolition. It has now re-emerged as an apartment building for the 21st century. Built in 1934, it is one of the few pre-war buildings remaining in St Kilda Road.
Mr Brook said many buildings such as Denton Mills and the Chevron have great beauty and style that can revitalised for the community.
“The fact that all the apartments have sold out at Denton Mills indicates that people are willing to embrace old buildings if they are re-designed in the right spirit,” he said.
Many of the key features will be preserved in the development such as the façade that stretches for 95 metres along Nicholson Street, the cast iron columns within the building, the bluestone stairways and the wooden roof trusses.

The old chimney, which was connected to the steam boilers of the 1880s, will remain as a landmark.
The original Denton Mills building is listed by Heritage Victoria, the National Trust and it is on the Register of the National Estate. The site is being developed by the Burbank group of companies.

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