Page:Ian Charlton.ogg/11



Reload page to restart the player. (So your first project at Curro, Nutter and Charlton was Richard's house?) That was one of the early ones. John Curro had started designing that and then John Curro, you may or may not know, he founded the Queensland Youth Orchestra. He was spending time out of the office having violin lessons and all sorts of things. (Where did he study?) Study? Architecture? It should be on that list. (Yes. He is there. Sorry.) Yeah. John, we reckon was, Dan and I reckon that he was our contribution to culture in Queensland. (laughter). Because while we were slaving away, John was out doing things but he was bringing work in and that worked out pretty well.

(The office was in Ivory Street then or somewhere else?) No. We started off down Edward Street in a little office block down there for a while and then we were in Ivory Street for a while and then we went up to J. B. William Partners building that they built up in like Fortescue Street. Fortescue Street I think.

(Who designed that building?) Ken Drew. Remember Ken? No? (Did he have a partnership with Jeffery Pistorious?) Yes. Drew and Pistorious. Yes. Well done. But the interesting thing about them, I've just recently been to Dan Rather's 80th birthday celebration at the Brisbane club and John and I were there and somebody was asking about this partnership and that it sounds terribly niave and dangerous but I really like it. We never, ever signed a partnership agreement. We parted at various stages without any arguments about money or anything. It's good if you can do it I think isn't it. But you hear some pretty sad cases that don't work. In those days, you know, we weren't directed because directors are your protected to some extent aren't you but partners and partnerships, each partner is responsible for the debts of the other. So if Dan had done something stupid, we were all gone. But he didn't so .. (laughter). (Thank goodness.) Yeah.

(So from the 1970's on, you started on larger projects, industrial buildings and commercial buildings. Was the office still with the 3 of you or did you have people working in the office by that time?) from '72? (Yeah. From the 1970's onwards) Well thats when I went to Conrad and Gargett. (Ok.) That's the other firm there. (Ok.) One of the other reasons for that apart from being a bit miffed that we missed out on getting the design the sort of opportunity for the thing, and actually when I first went to Conrad and Gargett, the competition was still going on and I had the chance to design and Art Gallery when I was there. It was pretty ordinary I must say. I was in competion with Frank Holmes who was working there and the office picked Frank's instead of mine. I had no problem with that because Frank's was better but, anyway, they didn't get it of course. But then after that, I then, one of the first jobs I was involved in which I am not proud of was the idea was to get experience in or to work in bigger jobs because in a smaller office like we had where we were up to a dozen people, you still needed the same library that Conrad and Gargett would have. The same backup, the same this, and all the rest of it and we were stretched actually you know. I was working myself into the ground and I must say and so when I went away for the Brick award it was just a complete break and then I came back, I decided to make the change and apart from the Art Gallery, one of the first jobs was the Brisbane Administration Sector, where Clem Jones, the Lord Mayor, wanted new offices and things for the City Council. So, this was a madly exciting prospect and everything so I was working with Elwyn Wyath on that and we did a scheme and our client was a developer, Stocks and Holdings, and to cut a long story short, we won that competition for all the things that were considered by the Council but it was quite frankly done on the basis that they had the best financial deal and from that moment on, working with Stocks and Holdings, the sort of partner in charge or director in charge turned out to be a crook, he was embezelling money from the money that wasn't going to the bills or anything and he chopped off and sort of sail or sun screen on the building of about 30cm at a time till you know what the building looks like now. It was cheap in construction. It was something that I have never been proud of. I designed the plaza for that which got a commendation I think in one of the sort of civic design awards but of course thats all been changed.

(There were two towers then wasn't there? Supposedly, one was.. ) Well, yeah. Our design and then the model and everything there were the two towers but it was done on the basis that the first tower, the lower one, that covered all the Council's requirements for offices and the other one was the foundation for actually put in for a high rise to be done later on. It has subsequently been done and of course it doesn't match the old one thank heavens. Then sort of after that job, I think I did a computer centre that I designed for the ANZ bank. It's a building near the Gabba in Vulture street actually on the left hand side. After doing the Brick award, I was quite heavily inspired by bricks (Laughter.) I reckon its not a bad building actually. But its never been in the public eye or never put in for awards or anything because the whole thing was designed with security in mind because the bank were absolutely paranoid about all their computer things being blown up and there were security systems you wouldn't beleive about and its never had a sign on the building also so that one has just gone by the way.

(Is it still used for that purpose?) I think it is. All the floors that had the double floor systems and all the special air conditioning and everything that cost and absolute fortune is no longer required with modern computers and they could probably put all the big computers that they put up there in a much smaller building. I guess that's life isn't it.