Council House is a 13-storey office building on St Georges Terrace in Perth, Western Australia. Located beside Stirling Gardens and Government House in the city's central business district, the building was designed by Howlett and Bailey Architects and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963, after Perth hosted the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. For most of its history, it has served as the headquarters for the City of Perth.
Built in a modernist style, the building has been the subject of vigorous public debate about its heritage value. Some parties, such as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, consider the building to be an important example of modernist architecture in the city, whilst others consider it ugly. These conflicting views led to animosity in the 1990s, when the State Government refused to heritage list the property, and instead recommended its demolition. Despite this, the City of Perth opted to renovate the tower and keep it as its headquarters. Following this, the building was admitted to the State's Heritage Register.
Prior site history
The site was originally home to the Colony's governing Legislative Council in a building which came to be known as the Old Government Offices or Public Offices. The building was designed by Acting Civil Engineer Henry Reveley in August 1836 after he was asked to prepare plans for public offices on the site. A call for tenders was made, and the tender accepted was for £1,833, well above the £1,200 maximum specified in the call for tenders. Payment was delayed until February 1839.
The Public Offices stood back from St Georges Terrace. The Legislative Council occupied the building until 1870, when it moved to a chamber adjoining the new Perth Town Hall. The Legislative Council returned to the building in 1890 after the newly formed Legislative Assembly took over that chamber. In the 1890s, the building became a post office, before being taken over by the Department of Agriculture, and the building continued to be used as public offices until 1961. Additions to the building in the 1930s included a second storey, which contained a Legislative Council room and offices for senior public servants. Showing its age, the building eventually became what was described as a "rat-infested hell-hole".
The Perth City Council had been based from 1871 in the Perth Town Hall, then in 1925 moved to offices in Murray Street. The site of the Public Offices on St Georges Terrace was chosen as the site for a new home for the Perth City Council in 1954. Immediately south of the Public Offices building stood the Soldiers' Institute building. This building was taken over from the Returned Soldiers' League by the ABC in 1937 for its 6WF radio studio.
Competition and construction
With the news that Perth would be hosting the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, Perth City Council in 1959 launched an international competition to design its new building. The brief in the competition was to design a "creative building that marked where Perth was at the time" and have the building ready in time for the opening of the Commonwealth Games.
Following the competition announcement,184 architects registered, with 61 designs eventually entered into the competition, including one by Jeffrey Howlett and Don Bailey from the Melbourne architectural firm Bates, Smart and McCutcheon. The jury assessing the competition entries, which included architect Harry Seidler, described the Howlett-Bailey plan as "a remarkably simple solution to a complex problem" and declared them winners of the competition.
The ABC moved to new premises on Adelaide Terrace in 1960 when the Council House site was taken over by the Perth City Council for construction to begin. Both the Public Offices and Soldiers' Institute buildings were demolished to make way for the redevelopment.
Excavations for construction of the building's foundations started in October 1961 and the first concrete pour occurred in November 1961. The building was not completely finished by the time Perth hosted the Commonwealth Games in November 1962, however the builders rushed to finish the ground, eighth, and 10th floors in time so that foreign dignitaries could be entertained in the reception areas. Following the Games, the fit-out of the building was finished in March 1963, and on 25 March 1963 Queen Elizabeth II officially opened Council House, unveiling a tall ceremonial plaque set in granite from the original 1817 Waterloo Bridge in London.