Nicholas Building Melbourne tenants celebrate centenary
Samantha Schrader, who makes perfumes for a living, felt she was suited to work in Melbourne. Nicholas Building.
Schrader loved the idea of being among a community of independent creators, whether they were jewelers, shoemakers or fashion designers.
And two years ago he rented a room on the fourth floor. “It felt like the right place to be,” said the owner of the Perfume Playground brand. “I wanted to be part of a larger community of people who create things with their hands, or at least design something from their heart.”
As the city changed, the Nicholas Building, designed by architect Harry Norris and built for the Nicholas pharmaceutical family, remained a center for artists and small merchants. On Friday, current and former tenants gathered to celebrate the centennial.
In the Flinders Lane Gallery on the first floor, partygoers sipped Bee’s Knees cocktails and listened to jazz-era tunes in 1920s-style attire or modern twists.
In the 1920s, the Nicholas Building was the cat’s meow, a Chicago-style skyscraper boasting a neoclassical-style ground floor arcade and GJ Coles variety store.
Touted “modern skyscraper for Swanston Street” Reporter The newspaper from 12 March 1926, the building’s opening day, details its Queensland maple timber fasteners and tiled corridors.
Gallery owner Stephen McLaughlan says we’re lucky this “beautiful building” is still here when so many others have been razed.
McLaughlan, who has rented an eighth-floor studio since 1994, said former tenant Mark Ferrie, a former member of the rock band The Models, was a graphic designer who moved in next door and designed McLaughlan’s gallery invitations for decades.
Other famous tenants include artist Governor Myers and ex-con Gregory David Roberts, who is working on his novel. Shantaram Here.
Milliner Louise Macdonald, a tenant since 1996, says anyone can come here, including billionaire Gina Rinehart, who once tried on a few hats but couldn’t buy them.
Macdonald recalls that in the 1990s, there was an oratory next door, and podiatrist Verna Synan, down the hall from Macdonald’s eighth-floor studio, had a steady stream of elderly clients.
Rents in the building have risen in recent years and Macdonald considered leaving, but he loves the high ceilings, opening windows and a cup of coffee with friends.
He didn’t want to work in a traditional office.
The 10-storey building, which has been owned by a group of families since 1973, went on sale in 2021 with an expected price of 80 million dollars.
But a potential investor’s proposed rejuvenation, including creating space for public events, fell apart after governments refused to provide funding.
Anna Prifti, the artist and gallery owner who proposed the centennial party, has been a tenant for a year, visiting friends and attending exhibitions for years.
Prifti said the building is surprisingly quiet and feels like stepping back in time. “He has such a good energy,” Prifti said. “You are surrounded by like-minded people.”
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