Verco Building

The Verco Building is situated at 178-179 North Terrace, Adelaide South Australia and is today part of the Myer Shopping Centre complex.

History

The building was built for Dr. William Alfred Verco, a local physician and property developer in 1912. Verco Building was Adelaide’s first ‘Skyscraper’ at a total of 6 storeys with a basement, it remained the tallest building in Adelaide until the early 1930s. [1]

Verco bought the residence of Dr. Allan Campbell in 1911, and demolished it soon after to build the ‘Skyscraper’. The building was built on the corner of North Terrace and Stephens Place, one block east from King William Road and was the start of turning North Terrace from a predominately residential address to a commercial one.

This was to be Eric H. McMichael’s first architectural commission, made possible by the marriage to Constance Verco, and lead to McMichael’s successful architectural career. [2]

The initial plans McMichael drew up were completed for Verco in 2 weeks, and depicted a large seven storey building with basement. Two weeks later, on August 12th, 1911, the plans were resubmitted to Verco with changes for a more user friendly layout for tenants.

Wanting to pioneer large building construction in Adelaide, Verco pioneered reinforced concrete building by liaising with concrete specialists in Adelaide and in Melbourne. Today, the building is still one of the best examples of this construction type.

September 9, 1911 saw the commencement of construction, with excavation beginning on the site and this finished, after some delay, on October 21, 1911. By February 19 1912, the basement and ground floors were done and concreting was continuing.

Verco was determined for the building to be fully complete by the end of 1912, as he was wishing to commence other projects in Adelaide. As a result, he instructed more builders to enter the site, the extensive detail on some facades to be reduced and for the seventh storey to be omitted (although the building could support it).

September 1912 saw the completion of the structure, with only some parts of the fit out left to complete [3] .

Verco had wanted to spend only £30,000, or almost $11,000,000 AUD (as of 2007), but McMichael’s estimate was of £31,200 (or $11,440,000 AUD as of 2007). It was estimated the final cost to Verco was £30,250 (or roughly $11,090,000 AUD) as the seventh storey was omitted.

Building Specifications

Specification details:
Steel
o tensile working stress 7.5 tons per square inch
o in shear 5 tsi
o ultimate tensile stress 58,000 pounds per square inch
o high ductility required.
concrete:
o in direct compression 650 psi
o "in compression in cross breaking" 500 psi
o in shear 100 psi
o in tension nil
• live loads
o design live load for floors 80 pounds per square foot
o columns designed for full LL on any 3 floors and 50% on the rest
• concrete mixes
o 1 : 2 : 4 when subject to "cross bending"
o 1 : 2½ : 5 for direct compression
• external walls and parapets 6" thick
• internal partitions 2½" thick

Today

Verco Building is part of the Myer Shopping Centre, which starts at North Terrace and goes through to Rundle Mall [3] . A major refurbishment occurred in 1988 and the upper storeys in Verco Building are now leased to the South Australian Government. A large underground car park was built where the basement was in the Myer Redevelopment and was engineered by Adelaide firm Ginos Construction. The car park is leased to Myer Centre Management and so is some office space inside.

References

1 http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aholgate/jm/bldgtext/bldgs17.html
2 http://www.history.sa.gov.au/chu/programs/history_conference/StateRecords.pdf
3 http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=vercobuilding-adelaide-australia
4 http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=vercobuilding-adelaide-australia