School’s plans to preserve 100-year-old Carlton “piano building” celebrated

The surprise purchase of a multimillion-dollar heritage-listed local building by an independent school has been welcomed by Victoria’s peak heritage advisory council as well as the Carlton Residents’ Association.

The former Allan & Co piano warehouse, designed by architect Cedric Ballantyne as part of the industrial redevelopment of Lincoln Square South between the two world wars, has been a landmark in the surrounding area since it was built 100 years ago, according to a City of Melbourne heritage advisor, and is “amongst the best examples of early twentieth century development north of the city centre”.

Both the building itself and the strip of Lincoln Square South buildings it is part of are protected by heritage overlays.

But in October last year the building’s owners won approval from the council to partly demolish the five-storey structure and develop it into a 14-floor, 268-bed student accommodation facility.

The pre-Christmas $19.7 million sale of the property to independent school Preshil means the “stripped classical” building will be retained in its current form, Preshil’s principal Aaron Mackinnon says.

The school has bought the building to use as its senior campus.

“We’ve got a small campus of 200 kids that will be in that space,” Mr Mackinnon told Inner City News.

“We’re not planning to develop it; we don’t need the height.”

The Carlton Residents’ Association (CRA), which “strongly objected” to the redevelopment, said it was “a great relief” that the school had bought the building – and would hopefully preserve it.

The piano building” features sawtooth roofs, steel-framed windows, a factory space on the top floor and a large lift servicing it, Peter Sanders from CRA said, and was “a fine example of industrial buildings, built near the central city, where land areas were limited, over several floors.

“We only have a limited number of these buildings left,” Mr Sanders said.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria’s heritage committee also welcomed the planned repurposing, which it said would breathe new life into the long-vacant structure and help preserve the area’s historical and architectural character.

The committee’s deputy chair Christina Branagan pointed out there was “a robust process” involved in the designation of heritage protections.

“In Victoria only our best buildings do get protected,” she said.

It boded well, Ms Branagan felt, that Preshil had been “custodians of historical buildings in the past”.

Agent Jesse Radisich from commercial real estate agents JLL said there had been “nine or 10” bids for the piano building, with all potential buyers except the school looking to build upwards.

The planning permission had doubtlessly boosted the building’s price, he said, but with the property’s international owners on the hook for high land taxes, Preshil’s offer of an extraordinarily quick settlement had clinched the deal.

“Four days is a new record for me,” he said.

Mr Radisich described the sale as “a pretty special outcome,” which he thought everyone involved was happy about.

A nearby neighbour, who declined to be named, confirmed that he was glad.

“It’s a great outcome for us,” he said.

“When we heard the school bought it, we went ‘yippee!’”.

“I think it does have architectural merit and it’s brilliant if they preserve it intact. It was also a relief not to have another big student housing tower going up, he said.

“Virtually every building around here is student housing.”

Progressive school Preshil to open senior campus in 2028

Set to become one of a small number of schools in the inner-city when it opens its new senior campus in 2028, Preshil is an organisation that “thinks outside the square” and values the individuality of its students, according to its principal.

“We don’t do education to young people; rather, we work alongside them,” Mr Mackinnon said.

The approach incorporates non-hierarchical relations between students and teachers, flexible, tailored learning and “participatory democracy”, he said.

Mr Mackinnon describes Preshil as “Australia’s first progressive school”, which, after humble beginnings in its founder’s backyard 90 years ago, came to occupy the suburb of Kew “just by default”.

Preshil’s expansion into Carlton via a senior campus was part of “a strategic repositioning” to open up access for a broader range of students, he said.

The school sold its former senior site in Kew – the Italianate mansion Blackhall – for an undisclosed sum in October last year and went on the hunt for a more centrally located site.

“Lincoln Square fitted perfectly into our strategy, so we were delighted that we could get this,” Mackinnon said.

The school loved the former piano warehouse and factory’s “romantic past” as a place for “the creation of instruments for artistic endeavour”.

“The pianos are definitely still ringing in the hallways, and we will create more music in the future,” the principal said.

Along with the building itself and Lincoln Square park area opposite, with its new playground and old Moreton Bay figs, the location offered free transport for students under 18 via the recently opened Parkville station, and the potential to utilise nearby institutions like the Melbourne Museum and State Library for “adult-type learning”.

“There’s so much activation of learning that you can have in the local community by being so central,” Mr Mackinnon said.

But the school also planned to give back.

“We want to come into that space and really contribute back to community,” he said.

“It’s not just an exercise of us taking space, but actually about participating in the vibrancy of Carlton and Melbourne because it’s an amazing city to be in.”

The move would mean a doubling of capacity for year 9 to 12 students, who will occupy the site – from 25 to 50 per year level, Mr Mackinnon said.

While the campus won’t be opening its doors for another two years, students would be coming there from February to take part in a design consultation process – something that was indicative of the school’s collaborative approach.

For those interested in finding out more, the principal said Preshil would be holding open days at the Carlton building from March.

Joining the school’s progressive community will set families back $30,000-plus a year per student. •