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Tramways and Electrical Substations

During his years as Brisbane’s city architect and town planner, Frank Costello was put in charge of controlling the development of Brisbane and took on the responsibilities to help it advance to a unified city plan. Whilst designing public toilets, playgrounds and the previously mentioned bomb shelters, Costello is best known for his incorporated tramway and electrical substations in the late 1940’s. In this post war period, Costello had the chance to exploit the knowledge he had attained overseas that saw a modernist approach taken from interwar functionalist architecture. Of these substations he designed, including ones at Hamilton (1947) and Newmarket (1948), his most excellent were those at Eagle Farm and Ashgrove.

After the war there was an increased demand for electricity and transportation as well as a lack of materials and labour. To overcome these problems, like a lot of post war architecture, Costello designed these stations so their facilities were combined in a cost effective and functional way. The detailing and proportions of these two buildings make them excellent examples of the influence Costello had from Dutch modernist, Willem Dudok (Hilversum, Netherlands) in his push for interwar functionalism of basic geometry and asymmetrical layouts.

The simple detailing of these buildings is typical of the style with key attention to the brick patterns that surround the windows as well as the attentively placed vents and concrete slab around the parapet. Keeping to the style of simple geometry, both these buildings have many elements of vertical and horizontal proportions, these include; a flat roof with an extended parapet, overemphasis of the height of the windows and central tower as well as the rhythmically placed windows along the facades. All these components are neatly placed around a central functional tower in an asymmetrical layout. Like the work of Dudok, Costello has constructed his buildings with expressed concrete frames with reinforced cantilevered concrete hoods over the entrance.

Eagle Farm Pumping Station
The eagle Farm pumping station was designed and constructed in 1947 as a combined tramway and electrical substation. The pumping station is positioned on the corner of Kingsford Smith Drive and the Southern Cross Way, Eagle Farm and sits on the border of the industrial and residential areas. It is made out of coloured brickwork with simple geometric forms constructed around an exposed concrete frame. Like other interstate substations, the interwar development of electricity and transport saw these buildings designed as an apparent illustration of civic pride and progress. From the image above you can see the enlarged central functional tower around which the station is built. The original building is in good condition with only one visible external addition. At the start of 2013, ENERGEX started working on the substation to increase electricity flow to the Australian Trade Coast north of the Brisbane River. The $13.2M upgrade will see a new building housing and two underground cables.

Ashgrove Substation
The Ashgrove substation was designed in 1948, the year following the construction of the Eagle Farm station and similarly was designed as a combined transport department and department of electricity substation. It sits at 240 Waterworks Rd, Ashgrove and is positioned right next to Highpoint Plaza, a complex constructed around the substation. Like Eagle Farm, the building is constructed with the same brickwork and layout. Large windows flank the sides whilst small windows and vents are placed systematically below the parapet. The building is still in its original entirety with no visible external additions or alterations. During mid 2012, ENERGEX commenced earthworks on the inside of the substation. These works upgraded the electrical equipment to improve the reliability of supply to surrounding areas.