User:Ryantsr

The Empire building was home to commercial, retail arcade with offices and showrooms over, in the city of Melbourne, Australia. It stands beside the Mutual Store building on the corner of Flinders Street and Degraves Street, opposite Flinders Street Station]. The Empire Building and Mutual Store were redeveloped into a residential complex, completed in 2006.

History
Originally known as the Empire Arcade, the building was designed by Nahum Barnet and constructed in 1906 . It housed a variety of different programs, including retail and offices. It underwent a range of modifications over the years. These included the creation of entries to the adjacent buildings through the party wall, threconfiguration of entries and internal circulation, and the addition of modern canopies . The Empire Arcade was damaged by a carbon monoxide fire in 1923, resulting in losses exceeding at £70,000 but it was quickly rebuilt in the following years , 5. The Mutual Store and the Empire Building were redeveloped by the developer Baycrown and architects ClarkeHopkinsClarke, beginning in 2001. The redevelopment was finished in 2006. Because of the poor state of the building’s façade, the developer contracted a specialist firm to rebuild the mouldings, urns, and other features. This redevelopment required the balancing of heritage guidelines, commercial imperatives and the City of Melbourne Planning Scheme. Council required the retention of the street canopies to Flinders Street to provide continuous street shelter for pedestrians and to create an active edge to both Flinders and Degraves Street.

Architecture
Barnet was a flexible architect who built in many different styles. Built in the Edwardian Period, the Empire Building is a good example of Federation architecture in the Federation Free Classical style. Key identifying features of this style are the exaggerated keystone and voussoir around the central arched window. The shape of the window itself suggesting a Romanesque influence to Barnet's eclectic design. The rusticated brickwork, Ionic colonnade and exaggerated balconies are other features that place the building is this category. Many of the other features appear to be Neo-Classical or Italianate, such as the balustrade on the roof and the block-work on the bottom half of the building, which gives it a sense of weight. Originally, the program of the building was split between office and retail space. The ground floor housed a retail arcade and the top three floors were offices. The building was damaged in a fire in 1928 and was subsequently repaired and rebuilt. In 2001, construction started on the combined redevelopment of the Empire Building and the Mutual Store. Designed by ClarkeHopkinsClarke Architects, the addition to the Empire Building is a 14 storey setback tower. Additionally, the original sandy yellow colour of the building was painted over in grey. Retail spaces still take up the entirety of the ground floor, albeit no longer in an arcade format. The rest of the project is given over to small to medium sized apartments.