State Savings Bank Building

The State Savings Bank building: main façade on Martin Place

The State Savings Bank Building is a large bank building situated at 48 Martin Place, Sydney. It was built in 1928 after designs by Ross and Rowe. After several decades of use by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, including as its headquarters from 1984, it was purchased by financial services company Macquarie Bank in 2012, refurbished and now serves as Macqurie's global headquarters.[1]

Description and history

The building was originally constructed as the headquarters of the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales. It was subsequently owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It has a distinctive terracotta and pink granite façade in the Beaux-Arts style. The interior features large scagliola columns, extensive use of marble, and a plaster and pressed metal ceiling. The exterior features four massive Ionic columns and detail in pink glazed ceramic tiles. The building's square trading hall was originally one of the largest in the world. A stately vault is housed in the basement.

The main portal, opening onto Martin Place, features a unique bronze door which descends into the floor when opened. The building has been described as "a masterpiece of civic scale and precise detail."[2] It has a federal heritage listing.[3]

The building was purchased by Australian financial services company Macquarie Bank in March 2012 along with an adjoining building, with suggestions that the State Savings Bank building itself might be refurbished and on-sold.[4] Instead, Macquarie refurbished the building and it now serves as the company's global headquarters. In the ground floor banking hall, Macquarie installed two circular glass lifts with the lift shaft penetrating the ceiling. A widened atrium penetrates the office floors above, and the roof has been renovated with the addition of a large glass elliptical dome.[1]

Money boxes

After its purchase by the Commonwealth Bank in 1931, the image of the building was sometimes used on money boxes issued by the Commonwealth Bank to children. The money boxes were rectangular shape, roughly reflecting the dimensions of the bank building, and printed with the building's exterior. As a result, it is sometimes referred to as the "money box building" (although more often that nickname refers to the Commonwealth Trading Bank Building, on the corner of Pitt Street and Martin Place, which had been depicted on money boxes since 1922 and remained the image on the majority of money boxes).[5]

The State Savings Bank building during construction. 
The State Savings Bank building on completion. 
A close-up of the building's distinctive terracotta and pink granite façade. 
Exterior detail and signage 
The State Savings Bank building viewed from Castlereagh Street 

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Macqurie - Office Guide - 50 Martin Place
  2. ↑ A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture, Apperly (Angus and Robertson) 1994, p.162
  3. ↑ The Heritage of Australia, Macmillan Company, 1981, p.2/106
  4. ↑ "Macquarie Group buys building from Commonwealth Bank". The Australian. 29 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "A telling tale of two tin moneyboxes", Sydney Morning Herald 26 September 2012
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Coordinates: 33°52′03″S 151°12′37″E / 33.867547°S 151.210155°E / -33.867547; 151.210155

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