Banking on Modernism: Dr H.C. (Nugget) Coombs and the Institutional Architecture of the Reserve Bank of Australia

Abstract

Australia’s central banking systems were established in 1911 as part of the functions of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The Bank’s central banking role and powers gradually evolved over the next four decades and in 1959 the central banking functions of the Commonwealth Bank were separated from its commercial activities with the Reserve Bank Act.

On 14 January 1960, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) opened for business with Dr H.C. (Nugget) Coombs as its first Governor. The establishment of the RBA as a separate entity marked a new phase in the institutional setting of the banking sector in Australia and was consolidated by the construction of eight purpose-built offices to accommodate its operations in every Australian state and territory. Through its architecture, interior design, furniture, artworks and graphic identity, the new RBA offices sought to demonstrate the changing role and functions of Australia’s new central bank, engaging with modernism, both locally and internationally.

The new buildings reflected Coombs’ ideal of design as an expression of functional elegance and national character as well as his conviction that contemporary design could better reflect the changing institutional character of the banking sector and its relationship to the community it served. The new offices also reflected a post-war cultural shift within the banking industry internationally, away from the traditional architectural emphasis on strength and solidity to a focus on trust, openness and transparency. This paper will examine the vision, role and influence of Coombs in the conception of the Reserve Bank during his governorship between 1960 and 1968, focussing on the way his ideals and values were translated through its new institutional architecture in relation to both the international and local architectural context.

Notes

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3. Forrest Capie, The Future of Central Banking: The Tercentenary Symposium of the Bank of England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 6.

4. Capie, The Future of Central Banking, 3.

5. H.C. Coombs, Trial Balance (South Melbourne: The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd, 1981), 232.

6. Tim Rowse, Nugget Coombs: A Reforming Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

7. David Meredith and Barrie Dyster, Australia in the Global Economy: Continuity and Change (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 205.

8. H.C. Coombs quoted in Rowse, Nugget Coombs, 254.

9. H.C. Coombs, “Foreword” in The Reserve Bank of Australia Collection (Sydney: The Reserve Bank of Australia, 1992), 9.

10. The Reserve Bank of Australia Collection, 21–59.

11. “Banks Paintings on View,” Currency, September, 1961: 20.

12. Rowse, Nugget Coombs, 260–261.

13. Rowse, Nugget Coombs, 263.

14. “Antipodean Manifesto, 1959” in Ann Stephen, Andrew McNamara and Philip Goad, Modernism & Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture 1917–1967 (Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press, 2006), 695.

15. H.C. Coombs, “A Message from the Governor,” Currency, March (1960): unpaginated.

16. Reserve Bank of Australia: Functions and Operations (Sydney: Reserve Bank of Australia, 1987), 1.

17. Rowse, Nugget Coombs, 263.

18. J.M. Garland, “Proposed Headquarters Sydney for The Reserve Bank of Australia,” Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-P-1, 2.

19. Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-a-7-2.

20. Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-a-1.

21. Ibid.

22. NBRS + Partners, Heritage Management Plan Reserve Bank of Australia Head Office Building 65 Martin Place, July 2012, accessed 8 February 2015, http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/consultations/201207-ho-cn-heritage-mgmt-plans/pdf/heritage-mgmt-plan-ho-jul-2012.pdf, 38.

23. Garland, “Proposed Headquarters Sydney,” Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-P-1, 1.

24. “Reserve Bank of Australia,” Architecture in Australia, September, 1966: 72–77.

25. NBRS + Partners, Heritage Management Plan, 50.

26. NBRS + Partners, Heritage Management Plan, 31.

27. “Bank ‘Rajah’ Stays Silent,” Daily Mirror, March 12, 1965: 7.

28. “Quiet Corridors of Power Above Martin Place,” Australian Financial Review, March 11, 1965: 2.

29. See footnote 27.

30. Cross-Section, August, 1965: unpaginated.

31. Eric Martin & Associates, Reserve Bank of Australia (Canberra Branch) Heritage Management Plan, March 2012, accessed 8 February 2015, http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/consultations/201207-ho-cn-heritage-mgmt-plans/pdf/heritage-mgmt-plan-cn-mar-2012.pdf.

32. “Draft Press Statement for Canberra Press and A.B.C,” Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-a-958.

33. See footnote 31.

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35. “Canberra Branch of the Reserve Bank of Australia,” Architecture in Australia, September, 1962: 117.

36. “New-Style Bank,” The Herald, 25 May 1962. Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-a-958.

37. See footnote 5.

38. Cross-Section, November, 1968: unpaginated.

39. Cross-Section, November, 1968: unpaginated.

40. Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-a-509.

41. Peter Webber, The Design of Sydney: Three Decades of Change in the City Centre (Sydney: The Law Book Company, 1988), 80.

42. NBRS + Partners, Heritage Management Plan, 36.

43. Cross-Section, October, 1957: unpaginated.

44. NBRS + Partners, Heritage Management Plan, 49.

45. NBRS + Partners, Heritage Management Plan, 36.

46. Jennifer Taylor, Tall Buildings Australian Business Going Up: 1945–70 (Port Melbourne: Architecture Media, 2001), 142.

47. See footnote 23.

48. Reserve Bank of Australia Sydney promotional brochure (Sydney: Reserve Bank of Australia), unpaginated.

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50. See footnote 5.

51. NBRS + Partners, Heritage Management Plan.

52. NBRS + Partners, Heritage Management Plan, 44.

53. Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-a-88-1.

54. Eric Martin & Associates, Reserve Bank of Australia.

55. Reserve Bank of Australia Melbourne promotional brochure, unpaginated.

56. Taylor, Tall Buildings Australian.

57. Garland, “Proposed Headquarters Sydney,” Record in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Australia, RBA SRP-P-1, 4.

58. Edwin Heathcote, Bank Builders (Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2000), 15.

59. J. Stein and C. Levine, Money Matters: A Critical Look at Bank Architecture (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990), 22–23.

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62. Frandsen et al., “Money Reloaded.”

63. “Manufacturer’s Trust Company Builds Conversation Piece on Fifth Avenue,” Architectural Record 116, no. 5, November (1954): 150.

64. Frandsen et al., “Money Reloaded,” 3.

65. Ibid.

66. Cross-Section, October, 1956: unpaginated.

67. Cross-Section, October, 1959: unpaginated.

68. Cross-Section, May, 1955: unpaginated.

69. Cross-Section, July, 1953: unpaginated.

70. Cross-Section, July, 1964: unpaginated.

71. Cross-Section, October, 1958: unpaginated.

72. “The New Approach to Bank Architecture,” Architecture in Australia, January–March (1954): 15.

73. Cross-Section, July, 1966: unpaginated.

74. Cross-Section, May, 1964: unpaginated.

75. Cross-Section, December, 1952: unpaginated.

76. Cross-Section, December, 1959: unpaginated.

77. Cross-Section, January, 1952: unpaginated.

78. Cross-Section, July, 1958: unpaginated.

79. Igea Troiani, “Deserved Exposure: Stuart McIntosh’s Architecture, 1953–63,” Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand 16, no. 2 (2012): 31.

80. “Balgowlah Branch, ES & A NSW,” Architecture and Arts, November, 1955: 29.

81. Cross-Section, June, 1955: unpaginated.

82. “Rural Industries Bank W.A. uses Island Strongroom as Design and Structural Feature,” Architecture and Arts, November, 1966: 33.

83. Cross-Section, March, 1957: unpaginated.

84. Cross-Section, April, 1960: unpaginated.

85. “Buildings for Business and Government on View at Museum”, accessed May 4, 2015, https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/2159/releases/MOMA_1957_0017.pdf.

86. See Jose Luis Sert, Fernand Leger, and Sigfried Gideon “Nine Points on Monumentality,” Phillip Johnson, “The Seven Crutches of Modern Architecture” and Oscar Niemeyer, “Form and Function in Architecture” in Architecture Culture 1943–1968, ed. Joan Ockman (New York: Rizzoli International Publications Inc, 1993) and Paul Zucker ed., New Architecture and City Planning (New York: Philosophical Library, 1944).

87. H.C. Coombs quoted in “Planned for Progress” brochure celebrating the 50th anniversary of the RBA (Sydney: Reserve Bank of Australia, 2010), unpaginated.

88. Jennifer Taylor, Australian Architecture Since 1960 (Red Hill ACT: Royal Australian Institute of Architects, 1990), 20.

89. See footnote 5.

90. “AA Interview: Charles Jencks,” Architecture in Australia, February, 1975: 50–59.