My Tasmania
by Leo Scofield
The Mercury, Saturday Magazine 13 November 2010
EXCERPT:
It would be interesting to know just how many members the group known as Save 10 Murray St has. I am all for preserving important buildings of any period, but it seems to me that 10 Murray ranks about 99th on the list of top 100 threatened buildings in Tasmania. That it’s a rare example of a 1950s modernist building is unarguable. But whether it’s an important building is another matter.
Its fans claim that it’s the best Tasmanian example of an office high-rise of this period is like saying Auschwitz is the best example of a Polish concentration camp. It’s not a dog but it’s transcendently undistinguished.
And if, as the chairman of the Heritage Council says, more than two thousand buildings need assessing, there are more important sites to be considered.
Richard Francis Jones, the man in charge of replacing this over-hyped building with something classier, it one of the most highly regarded architects practising in Australia.
Save 10 Murray 