William Pitt (architect) - Architect Career

Architect Career

Pitt began his architecture career as an understudy in 1875.

He began his own architectural practice in 1879 and got his first break with the major commission for the Melbourne Coffee Palace (1879) (once located on Bourke Street between Swanton and Russell) which he was awarded as first prize of an architectural competition.

In 1880, Pitt was again awarded first prize for his design of Queens Bridge over the Yarra River.

These buildings and the Premier Permanent Building Society on Collins Street showed an early preference for classically inspired styles.

He received an award for his design of the Gordon House apartments which he designed in 1883 (1884) in Little Bourke Street. It was the first of his designs to flirt with the gothic style.

Pitt began to work in theatres in the mid 1880s, with his greatest, the Princess Theatre (1886) in the Second Empire style, in Spring Street being one of the few to have survived. His concept for the theatre's sliding roof was a world first.

In 1887, Pitt was appointed vice-president of the Victorian Institute of Architects. It was during this time that the size of his projects significantly increased and he was given the freedom to experiment with eclecticism and in particular the gothic style. It followed that his largest commission and most ambitious design was the Federal Coffee Palace at the south-west corner of King Street and Collins Street. While he received a second prize for his design, he was allowed to collaborate with the winners, Ellerker & Kilburn and the result was a composite design. The massive and outlandish building had references to numerous architectural styles and was both hailed and criticised for its extraordinary ebullience. Although Pitt was a joint architect, many attribute the design to him, feeling that his ideas had a dominant influence. The building came to epitomise the speculative land boom which was 'Marvellous Melbourne' of the late 1880s and it was completed in 1888.

Pitt's extensive work in Gothic revival featured some surviving examples in the Venetian Gothic idiom. The Olderfleet (1888) the nearby Old Stock Exchange (1888) and Rialto Buildings (1889) in Collins Street are on the Victorian Heritage Register. His polychromatic design of the 3 storey Denton Hat Mills (1888) in Abbotsford, Victoria began his specialisation in warehouse architecture. He was also credited with the design of Brunswick Town Hall in 1889.

In 1890, the Venetian gothic Old Safe Deposit Building on Queen Street was to follow, and the Markilles Hotel on Flinders Street. Also Collendida Homestead at Corowa NSW for Henry Hay Esq.

Pitt suffered a massive financial setback during the financial crisis of 1890, during which he declared bankruptcy. Nevertheless, he was made commissioner Melbourne Board of Works 1891.

Tower House (1891), a fanciful combination of Tudor, Queen Anne and Mannerist styles was once a landmark on the corners of Spring and Flinders Streets.

In 1892, he showed his passionate support for the Collingwood Football Club by designing a grandstand for Victoria Park for free.

He followed with the distinctively castellated design of the Victoria Brewery (1896) on Victoria Parade in East Melbourne.

• Premier Permanent Building Society 1882. later demolished

• Melbourne Coffee Palace in 1882. later demolished

• The Federal Coffee Palace, one of Pitt's most ambitious designs, was demolished in 1972.

• Victoria Brewery

• Olderfleet buildings

• Princess' Theatre, designed by William Pitt and restored in the 1980s

• St Kilda Town Hall

• Old Safe Deposit Building

• Old Rialto Building

• Former Melbourne Stock Exchange

• The Denton Hat Mills

• Sir Charles Hotham Hotel

• Avalon Mansion, a very rare Pitt residential, derelict in 2008 and with a demolition permit for residential hi-rise. This building will be demolished in February 2011.

• The former Bryant and May factory, one of Pitt's later works