ICI House
Bates Smart & McCutcheon · Melbourne, Australia · 1958
ICI House transformed Melbourne’s skyline when it became the city’s first major fully glazed office skyscraper and the first building to exceed the long-standing height limit. Bates Smart & McCutcheon used a rectilinear reinforced-concrete frame wrapped in a disciplined curtain wall, producing an unmistakably International Style corporate tower. Its completion in 1958 helped normalize high-rise commercial construction in Australian city centers. The building is now heritage listed as an important marker of post-war technological ambition, planning change and modern corporate identity.