Looking at this photo, I notice that I had a substantial involvement in all three of these buildings. On the left is the Sun Alliance Building, in the background the Telecom Building and on the right the Grenfell Centre Building.
At one time the Grenfell Centre was the tallest office building in Adelaide. This sheer rectangular black shaft (fondly known as the ‘black stump’) was the combined efforts of two architectural practices, one who did the documentation (Hodgkinson and Matthews) and the other who did the contract administration and site supervision (Cheesman, Doley, Neighbour and Raffen). My role as an Associate of Cheesman Doley was that of principal architect for the day–to–day job administration and site supervision aided of course by my team.
Regrettably this high-rise project for the CBD of Adelaide represented an unfulfilling period of my architectural career.
Toughened glass panels began to shatter on hot days not unlike car windscreens when hit by a stone. The remedy was firstly to place an overhead apron of safety mesh all around the base of the building and then wait for the defective panels to exhaust themselves over several seasons. Eventually the problem came to an end and the supplier paid for all defective panels.