Commercial Union Insurance

This hard building sits fairly anonymously on Mosley Street, as ones gaze is drawn by the City Art Gallery next door. A simple, elegant, modern building with a recessed single story arcade to Moseley Street, referred to by Tom Jefferies as an attempt to 'fuse Mannerist Classicism and Modernism'. The lower storey meets the street line as it turns the corner into Nicholas Street, and is again recessed to neatly define the rear service area, the main office building floats above this podium device. The use of roach limestone to clad the entire building lends an air of quality and the consistent but alternating rhythm of the fenestration provides visual relief and distinguishes this scheme from other modular facades in the city’s commercial developments of the era.