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The medium was the message for a Crawford St building, writes David Murray.

The Dunedin building industry enjoyed a brief period of reinvigoration between the Great Depression and World War 2.

Many big businesses were keen to project an image of vitality and modernity, and the clean lines of the Milburn Lime and Cement Co's new head office in Crawford St certainly did that, while through its very fabric the building was a showpiece for the company's chief product.

Concrete construction revolutionised the building industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the Milburn company was largely built on its rapid development.

The firm was founded in 1888, when a syndicate of businessmen acquired the assets of James McDonald, including established lime works at Milburn and a small cement works at Walton Park.

The new company's principal cement works were at Pelichet Bay, from 1890 to 1929, and then at Burnside from 1929 to 1988.

Milburn took over many smaller businesses and became one of Otago's largest companies. In 1937, it commissioned the architects Salmond and Salmond to design a two-storey head office building in Crawford St.

Crawford St lies on land reclaimed in the 1860s and 1870s, and extrapolates the original street plan of Charles Kettle.

As with Filleul St, there is a story that it was named after someone who happened to be in the surveyor's office on the day a name was needed, although that could be a simplistic or inaccurate tale.

In this case the man was George Crawford, an early European settler who arrived on the Philip Laing in 1848.

From 1869 to 1935 the site of the Milburn building was owned by Briscoe and Co, which established a yard and later single-storey stores on the site, used in conjunction with operations on neighbouring properties.

The partner in Salmond and Salmond responsible for the design was Arthur Louis Salmond (1906-94), son of practice founder James Louis Salmond.

He had been in the first intake of full-time students at the Auckland University School of Architecture in 1926, and after completing his thesis requirement from Dunedin undertook further study in London, before returning to Dunedin to join his father's practice in 1933.

He was quick to employ modernist methods and style, notably in a private house for T. K. Sidey in Tolcarne Ave.

His design for the Milburn building a few years later sits in striking contrast with the adjoining warehouse on the Police St corner, designed by his father 30 years before.

Tenders for construction closed in April 1937, but the lowest received (£14,990) was considered too high, so plans were modified and in June W. H. Naylor Ltd was contracted to build the premises at a cost of £10,635.

The building was ready for occupation by July 1938.

There was warehouse storage on the ground floor with dual vehicle entrances to both Crawford and Bond Sts, allowing large vehicles to drive right through.

Administrative offices were on the first floor, where a further three suites of offices were let out.

In many ways the building was conventional - essentially a box with hipped roofs behind its parapets - but the Moderne facades were strikingly different from almost anything else in the city at the time, even if the nature of the site gave little scope for some of the streamlining effects and variations of form associated with this style.

Unusual features were glass bricks, which let filtered light into the stairwell facing Crawford St, as well as adding visual interest to the exterior.

The building was one of the first in New Zealand to use them.

The Evening Star reported that they had previously been used in one private residence in Dunedin, and that they were also to be incorporated in the rebuilding of the Dunedin Savings Bank in Dowling St (another Salmond and Salmond project).

This slightly pre-dated the first major use in Auckland: extensive additions to the Chief Post Office made in 1938.

Glass blocks were used in the 19th century, but their practicality as a building material was advanced markedly by Friedrich Keppler who, in 1907, patented a system for building walls of prismatic bricks within reinforced concrete frameworks.

The architects Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier were among the early adopters of glass bricks, and they were famously used in the latter's Maison de Verre of 1928-32.

Mass manufacture only occurred after the Owen-Illinois Glass Co, of Chicago, introduced the first pressed-glass blocks in 1932, and promoted them at the Chicago World's Fair of 1933.

In 1935, the company brought out Insulux, the first widely used hollow glass brick, and other American manufacturers soon followed with similar products.

From 1936, Insulux bricks were produced in Australia under the Agee brand by Australian Window Glass Pty Ltd, and they found extensive use almost immediately.

The Milburn building used the Australian bricks, which were imported through local agents Paterson and Barr.

The building was constructed on a floating foundation with a concrete base, due to the reclaimed nature of the land.

The concrete structure above was reinforced with steel rods, and the bluestone aggregate given a Snowcrete white cement finish, tinted to a cream colour.

On the Crawford St elevation the company name was set back into the plaster and flanked by a simple ornamental frieze, with additional touches of colour (red or green) used sparingly to suit the unfussy design.

Mosaic and other tiles in the foyer were green and gold in colour, complementing the finish of the masonry.

A simpler facade for Bond St featured the company name prominently in relief lettering, and, as on the other elevation, the windows were steel-framed with slender profiles. Skylights were installed in the roof, which was covered with Fibrolite corrugated asbestos sheets.

The interior was simply fitted out, with rimu skirtings and internal doors, and a main reception counter of Oregon with a kauri top.

Early tenants in the building included Donaghy's Rope and Twine Co, Otago Fruit and Produce, the Ewing Phosphate Co (owned by Milburn), and the Otago-Southland Manufacturers' Association.

In 1963, Milburn merged with the New Zealand Cement Co to form New Zealand Cement Holdings Ltd.

The head office remained in Dunedin until 1974, when it moved to Christchurch and the company vacated the Crawford St building.

New Zealand Cement Holdings became Milburn New Zealand in 1988 and now trades as Holcim New Zealand Ltd.

In 1974, the building became the office of the large textile firm Mosgiel Ltd, which remained until the company collapsed in 1980.

The old vehicle entrances have long been closed and those on Crawford St converted to shop fronts. In historical terms, the building still captures some of the style and spirit of its age, and stands as a monument of concrete, to concrete.

• For more from David Murray go to builtindunedin.com.