1 Treasury Place, Government building in Melbourne, Australia

1 Treasury Place is a five-level government office complex in Melbourne, designed by Barry Patten of Yuncken Freeman Architects in the International Style. Its rectangular form has a central square tower linked by walkways to an outer shell, and its off-grey precast concrete facade forms a repeating grid of chamfered window cutouts. The building is elevated on square concrete columns.

Barry Patten won an architectural competition in 1962 to design this International Style building, which opened in the mid-1960s as part of the Treasury Reserve development. The project marked a period when contemporary design principles were being adopted for Australian government architecture.

The three Yuncken Freeman buildings were designed as a coordinated modernist group after a 1962 competition that asked for "soaring wonderment". Their austere concrete grids were meant to contrast with the 19th-century Treasury buildings, and the window pattern of 1 Treasury Place echoes the Old Treasury Building next door.

The building sits in central Melbourne and is easy to reach by public transportation, though it mainly serves government staff and officials so interior access is typically restricted. You can walk around the exterior at any time to view the architectural style and see how it fits among nearby government buildings.

The design employs load-bearing precast panels arranged in a grid pattern that visually echoes the historic Old Treasury Building next door. This clever choice shows how the new structure deliberately converses with the original building through its exterior skin.