Red Cross House
Former Hoffnung House
153-159 Clarence Street, Sydney
1937-39 Samuel Lipson with Robertson,
Marks Ft McCredie
1970—72 Lipson, Kaad and Fatheringtan
(remodelling for Red Cross)
GC, v; A
The wholesale and retailing company S Hoffnung and Co. was well established in Sydney before it built its new flagship headquarters building in the Clarence Street warehousing district.

Samuel Lipson (1901—1 996) was one of only a handful of architects in Sydney devoted to modernism, designing car showrooms (Hastings Deering, Packard) and office buildings. This ‘between the wars’ building was Lipson’s largest and most important high-rise commission, in which he was assisted by the well-established firm of Robertson Et Marks.

The unbroken line of windows was made possible by setting the heavy mushroom-shaped columns just inside the line of the exterior, as at Hastings Deering (447). A central chevron- shaped window, angled at 45 degrees to the street, gives a strong vertical treatment to the Clarence Street elevation.

Taken from:Sydney architecture / Jahn, Graham. Published 1997.