Completed during the Gold Rush when Melbourne was the richest city in the world, the historic Rialto building was commissioned by Patrick McCaughan, a wealthy Melbourne businessman, and designed in the neo-gothic style by celebrated architect William Pitt.
Next door, the Winfield building housed the offices that serviced the wool and wheat stores in the late 1800s. Designed by architects Richard Speight Jr. and Charles D’Ebro, the Australian National Trust lists it as “an example of the brick Romanesque style from the closing phase of the gold boom”.
The bluestone cobbled laneways between the Rialto and Winfield buildings, which once echoed with the clatter of horse hoofs as carts carried wool and wheat to the wharves, still remains untouched under our floorboards.
Both the Rialto and Winfield buildings were designed to facilitate the new style of commercial enterprise emerging at the time. They offered tenants the very latest in modern technology, with street-level shopfronts, overhead offices and basement warehouse space.
Named after the commercial district in medieval Venice, the Rialto building was one of the finest examples of 19th century Gothic architecture and a symbol of commercial modernity. With a unique adjoining laneway connecting them, the Rialto and Winfield buildings were perfectly designed for the new commercial centre of Melbourne.
These magnificent buildings were transformed by InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, with our hotel opening in December 2008.
The Rialto building is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and protected by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria).