It was once considered of little architectural significance and was even briefly slated for demolition.
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But, like many of Canberra's heritage buildings, the old Patent Office on Kings Avenue has finally been given its due, with a $37million facelift, a new name and a blessing from the Prime Minister.
Julia Gillard described yesterday the new Office of National Assessments headquarters as one of Canberra's most gracious buildings, and officially renamed it the Robert Marsden Hope Building.
The new name - the third official name since the building opened in 1941 - is in recognition of the former NSW Supreme Court judge and royal commissioner, whose recommendations in the 1970s led to the creation of the Office of National Assessments.
Hope was also committed to Australia's heritage, chosen by the Whitlam government to chair its Committee of Inquiry into the National Estate from 1972-1974, and was later the first chair of the council of the NSW Heritage Commission.
His daughter, former press gallery journalist Deborah Hope, said that although an unpretentious man who never sought high office, Hope would have been honoured to have his name attached to ''this immaculately restored heritage building''. In the 70 years since it opened, the building has housed several organisations and maintained its art-deco faade as the city took shape around it.
It was one of the first buildings erected in the Parliamentary Triangle, and apart from the Patent Office, it also housed the British High Commission in the east wing on the upper floor, while the Federal Police and the local branch of what would become ASIO took up the upper part of the west wing.
The building also housed the ACT Supreme Court, which held regular sittings in the Patent Office until 1963, and there is still a cell for defendants, complete with forbidding black iron gates, in the basement.
The Patent Office moved to Woden in 1971 and the building lay in a semi-derelict state - and was almost demolished after a report by the National Capital Development Commission on other potential uses for the building.
''Although no amount of expenditure would bring it up to modern office standards, and aesthetically the building can hardly claim architectural significance, it could be committed to a further 20 years of life,'' the report said.
Eventually, the building was completely refurbished for the Attorney-General's Department, which added a concrete annex.
The building was renamed the Robert Garran Offices and received a 1980s-style office fit-out, but many of the original architectural details, including the faade, remained untouched.
Attorney-General's moved to new premises in 2009, and the Office of National Assessment, based in Russell and casting about for new offices to house its growing staff, jumped at the chance to move in.
But first, the building needed to undergo significant renovations, as well as a $17million security overlay to meet the high-security requirements of the new tenants.
Assistant director-general of the Atlantic branch, Marcel Dimo, said that the renovation process had gone remarkably smoothly, allowing the staff to move in without delay in October.
''It's gone really well. We've been able to preserve the heritage values that we wanted while still creating a modern building with all the latest state of the art equipment. As an intelligence organisation, that's very important,'' he said.