Repost this day 2019: I don’t hate the #SmithAndCo redevelopment in #SmithStreetCollingwood; the #streetscape is appropriately varied rather than monolithic, though it is a bit of a mess really, with taller bits justified by the long lost #FoyAndGibson store. However they should never have got a permit to demolish and rebuild the Victorian facade - … Continue reading Fake facadism on Smith Street →

Repost this day 2017 (and nothing at all has happened since): #wintersun in #SpencerStreet on the rather gaudily painted former McCaughans #CoffeePalace, built 1891, and the 1913 #CharlesHothanHotel beyond, both by the prolific #WilliamPitt (21 years apart). Both #heritagelisted in 2013, both sold recently, but sadly might just mean facades with towers behind / a … Continue reading McCaughans Coffee Palace →

Posted 4 March 2021: More #NorthCaulfield #midcenturymodernhomes up for #heritagelisting - a row of four at 43-49 #AroonaRoad. I’ve posted them right to left, starting with one I snapped in 2019 (but streetview is better), by #HolgarAndHolgar, 1971, love that whacky sculpted pillar. The row goes the Holgars, then Ernest Fooks, then Holgars and Fooks … Continue reading Modernist Caulfield protected (almost) →

Posted 9 March 2021: Since I totally neglected to celebrate #InternationalWomensDay yesterday, here’s something by our first female architect #MarionMahonyGriffin; the interiors of the #CapitolTheatreMelbourne are sometimes ascribed to her alone, but there’s no evidence Walter didn’t help (or rather it was a collaboration), and after all she wasn’t an interior designer, she was a … Continue reading Marion Mahoney Griffin →

Another #LostModernism office block - Pearl Assurance, cnr Bourke & Queen Street was completed in 1961, and designed by #LeslieMPerrott (later most famous for the Gas & Fuel towers). Nice but not the most outstanding of the mid century curtain wall office blocks. Unusually big and striking signage, and there was also a pearl on … Continue reading Lost (but not) Modernism →

Repost this day 2019: The most famous thing in #DrummondStreetCarlton : “Although once known as the old 'Weather Bureau', the building never served that purpose.” It was just a house, but a quirky one ! Built 1866. Also known A’s ‘Cinnabar’. Very unusual cantilevered balcony, and that cute tower topped by a #weathercock (originally an … Continue reading (Not) Old Weather Bureau Carlton →

A bit of industrial #facadism I posted this day in 2014! Young Street Fitzroy. And #streetview has it a bit earlier, just a wall (and theres a matching one behind in Kent Street). Makes me think of the olden days when people actually converted factories into houses, very spacious, with timber trusses etc, instead of … Continue reading Industrial facadism in Fitzroy →

Repost this day 2019: Some #traminfrastructure : this is the ‘Grand Union’ #tramcrossing at the corner of #HawthornRoad and #BalaclavaRoad in #NorthCaulfield. Just an ordinary intersection, but when the #PrahranandMalvernTramwaysTrust was building the electric tram network in the south east burbs in the 1910s, they decided they needed to be able to turn #trams in … Continue reading Grand Union Junction →

Repost this day 2018: HarleyHouse, a ‘chambers’ built for the medical profession (named after the once famous medical street in London #HarleySteeet), 1923, in a broadly #CommercialPalazzo form by #SydneySmithOggandSerpell. Said to have Greek and Egyptian motifs, but I don’t see them - I see Georgianish arches, #ChicagoSchool #bayWindows, a giant stylised classical #cornice, in … Continue reading Harley House, 1923 →

Recording #crapitecture since 2013. Corner of Lygon and Brunswick Road. There are now equal sized but slightly more attractive blocks on two of the other three corners, and another coming on the last. I’m not bothering to look up architects.