24 June 2019
Believe it or not these terraces were nearly demolished in 1999, only saved after big protests by the @nationaltrustvic, residents and unions – #MelbourneUniversity announced plans to demolish most of the terraces in Barry Street on the west side of #UniversitySquare in 1998 in order to build three modern things to house their proposed private university arm, which then Vice Chancellor Alan Gilbert thought would raise millions, and the Kennett State Government gave it a permit ! It was only after a lot of protests and meetings (many of which I went to) that a compromise was reached, demolishing 2, but keeping the front 2 rooms of the northern ones, and the first ‘10m’ of the southern ones – which turned out to be from the front fence, so only 1 room kept, which at the time was shocking, but now seems very generous. When the private uni opened, it attracted few students, and was closed in 2005 with losses of $20mill, not counting building costs. The #terracehouse in the photo turned out much nicer after restoration, pretty sure it didn’t have a verandah at all before, not sure where the evidence for this came from, but it’s 1860s and quite unusual. Had to use memory and newspapers.com for this, 1999 is a bit of an internet news black hole.
The building on Grattan Street eventually was named after Allan Gilbert, and apparently includes solar cells in the facade (updater it was meant to but doesn’t).
5 October 2014:
The strange #heritagecompromise at the southern end of Barry Street, University Square, #southcarlton. The fronts of 7 #terracehouses preserved as a sort of buffer in front of the uni building, designed by Metier 3 and meant to be for the new Melb Uni private arm, which never happened, and just looks like an #officeblock. At first in 1999 they were just going to demolish the lot, big fuss kicked up by @nationaltrustvic Carlton Residents Association etc, with #melbourneuniversity putting up all sorts of reasons like need to grow, cant afford a bigger site, had to have x amount of space etc. The compromise was to keep them to a depth of 9m back from the fence, so 1/2 a room, with the end one with a longer side wall implying more. On the other hand they did an exemplary job of restoring the facades, all of which were painted, altered, later fences etc as in the blurry @nationaltrustvic photos. The very nice one with the trellis verandah is 1860s I think. 2024 update : this is now the Faculty of Business. And I think this is still the only example in Melbourne of a whole row of different terrace houses more or less facaded, though there’s one set of about 10 terrace/shops in Hawthorn facaded for Swinburne.
9 October 2014
Repost 2014: Pure 1980s #postmodernarchitecture. The #Melbournebusunessschool, University Square, by #daryljackson 1985. It’s got grids, arches, abstracted verandahs and shutters, gable roofs too, in fact lots of traditional domestic elements, which I never thought never worked at this scale. It was meant to be ‘#collegiate’, but a sort of arcade you can’t occupy isn’t enough – maybe it’s the courtyard inside. Update : actually I think I like the busyness of the stacked grills, and amazed it’s so intact, 40 years on.
Storey of Melbourne 