Original post 16 October 2019
One good thing about the #CollinsHouse high rise, in Oder to gat a larger floor area by cantilevering they bought the #aireights above the 1939 #NationalBankWesternHouse, so it’s protected from any kind of high rise redevelopment in the future. Built 1939-40, and designed by #MeldrumandNoad, it’s pretty severe #strippedclassical, all in sandstone. I’ve heard of described as ‘fascist’ style, but it’s pretty typical for the time, and more Modernist than the Nazi’s would have liked. It was liked at the time, and won the last #StreetArchitectureMedal in 1942. The bank chamber is mostly intact, and is the only grand intact interwar bank in the CBD that’s still a bank.
The fabulous #artdeco carved relief on the #NationalBankWesternHouse of 1939, #MeldrumandNoad – stylised classical man with symbols of Victorian wealth behind him: #wheatsheaves, #cogs of industry, and peeking out below a #sheep (actually a ram, more masculine I guess) representing wool. There were still huge wool warehouses one block away along both Collins and William Streets at the time.
Storey of Melbourne 