Original post 31 March 2020
Casa Milano in #GreyStreetStKilda is such a simple bit of Art Deco it ends up being almost Modernist. Apparently it’s the rebuilding of a two storey Victorian shop, once exactly the same as next door (!). Designed by #RayJohnsonArchitect, it was built in 1933. I always thought that the timber framed windows were a later filling in of balconies, since more typically #steelframedwindows, but apparently not, always filled in (a cheap way of making a sunroom), but the actual frames changed since 1998? (4th photo). Another addition in the 90s created the top floor #penthouse. That plus the new tall thing next door means not so prominent as it used to be, but charmingly #shabbychic, and still a fave.
Just after I photographed it, they painted it ! Updated photo 15 May. Looks schmick now, though the peeling paint revealed its actually ochre render under the white paint, but they just painted it white again. I now think that even though it had Deco windows at one stage, that it was open balconies originally, given the angular curved roof and the render above the bottom window, but the change must have been early on.
Storey of Melbourne 