Original post 6 May 2020

Photos 2 December 2019

I like #WillamBarak looking down on us, but I’m annoyed by the way the whole redevelopment of the #CUBbrewery builds around the axis of #SwanstonStreet looking north, but also ignores it by encroaching on it and not having anything at all really that acknowledges it – it’s like a series of compromises leading up to nothing (except a tiny tree). At the least CUB had a huge neon sign for decades. Update : I’m told that after the 90s master plan that kept the axis, with access up through, then another was drawn up that crowded it, with two buildings at the back in a pincer movement, leaving just a slot. Not a better solution than leaving a wider gap, and the other isnt built yet anyway.

Meanwhile at the bottom is the RMIT design archive, leading down not up.

For something that looked down the axis of #SwanstonStreet for nearly 40 years, I could only find one good photo of the #VictoriaBitter #neonsign in 1956, and one supplied by a FB friend, from the late 60s, showing it as I remember it.

May 2026

The Portrait tower at the top of Swanston Street is much clearer in photos from an elevated angle than glimpsed from the bustle of the street, not helped by the severe dotted box of the RMIT design hub in the way. It’s also not quite on the axis. So this huge image of 19thC aboriginal elder and activist William Barack is something you might have to learn about to see. Hmm maybe that’s the point ? Or a point ? My first photo is 2015, when it was just completed and much discussed, there was even a forum at Fed Sq, with views for and against, or rather a range of responses. My own view is mixed, it’s good to have him looking down on us, as a reminder of what happened, what should happen, but he’s also a bit hidden, easy to miss, to not think about…. and 10 years on, we’re not talking about it much anymore. Some at the forum pointed out that behind the facade it’s all real estate, squeezy investment flats for overseas students, a bit of a weird juxtaposition. The back is also decorated, but with a topographic map done like a heat map, not sure it means anything. I’m not sure I like it exactly but I’m kind of glad it’s there. First three pics mine the rest the internet including the @armarchitecture website.

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