Brutal St Kilda tower

3 April 2025

My least favourite waterfront tower, from an unflattering angle. Arrandale is just a huge solid block plonked on the Upper Esplanade, St Kilda, looming over the Espy itself. Fortunately it has a generous setback and garden so you don’t feel it too much while walking past. It was built c1980, one of the last of the first wave of Sth Melb to Elwood waterfront towers, designed by #SolSapir, like almost all the others.

The earlier ones all have balconies, but maybe by now it was clear no one used them, instead this one was all about the wide views, at least for every second floor. The diagonal things might actually represent trusses, but the effect isn’t nice, and downright odd on the alternate floors. Plus a random column. The entry isn’t anything special either.