Sad to report that the mutilation of Mary Immaculate in Ivanhoe has begun (photo Graeme Butler ) – and I do think full demolition would have been preferable. They’ve taken off the lady chapel with its great stained glass, then removing original features like the doors and glass screen behind the altar, then adding to the front, rear and sides, sticking windows in the brick walls, and a colour bond roof. Ft Bill Edebohls at first was going to demolish, possibly selling some of the land, saying the church wasn’t ‘fit for purpose’, but then somehow found $5mill to add a meeting room, a parish centre, a new chapel, and a couple of flats, one for himself, and has says the church Architects #FFPV have done all this by surrounding the church, while keeping a large area to the west as a carpark – you def get the impression they /someone does not like the building. The church was completed in 1961, and the architects were #MockridgeStahleAndMitcheli, who did a number of great churches, and lots of other things. The @banyulecouncil was too slow to list, and @heritagecouncilvic says no, basically because modernist churches aren’t well understood, and it didn’t win any awards (there weren’t any awards at the time) – they’ve only listed 2 modernist churches so far, out of probably a couple of hundred.
Storey of Melbourne 