Repost this day 2017: #McPhersonsShowroom, #CollinsStreet (near Spencer), 1936 (two floors, next floor 1938) #StuartPCalder with Reid&Pearson; built for implement and tool makers, these huge long #showroom #windows were filled with #nutsandbolts and things like a #ballbearingbandsaw. Very stylish home for such a product. This building often said to be very European modern, like #ErichMendelsohn maybe, and i reckon it is, not your ordinary #artdeco.
Also after it was sold a few years ago it wasn’t facaded for an apartment tower, instead, restored and a Deco style food court in ground level, called #Mcphersons, which is nice. Don’t know if the oval atrium is original. 2021 update : the food court seems to have closed.
Storey of Melbourne 
In the 1980’s it was owned by the Victorian Government and known as 2 Francis Street it was used as laboratory space , when the labs moved to Werribee it became a child minding centre with the roof being an outdoor playground. The Collins Street windows were also used as a Gallery for up-coming artists for some years. I seem to remember the oval atrium being original on my visits to the building when it was McPherson’s in the 1950’s.
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An interesting history ! And good to know about the oval atrium; I thought it was unlikely to have been added in the 1990s.
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