Repost 2019, updated 2025:

Fairlie, in Anderson Street South Yarra, designed by #YunckenFreeman Brothers, Griffith & Simpson, 1961, the first luxury postwar flats, and the most expensive at the time. Somehow it had passed me by until fairly recently – did I just never see it ? Pretty sure it didn’t appear in any modern architecture lists, even when I was researching other YF places, maybe it was because of those nice arches at ground level, not purely Modernist enough !

Anyway, it’s great, not too big, generous setback, interesting how it pokes above the volcano lake in the #BotanicGardens. It’s all gridded like an office block, but with very fine ribs, which become a verandah / screen across the front. Delightful oval spiral stair. It’s in the site of a Victorian house of the same name that was demolished in the 1930s.

There’s only one three and one two bed flat per floor. I’m told it had high body corporate fees, to ensure the lift always worked. I’m also told the owners contributed to the restoration of the volcano to improve the view, that the exterior was recently repaired/restored. Also that some of the flats have been combined to become full floor ones, like the penthouse, or gone from three bed to one (with big ensuite etc).

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