20 July 2024
This unusual building once stood in Elizabeth Street just north of Flinders Lane, and was one of the few commercial buildings completed in Melbourne by famed US architect Walter Burley Griffin. Built in 1924, it was noted then for having ‘wholly glazed’ front and rear facades and belonging ‘to our own time’. It was built for successful clothing manufacturer Russian born Nissan Leonard-Kavensky, and that’s him in his office in the building in pic 4. It was indeed mostly glass, but in a vertical pattern that incorporated patterned blocks as well, and a whole top level of blocks too. Originally had a display case entrance, with shop behind, a lift with a semi-circular door, and interior panelling that was in sections that could be re-arranged. Griffin had his office here from 1924 onwards.
By the 60s (pics 5,6) it had lost some detail, and then in 1976 despite opposition from the @nationaltrustvic it was demolished by the National Bank along with everything around it for a boring office block. They saved a bit of the facade though and put it in a light well in the new building, but it was covered over in the 90s – I made a fuss while at the Trust, but then it turned out that it was a replica not a remnant, and I don’t know what happened to it after that. A great loss; I don’t know why it wasn’t listed by the then new Historic Buildings Preservation Council, I guess it wasn’t old enough. Pic 1,3,4 @nationallibraryaus, last 2 @library_vic, 1964, 1975
Storey of Melbourne 