Casselden Place tower

20 August 2016, updated (only pic 2 is mine) :

Casselden Place tower, Spring & Lonsdale, 1992. I’m a fan of Postmodernism, but this isn’t a good example. The tower itself is sort of striking, all #chamfers and 45* angles, the design idea being a glassy square tower shoved through an almost octagonal solid one. However, it lacks the intended dome, which I heard didn’t happen cos it was too phallic. I also like pink, but here the precast panels just look flat and cheap, and the various gaps and the strip windows undermine the attempt at solidity. Designed by the talentless or budget conscious Commonwealth Govt Architects, with #hassellstudio. Further rant 2024: the podium levels are very bad in urban terms too – it’s super clunky 9 floors lots of flat wall, a bit vertical a bit horizontal, nothing at street level of interest, and just has gaps at the bottom for an entrance, not at all inviting, which just leads to empty space partly outside partly inside (pics borrowed from @chrismbr), just columns and glass. And the back sides are the same tall stolid walls, all quite the opposite of the Telstra HQ built the same time down the block, which has low scale edges, incorporating a number of older buildings and even a laneway so you can wander through…. and what’s more Casselden built over most of the lane it’s named after ! Old photos dating from 1950, 1967 and c1970 show various buildings, including a nice big brick deco block on Lonsdale; it all could have been so much better. (I actually remember Janifer Hats from trips into town as a kid, though I thought it was Jennifer.)