11 February 2025

With my new found acceptance of big things everywhere, this sort of stuff becomes ok-ish. On the north side of Glenhuntly Road in Elsternwick, there’s about 7 large area tallish developments, all with 2-3 floors at street level, then a good setback then up again. They’re variously dull or slightly interesting, all with a subdued gray palette, and they’re all ok. Normally I’m against facadism, but with the setbacks, the retained facades still feel part of an old shopping street, though the first one being on a corner, maybe not quite. The old facade is unusual with that long roof, looking a bit like a Singapore shophouse (but probably meant to be Mediterranean); they kept the remaining leadlights, and the first two floors are now offices.

The one with the retained Edwardian red brick facades you almost don’t notice that the two are connected, though the open balconies behind the retained windows is not really acceptable; makes it too obvious it’s just a facade.

I wondered why there’s none on the south side and realised it’s probably just that there were big supermarket/yard/single owner sites on the north, whereas the south is all individual shops, with individual owners, who tend to sit on them forever even when the shop is empty, though here the strip is pretty healthy. And there’s not much interesting at the east end anyway, last 2 pics.

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