Facadism ? No it’s all new

3 March 2025

Truly appalling development in Grey Street St Kilda, completed in 2017, when I was outraged to discover it wasn’t just a case of facadism, but in fact they were allowed to demolish the whole lot, then rebuild the Victorian facade (probably because they were allowed to keep only the front wall, then it became unstable). And what’s more they were allowed to leave the windows as gaps with two levels behind, then also project forward above them so they become quite overwhelmed anyway, and on top of that paint poetry on the walls and call it ‘Ode’. 😬 Not helped by the fact that next door has remained vacant, or the vaguely 80s ‘graffiti art’ was then applied, itself now graffitied. And just now looking at the apartments, the lower floors include bedrooms with no window or a small one into a light court, and the rear ones look only across a narrow lane. Ok, yes more density, but such low amenity should not be acceptable. Though I suppose they’ll stay ‘affordable’ for some time. I don’t know who the architects were, and I hope the #cityofportphllip regrets the permit.