July 2026

You really do have to say ‘what were they thinking ? If it was curves and green balconies maybe no one would mind the scale, in fact a couple of narrower but taller towers would have been preferable. But no they went for angular pointy huge black brooding. Hmm the architects were jcb, looks like it was meant to be crystalline silver and white (rendering in pic 2), but no. And the north side is just flat beige /grey panels, rather cheap looking but less aggressive.

It’s down the end of Glenferrie Road, on Dandenong Road on a triangular site next to the rail line. The whole thing really looms from various angles (pic 8 is from Caulfield Park), it’s surprisingly big for something approved in c2019, but there’ll be many more randomly placed towers around the eastern burbs soon- which is ok as long as they’re nice to look at, and a good experience at ground level. This one is rather lacking in that area, and it was a super windy day but even more so at the tram stop, so much for my do.

At ground level they’ve kept the three buildings that were there, or rather their facades. The two Victorian shops have had the bricks cleaned, rather ordinary shop windows installed, and they’ve repainted the historic signage – but not exactly, and as if aged ghost signs revealed (I was so annoyed I didn’t take close ups, but nice to look at I suppose).

The pub had some rather nice ceilings, presumably dating from 1925, all now flat concrete.

There was an info panel which I thought was the history of the site, but it’s actually all about how the development – called ‘Malvern Collective’ had to overcome various challenges ….. ! I realise I’m being rather critical, maybe one day I’ll like its dark pointyness.

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