Repost 2016: Pathetic attempt at historic reconstruction at the Imperial Hotel on Bourke Street. The window details on the right were added recently, having been knocked off the the 70s, and were originally exactly like ones on the left, on the shop row that was part of the original 1864 building. I've been waiting like … Continue reading Imperial Hotel ‘restoration’ →

7 September 2017: #HorsfallChapel at #TrinityCollegeMelbourne, a great, possibly the best, and very early #ArtsandCraftsstyle Gothic church in Victoria. Designed principally by Alexander North of #NorthandWilliams, built 1912-1917. Love the simplified Gothic, slightly tapered solid forms in brick, with the main window occupying much of the facade. The junior partner #LouisWilliams went on to design … Continue reading Trinity College →

Repost 2018: Great set of #polychromebrick #MelbourneTerraces in #PeelStreetCollingwood. The pair of #shophouses have odd huge brackets, a wild huge pediment thing and what look like chimneys but arnt. Peel street has a number of ex-shops scattered down its length, perhaps once was it was almost an extension of Smith Street shopping, but possibly they … Continue reading Terraces, Peel Street Collingwood →

Repost 2017: The original #cloister at #MelbourneUniversity. In the middle of a huge site, it started off as three wings, built 1853-57, designed by #FMWhite (who was still around in 1888 designing huge city office blocks). Always lovely to walk through, love the brick #vaulting. But did you know the wonderful bit of #cloister at … Continue reading Old Quad Melbourne University →

7 September 2018: Def one of my fave city buildings. Former #StateAccidentInsurance office, 1941, #PercyEverett, #publicworksdepartment chief architect showing his creativity again in his only ‘commercial’ office building. Quite a contrast to his other tower, the New York skyscraper style #russellstreetpolicestation done at the same time. It's a careful balance of competing #horizontal and #verticals, … Continue reading Moderne in Collins Street →

September 2026: Speaking of the wastefulness of demolition, #embodiedenergy and all that, here’s how they did it in the olden days - just covert the large old house to four flats ! 25 #AclandStreetStKilda. However, if the two top floor flats add up to 200m2, then regs would require a lift, a crazy rule - … Continue reading Early apartment conversion →

5 September 2017: Fabbo #terracepair on Royal Parade, Parkville, built 1888 (peak of the #landboom) with a wealth of crunchy detail, never painted. The distinctive elements like the wheeled #scrolledbrackets on the #parapet and the stumpy columns look very much like the work of builder/designer #NormanHitchcock. Love the grimacing lions. They’re also the relatively rare … Continue reading OTT Victorian In Parkville →

6 September 2019: Anyone remember The Secret Life of Us ? This c1928 block in #AclandStreet was where half of them lived. Having a popular TV series set in a suburb that was once cheap where the characters are young lawyers and doctors, well, it means you’re being priced out ! Then I moved to … Continue reading Secret Life on Acland Street →

Repost 2019: #KingsArcade, #HighStreetArmadale, 1893 or is it ? Just learned the shops were built in 1893, with a walkway through to the station, then the shops lining it to create a proper arcade didn’t happen till 1923. At first called Armadale Arcade, it’s now named not after the King but the King family, who … Continue reading Kings Arcade, Armadale →

I’d seen this building before but never knew where it was - now I know it was in Elizabeth Street between Lonsdale and Little Bourke, and that it burned down in a great fire in 1907. It was built as Wallach’s Furniture Emporium in 1887, the business having just been take over by Benjamin Fink, … Continue reading Wallach’s Furniture Emporium, burnt →