3 April 2025 My least favourite waterfront tower, from an unflattering angle. Arrandale is just a huge solid block plonked on the Upper Esplanade, St Kilda, looming over the Espy itself. Fortunately it has a generous setback and garden so you don’t feel it too much while walking past. It was built c1980, one of … Continue reading Brutal St Kilda tower →

Repost this day 2019: Miami Towers, #SolSapir, 189 #BeaconsfieldParade, #MiddlePark, 1972. It has an twin in Armadale and a taller sister further down the street. The panels might be precast, with little curved edges, but they’re separated by curious vertical metal channels that poke down below the first floor; which involves a lot of cantilevering … Continue reading Sol Sapir, Miami + 2 →

8 August 2024 The competition for the Shrine was held in late 1923 - a whole lot of great images of the entries have been unearthed by researchers for an exhibition about to start at the Shrine galleries. The first image is a fabulous geometric design by Walter & Marion Griffin, but they didn’t even … Continue reading The Shrine of Remembrance competition 1923 →

Big ads on city buildings are nothing new, these #paintedsigns from the 1890s were on the side of a five storey Victorian bldg with a #mansardroof that was once next to the Nicholas Building in Swanston Street. A bit less sophisticated that modern ads - the spirit of #DawsonsWhiskey was literally an #angel! Popping out … Continue reading Blank walls always had signs…until now →

The Shrine is a curious monument, architecturally, a stepped pyramid with the front of the Parthenon attached, in granite where some blocks stained with rust - BUT the courtyards are great - such a smart solution putting them in the corners. Back in about 2000 they were thinking of accessing the space under the the … Continue reading Shrine courtyards →

It’s not often I actively dislike something but here’s one – and it’s on the Victorian chapter architects awards 2021 shortlist (!). At least the main image doesn’t disguise its awfulness. It’s just a massive thing, filling out the allowable envelope, and the serrated edges just make it extra unfriendly. It has some slight cut-outs … Continue reading So-called Collins Arch →

June 2021: So the Nicholas Building is up for sale ! Built 1926 for the Nicholas family who made their fortune from #Aspro, and got their fave architect #HarryNorris to design it. Whoever buys it, I guess it’s likely that eventually the rents will go up (when current leases run out) and it’ll be less … Continue reading Nicholas Building →

It’s a small thing but super annoying - this cute little survivor in Exhibition Street dates back to 1858, and was the (very small) Shakespear(e) Hotel from c1869-1890s, and altered possibly enlarged 1871, since then not much changed - but is now going to be almost facadism, actually 3 walls left-ism, with the floors, back … Continue reading Shakespear Hotel, almost facadism →

Repost this day in 2017: The ground level of #ArtsWest by @armarchitecture finished 2016 actually looks a bit #surreal. I guess it's the unlikely #yellowochre as a kind of forest/cave/#undercroft, plus the wiggly shiny #louvres / #fins. Amazing what computers can do for you. And the fins above have patterns made by ‘impressing’ various objects … Continue reading Arts West, ARM, 2016 →

If you don’t recognise this I don’t blame you - the #QueensCoffeePalace on the corner of Victoria Street and #RathdowneStreet was there for 70 years but there aren’t many photographs. Designed by #OakdenAddisonAndKemp in ‘German Renaissance’ style, it was built to houses guests going to the #CentennialExhibition in 1888, but never opened. It became ‘residential … Continue reading Queens Coffee Palace, Victoria Street →