May 2021 If this 1935 house in Brighton had survived a bit longer than c1988, it would have been put on #VictorianHeritageRegister as one of the most important examples of Bauhaus Modernism applied to a house in Victoria. Designed by #GeoffreyMewton, when in partnership with #RoyGrounds, it was one of three winners of the ‘drawings … Continue reading Stooke House, Brighton, 1935, dem c1988 →

Posted 13 March 2021 Today is the 150th anniversary of #TheAlfredHospital welcoming its first patient ! It was designed by Charles Webb (who later did the Windsor) in a kind of Flemish mode, with plenty of #polychromebrickwork, a relatively early example. His plan included multiple separate ward blocks, on the ‘nightingale’ principle of fresh air … Continue reading Alfred Hospital →

4 May 2018: Some more #LostMelbourne, but partially rescued too - these #atlantes once held up the 1880 #colonialbank #doorway, now an entry to the 1972 #Melbourneuniversity #undergroundcarpark. The #ColonialBankofAustralasia head office was one of the grand 19thC City banks, built 1880, cnr of Elizabeth Street and #littlecollinsstreet, oddly not amongst the grand banks of … Continue reading Lost, but not completely →

Repost this day in 2019: More #SolSapir in fact some of his first, the Twin Towers, on the #UpperEsplanade, built in 1969, and there’s a photo from when they’re being finished ! Not my favourite #apartmenttowers at all, rather clunky chunky, not a lot of fun details, not a lot of view out, nice arches … Continue reading Sol Sapir, again ! →

Repost this day in 2017 : The #GeelongRegionalLibrary west side in the last rays of sunlight - fantastic sparkle. Definitely a #crystalline #grotto, shades of griffins capitol theatre perhaps, or the sparkle of thought within the #bigbrain. It's a #dome with #geodesic panels but it's not a #geodesicdome (I think). Actually not a dome but … Continue reading Geelong Library, ARM architecture, 2015 →

Repost from a visit in May 2019 : The fantastic #MintonTile floor of the vestibule of #ParliamentHouseMelbourne. It spells out a rather nice sentiment from Proverbs 11:14: ‘Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety’, even if half the time we don’t think much of our representatives, … Continue reading Parliament House interiors →

Some excellent #brickwork on these flats in #Elwood on the corner of Ormond Rd and Selwyn Street, which i recognised from adding to the wiki page on #MewtonAndGrounds; designed not long after they started their joint practice in late 1933, this shows that they weren’t Modernist or nothing, at least at first. Though in the … Continue reading Mewton & Grounds before they went modern →

Repost 2017: From this angle the new 35 Spring Street (in a variation on #BatesSmart patterned #glass curtain wall house style) is just a tad #dominating. Partly because the pattern, which I quite like, is in blocks that are often two or three storeys high, so it makes everything else look small, but the most … Continue reading 35 Spring Street, bit too big →

May 2018, update 2026 One of Melbourne’s few ‘flatiron’ buildings, a branch of the #ColonialBankofAustralasia, built at the height of the #landboom in 1889, designed by the prolific firm #SmithandJohnson (who also designed their long demolished HQ in Elizabeth Street in 1883, pic 5). Very nice articulation of paired Ionic columns and piers, which there … Continue reading Colonial Flatiron →

Repost this day 2019: The back end of the #StateLibraryOfVictoria was built in 1906, and has a very well proportioned classical #portico entrance with a little Baroque scroll flourish, but the upper level is intriguing, being so stripped down it becomes almost Modernist, could be something from the 1930s. This end was supposed to be … Continue reading Museum front, Russell Street →