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 →

August 2026 Icon, aka Lego Building, Stack of Milk Crates / Shipping Containers, St Kilda junction, @jcbarchitects, 11 years old now, and still looks crazy/amazing, but less of a landmark with the new bigger less interesting ‘Beachouse’ tower next door. I don’t know how they achieved the cantilevers, diagonals or just thicker conc, though the … Continue reading Love it or hate it it’s an Icon. →

Repost from this day in 2017: #BHPResearchLaboratories, Mulgrave, #EgglestonMacDonaldandSecomb, 1969. As architectural historian Philip Goad says "steel structure, inset glass walls, thats it". Minimalist but carefully detailed; big #IBeams form the edges to the floor plates, with vertical I-Beams bearing the weight (externally at least). The steel was originally #coreten, so with the dark tinted … Continue reading BHP Research Labs, Mulgrave →

Repost from April 2018: #GardenAvenueEastMelbourne, a cul de sac of 5 blocks of flats all built c1940, all by #IGAnderson. What a talent ! Oh, and two blocks that face George Sreet behind too. First, #TuffnellLodge, c1940. Anderson at his most creative, verticals and horizontals collide and thrust forward towards the main road, love it. … Continue reading IG Anderson did a whole street – Garden Avenue, East Melbourne →

Some #brutalistrevival in #Elwood - a development by Piccolo, designed by Hecker Guthrie and #WoodsBagot (did HG do the interiors ?). The conc makes a great canopy. The overall style is quite nice, 60s revival bricks, modernist lines, and proper hanging greenery too - can anyone tell me what it is exactly? Can’t show you … Continue reading ‘Elwood House’, 2018 →

Interesting block of flats on the edge of the Elwood shops in Ormond Road, I could tell it was 50s or maybe late 40s, like prewar but with jaunty 50s things like the porch and stair railings. The agents sales blurb actually says ‘by noted architect #SirBernardEvans’ who did many flats from the 1930s into … Continue reading Melton Court, Elwood, 1951 →