February 2017: #ACABuilding, 1936, designed by the Sydney architects Hennessy and Hennessy, best known for a series of matching Gothicish office blocks for #CML dotted around Australia. Like this one, they're all built in #BenedictStone, a precast pressed cement product incorporating crushed Brisbane Tuff, a business owned by the Catholic Church, as was this building … Continue reading ACA Building Queen Street. →

14 February: The #OsloHostel on its way to becoming #theBlock2019. The cypresses are gone, the Deco extension is next, and the fence is dismantled for future reinstatement when it becomes five huge houses again, as it was in 1861 (but with more rooms !) when it was built as Westbourne Terrace. 13 March 2019: The … Continue reading The Block 2019, transforming the Oslo / Westbourne Terrace →

February 2019 Most unfortunate- the lobby of #HarryNorris’s 1938 #CarlowHouse was given a make-over about 10 years ago, and I happen to have had a photo from just before. The owners obviously wanted something ‘light and bright’ and a bit more upmarket than the dull old #terrazzo floors and walls and #chromiumsteel display cabinets, but … Continue reading Art Deco destruction in Carlow House →

A fine 30s pair, both built to the #132ftheightlimit, one Modernist, the other Classical Deco. I’ve always admired the weave of #HarryNorris’s #CarlowHouse, built 1938, the way the gridded verticals are balanced by the horizontals which take off round the corner, and then turn into strong horizontals thrusting forward. It’s sort of overshadowed #MarshandMichaelson’s 1937 … Continue reading Art Deco pair on Elizabeth Street; Carlow House and ANA. →

28 January 2019, updated: The very nice 1925 Eliza Tinsley building at the end of Bourke Street is an industrial building that goes right through the block, but just the facade will be retained when the approved 67 level #RotheLowman tower goes ahead. Nice stair in the entry. Update 2024: site sold in 2021, and … Continue reading Eliza Tinsley, Bourke Street, 1925 →

I thought this rather large plain thing on the side of #VictoriaBarracks was maybe 1950s but no it’s 1940, and I guess it’s meant to be #Georgian; the #cartouche and the #wroughtiron lamp are very nice but the rest is a bit dull. Probably by #GeorgeHallendal who did all the Army’s Deco/Classical drill halls in … Continue reading George VI Georgian, 1940 →

The former Western Hotel, later Bayview Hotel, 1 Mercer Street Geelong. Built in 1854, prominently located on the road into Geelong from Melbourne, later a school and a guest house, then a hotel again, now apartments. Apparently #sandstone under many layers of paint. Architect John Young, described in an early study as ‘the most accomplished … Continue reading Gold Rush pub in Geelong. →

The rather grand #TempleCourt in the financial heart of #CollinsStreet was built in 1924-25, designed in ‘#CommercialPalazzo’ (US influenced) style by #GraingerLittleBarlowandHawkins ( #MarcusBarlow just before he went solo). It replaced the 1857 #PurchasAndSwyer building of the same name which extended the legal precinct from Little Collins, one block of which was known as Chancery … Continue reading Temple Court, 1925 →

Spotted these fine #terracehouses in #KerferdRoad, #AlbertPark a little while ago, can’t miss them really, a set of 5, with a tower on the middle one! Built 1882-1892, designed by one of my fave #highvictorian architects, Walter Scott Law, who did the nearby #AlbertParkCoffeePalace. Lots of elaboration here, and unusually for terraces, done in a … Continue reading High Victorian terraces, W S Law does it again →

The fine #Neoclassical 1928 #ESandAbank on the corner of #SwanstonStreet and Little Bourke by #HareAndHare has been a bank again for nearly a year; I was a bit disappointed to see that after I’d helped get it on the #VictorianHeritageRegister in 2015 (only the facade was listed, and renovations were going to destroy the great … Continue reading 1928 ES&A bank restored, but best bits mostly hidden. →