23 November 2016: The grand City West Telephone Exchange, #JSMurdoch, designed 1929, but not built until 1935-7, looking like a bit of Manhattan. Tall stylish #GeorgianRevival facade rather hard to see properly in narrow #littlebourkestreet, near the Supreme Court - in fact it was one CBD building I didn’t know at all until it turned … Continue reading Telephone Exchange Little Bourke Street/ Lonsdale Street →

21 November 2024 All that’s left of the 1938 Victoria Car Park in Little Collins Street, something we failed to save while I was at the National Trust. The Scots Church on Collins Street, who own everything down to George’s, first proposed a tall hotel in the 90s, despite a 30m height limit, but we … Continue reading Victoria Car Park facade →

19 November 2024 Yes it’s a bit dire, but it is called ‘la piazza’, so a lot of concrete makes sense ? It’s actually behind one facing the street called ‘la fontana’, and there is in fact a fountain. Think I just like the crazy boldness of those balustraded balconies. Possibly an Italian migrant builder … Continue reading 70s Italianate →

19 November 2024 Posted this place next to Florentino in Bourke Street in 2014 when the heritage precinct was being reviewed, and when I looked closely realised it was a new mid century facade on a revamped shop-house, which would have originally been like those either side. Don’t know the architect, but it dates from … Continue reading Mid century shopfront in Bourke Street →

18 November 2024 Something I found by accident- Victoria’s first prison farm ! A semi circle of individual huts, laid out so the central office looked out on them all; another very geometric creation by PWD Chief Architect Percy Everett (probably). Located at Cooriemungle, just inland from Port Campbell, it was built in 1939-40, and … Continue reading Semi-circle prison →

15 November 2024 Saw recently that the new hotel on Russell Street is nearly finished, and must say I quite like it ! Designed by @kennedy_nolan, it’s got lots of brick, earthy colours, varied massing and a sense of depth, and their signature cut out circles. From Bourke Street you almost don’t notice it. Much … Continue reading New hotel in Russell Street →

16 November 2024 Photos I took of the old Dental Hospital in 2009 just before it was demolished for the cancer centre; I thought it was quite nice, or at least the back was, with angled bits, cream brick, an early modern sort of look, but all rather retro for 1963 when it was completed. … Continue reading Dental Hospital →

7 November 2024 Looks like maybe a 1980s architect designed beach house, but it’s actually a 1938 one room school by Public Works architect Percy Everett! He liked contrasting horizontals and verticals, flat roofs, corner windows, highlight windows, and projecting semi-circular things, and he put them all into this tiny project for Newfield, near Port … Continue reading Moderne single room schools →

8 November 2017: St Augustines Bourke Street, main nave and facade 1870, TA Kelly. The cutest little country town sized church, but on a main street in the city, within its own little plot of greenery. It’s in the western end of the city, part residential part warehouses when it was built, then later much … Continue reading Country church in the city →

7 November 2024 I’ve always like 100 Collins Street, or is that I’ve always known it was the first proper curtain wall in Melbourne, and so very 50s ? It must have come as a bit of a shock to Melburnians popping up in the Paris end in 1955, all shiny blue glass amongst the … Continue reading All glass on Collins Street →