30 May 2024 An uncomfortable juxtaposition on Fitzroy Street St Kilda. But actually if you step back you can see they carved a gap out of the huge apartment block built next door (2000s?), so the flats wouldn’t look too much at blank walls. Not exactly elegant though. It’s a blank wall at the other … Continue reading Squeezy Deco in St Kilda →

1 June 2017: Fabbo 1958 letterbox in #NorwoodAvenue, #BrightonMelbourne. The house isn’t bad either. Said to have featured in Home Beautiful. Architect Keith Batchelor. #Modernism but with texture - brick paving, rock walls, chequerboard ceiling to the carport and decorative screens if you squint at the other photos. Update 2024: still there according to 2022 … Continue reading Modernist letterbox Brighton →

28 May 2024 The facades of Ball & Welch and the Commercial Travellers Club on Flinders Street look much nicer than before, but the new bits not so much. And ‘restored’ is not accurate, but they look mostly as they did in the photo from c1910. Ball & Welch was built in 1899 as a … Continue reading Ball & Welch and CTA Flinders Street →

27 May 2015: The enormous triple-winged old Lands Department dominates the govt buildings within the #treasuryreserve on #treasuryplace. Shows how important land was. Plus I think it housed just about the whole of govt admin. Architect Michael Egan won a competition in 1859, but it was then criticised as too plain, so he jazzed it … Continue reading 2 Treasury Place →

26 May 2024 So Vault aka the Yellow Peril has been recommended for the Victorian Heritage Register. The statement of significance notes that it is an accomplished and pivotal work of public art, by sculptor Ron Robertson Swann, especially notable for its colour and composition, and for its history as a controversial and well-known example … Continue reading Vault →

25 May 2017: Another great Modernist house in Beamaris- by #MockridgeStahleandMitchell, 1957. Great use of levels, simple #skillionroof, big timber framed #windowwall, what more could you want ? Update : later learned it’s now occupied by @mcmalexander, the daughter of Ross Stahle, so it’s in good hands ! She supplied this giro from 1957.

23 May 2017: Satchell House, Summerhill Road, Beaumaris, was built in 1950, making it an early entry in the emergence of the #postwar #modernist house. Looks almost #bauhaus, but in timber, or more likely influenced by US west coast architect #WilliamWurster, and pretty special IMHO. Architects #GodfreySpowersHughesMewtonandLobb (yes 5 of them); Geoffrey Mewton had done … Continue reading Beaumaris Modern no 7 →

21 May 2024 Some postmodern heritage – this is a pair of houses designed by Edmond and Corrigan in Kay Street Carlton, the most famous result of the Ministry of Housing’s 1980s inner suburban ‘infill’ program. They were built in 1983 and Heritage Victoria is proposing to list them! (I just found out, you can … Continue reading Postmodern social housing, heritage listed ! →

20 May 2024 The State Government Offices in Geelong have just been added to the Victorian Heritage Register - I remember when the people of Geelong voted it as the most ugly building in town in the early 90s, when Brutalistm was very under appreciated. The wacky but very dramatic upside down pyramid design was … Continue reading Geelong State Offices →

20 May 2024 The ex Masonic Club Building in Flinders Street, which has just had a refresh, looks nice, though it’s not terribly architecturally interesting. Completed in 1927, the design was by Joseph Plottel, who won a competition (and went on to do many flats city buildings and the Footscray Town Hall); the style is … Continue reading Masonic Club Building →