A lesser known and curious bit of #lostmelbourne once in Market Street, one of the ‘massive edifices’, a 19thC skyscraper that was all side really, and a rather odd front, ‘pasted on’, as an old RMIT lecturer once said. It was built for the Colonial Mutual Life Insurance Company, and completed in 1891, just as … Continue reading Lost Victorian skyscraper No 5 →

Repost this day 2018: Bit of #ArtDeco loveliness in #ABeckettStreet, the Royal Australian #ArmyMedicalCorps Training Depot, built 1938, designed by Commonwealth architect #GeorgeHallendal. Almost sold off in the 90s to become who knows what, but a deal with the state govt saved it for public purposes, becoming the beaut home of the #RoyalHistoricalSocietyOfVictoria. A bunch … Continue reading Art Deco Drill Hall →

Repost from January last year, and 2017 and 2016 : Poor ole 1925 #ElmsFamilyHotel, got #heritagelisted but not before plans were already underway to build something big on top, so it was mostly demolished - but Im pleased to see they actually kept one internal wall complete with with lovely blue #pubtiles - BUT they … Continue reading Another pub just a facade →

May 2018: #SouthMelbourneTownHall, #CharlesWebb, 1880, the model for so many #landboom town halls of the 1880s, though quite a few never got their tower/spire, a Victorian re-use of the #EnglishBaroque use of the classical orders to create a tower with the #silhouette of a gothic spire. And does anyone remember the fuss about the 2001 … Continue reading South Melbourne Town Hall, 1880 →

16 May 2021 Maybe it’s a long bow, but I think this image from #RobinBoyd’s #AustralianUgliness might be inspired by the two modernist office blocks that once stood right across Princes Bridge, facing the Snowden Gardens (site of the Concert Hall). One was finished 1959, the other in 1960, the year the book came out … Continue reading Featurism on Southbank →

Repost this day 2019: I never shopped at Georges, I mean I was into opp shops in the 80s, but I did make a special effort to go to the Regency Room a couple of times, when I was practically the only male there. I remember that great sunburst mirror, and that you had to … Continue reading George’s Regency Room →

Original post 14 May 2017: #FrankTateBuilding, #MelbourneUniversity, #PercyEverett, 1940. Part submerged beneath later plaza, but still impressive as finely balanced between #ArtDeco and #CollegiateGothic, those piers almost like #buttresses, north end almost an #apse. Side windows also quite vertical/ gothic, not corners all curved and glass block #moderne. It was built as part of the … Continue reading Frank Tate Building, Melbourne University →

Original post 15 May 2019: Eulinya, in #IrvingRoad, #Toorak, was built for fabric importer and #statesavingsbankofvictoria chairman Sir William McBeath in 1926 (later home to GJ Coles, and now Lindsay Fox). It was designed by #WalterButler, who did quite a few big houses for the elite. There’s not many Victorian mansions left in Toorak, but … Continue reading Eulinya, Toorak, a bit Tudor, and a bit Arts & Crafts →

Repost this day in 2018: Two then newish Docklands towers, the angly one by @dko_architecture, the other by @mirvacdesign. Nice enough, but still perhaps an odd place to live. I guess I like older buildings more !

30 October 2024 Finally got see it for myself and yep it’s terrible. This is the manse, built in 1859 for the adjacent Wesley Church, completed in 1858, both designed by the great Joseph Reed in rugged bluestone Gothic. The tower proposed in 2015 basically maximises floor space by curving in around it, then curving … Continue reading Wesley Church Manse, yuk →