Category: Uncategorized
16 December 2019 #ChristchurchStKilda, pass it often, today the sun just right, making the Sorrento sandstone (almost) glow. Designed by #PurchasAndSwire in 1854 (#AlbertPurchas wasn’t quite 30 years old), this front and the nave built by 1857. It’s a bit severe I think, though that’s not a bad thing, #EarlyEnglish style was rough with small … Continue reading Christ Church St Kilda
#BirdsonaWire - some #RainbowLorikeets in Victoria Street #StKilda, boy are they noisy ! But delightful. Don’t know if St Kilda has more ? Didn’t see them this much in Fitzroy. Or maybe it’s #climatechange, I don’t remember them being here in the early 90s. Hmmm
December 2019 #BoerWar Memorial, #AlfredSquare, #StKilda, 1905; designed by #ArthurPeck, though its assumed that it’s probably also/mostly #RobertHaddon, who consulted a lot. He was almost the only architect in Victoria to fully embrace #ArtNouveau, and this has all the sinuous lines and vegetal motifs of that style. Also, it’s green, so green. No idea if … Continue reading St Kilda Boer War Memorial – Art Nouveau by the beach.
#FootscrayTownHall, #JosephPlottel, 1936. A delightful essay in a very American mode, a combo of Bryzantine and Florentine, it’s more about effect than an accurate style, with lovely variegated brickwork and very crisp detailing in buff-coloured #faience, which goes a bit Celtic. Plottel had done the St Kilda Synagogue in the 20s in a more clearly … Continue reading Footscray Town Hall, exotic styling from 1936
I think I’m right to be jealous of the @cityofsydney’s mandatory design competition process for large projects (policy here) - look at all these lovely projects, all that brick and timber, and nicely scaled public space - ok they need the spaces more than we go what with the narrow streets in the CBD, but … Continue reading Something Sydney can teach us – Design Competitions as part of the planning permit !
Not my photo but I couldn’t wait - just discovered that #MewtonAndGrounds did a ‘Scout Settlement’ project in #NottStreet, #PortMelbourne in late 1936, and it’s still there ! The Scout Settlement wasn’t the Scouts, but similar, providing recreation rooms for boys ‘from the more congested suburbs’ in this case the very working class Port Melb. … Continue reading Geoffrey Mewton discovery !
Nov 2019 Built for #Kodak in CollinsStreet near Swanston in 1935, designed by #OakleyAndParkes, it was notable for using #StainlessSteel in the spandrels, as well as the shopfront, which has just been reconstructed ! Looks pretty accurate, except maybe the curve is bigger, and doesn’t have the vertical framing. Don’t know if @thehourglass_australia got a … Continue reading Kodak’s Art Deco shopfront reconstructed!
The #AlbertParkHotel, yet another case of #facadism, but at least you can’t tell. And it looks like there wasn’t much inside to tell of it’s history, having been altered many times, the first being a 1930s #Moderne makeover of the Victorian original. But being so picky like I am, they could have retained some of … Continue reading Albert Park Hotel – more facadism.
I knew the #acousticshed over the #melbournecitysquare site for the #melbournemetro town hall station was going to be big, but seeing it is another thing. It’s 20m high, 30m wide and 90m long. And it’s going to be there for about 5 years. Ps I think no need to build a new city square I … Continue reading Great big shed in Swanston Street
#LowtherHall in #Essendon was in #openhousemelbourne but I missed it ! Closed at 2. But you can see from the street, and I found lots of historic photos. Became Anglican #GirlsSchool named after the then Archbishop in 1919, bought from #EWCole, of #ColesBookArcade, he bought it when he was in his 80s, that’s him in … Continue reading Gone with the Wind Mansion in Essendon
If the Nazi's never took power, would Berlin have Europe's tallest skyscraper and East Prussia be a honeymoon destination ?
