15 March 2022 The design for the NGV Contemporary on Southbank has been released, and I really like it! I think the architect Angelo Candelapas is doing things nobody else is doing - a kind of very refined Brutalism that ends up beautiful. Almost all his work is in Sydney so far. I like very … Continue reading NGV Contemporary →

So finally got to see for myself what’s left of the former Le Louve boutique for myself - though it looks fine, the only original thing is the 1920s shopfront. This was a famous invite-only boutique, operating here from the 30s until 2013, run by Lillian Wightman, who refused to sell to Nauru House in … Continue reading What was Le Lourve, now all new →

Repost from 2016: Spier&Crawford #winemerchants rather elaborate 1888 #warehouse on William Street, near Little Lon, designed by the young #NahumBarnet in a distinctively chunky over-scaled Victorian #mannerist style, with fun grapevine detail! Always liked it, but only see it a few months/year thanks to the #peskytrees. #Latergram from 2011 taken as part of the listing … Continue reading Mannerist warehouse on William →

1 March 2022 I’m worried not only for the people of Ukraine, but their fantastic architectural heritage too, not only old Baroque churches and Neoclassical palaces, but Kyiv is also actually full of great old apartment buildings from the 1880s-1910s, when the Russian Empire finally had its industrial revolution and the middle class grew a … Continue reading Ukrainian architectural heritage →

February 2022 Woy Woy, Marine Parade, Elwood, 1936. Photo Rohan Storey, 2019, just after renovations and repainting. This article was published in the Summer, 2022 issue of Spirit of Progress, the journal of the Art Deco and Modernism Society of Australia. Last year I went to photograph Woy Woy, the bold blocky 1930s Modernist apartment … Continue reading Geoffrey Harley Mewton, Modernist Pioneer →

2019: Coming up Jackson Street in the late afternoon, the #StKildaCoffeePalace in Grey Street often looks so impressive. And nicely worn, not overly restored, ‘cos it isn’t. It’s one of the first ‘temperance hotels’, also known as Coffee Palaces, opening in 1882. It was created by extensively rebuilding the St Kilda Assembly Room, which had … Continue reading St Kilda Coffee Palace →

Feb 2022 Flinders Street Station has always been a sense incomplete. The design was won in a competition in 1899 by architects Fawcett & Ashworth (who both worked for the Railways), and the State Library has their elevations, the only drawings thought to survive, which show the Flinders Street and Swanston Street sides but nothing … Continue reading Flinders Street Station – as it might have been. →

Repost 2019: The most fabulous #shopfront in #Melbourne, possibly Australia, in #RipponleaVillage, an elaborate creation in coppered metalwork, #leadlight, and timber, described as a ‘showpiece’ for #BrinsmeadsPharmacy, built in 1918, fittings by #ThomasDuff & Sons. The building was designed by #SydneySmithandOgg - not for Mr Brinsmead, but for Mr Dalton who had bought the business, … Continue reading Brinsmeads Pharmacy Ripponlea →

15 February 2022 The Corkman pub has been rebuilt ! But as an art work, 3/4 scale. Called ‘Distant Things Appear Suddenly Near', by Irish artist Sean Lynch, and funded by the City of Melbourne, it sits at the north end of University Square, facing the empty pub site, now a temporary park. This is … Continue reading Corkman rebuilt ! →

This incredible thing in pic 1 is the first approved design for Parliament house in Melbourne, from 1855 – when Victoria only had 200,000 people. It was designed by Peter Kerr and John Knight, who oversaw the building of the chambers and library 1856–1860, then nothing happened for 18 years. In 1879 Peter Kerr alone … Continue reading Parliament House, earlier designs →