10 October 2021: Rather unexpected to find this in a reserve in Essendon West ! (and thanks to @alisonmp for the pics). This was built as the Infant Welfare Centre in 1963 - the City of Keilor Engineer Garnet Price thought up this solution for the uneven ground, taking his cues from some of the … Continue reading Space age community centre in Essendon →

Here’s something quite spectacular, in Cotham Road, Kew, currently for sale- Ross House, originally Charleville, built 1889, for Charles Donaldson, architect H Shallers (who I’ve never heard of). I’ve come to realise that these mansions are all somewhat the same, with variety mainly on whether there’s a tower, and in the verandahs, with solid ones … Continue reading Victorian Mansion for sale, Kew →

10 October 2017: #NationalGalleryofVictoria main #courtyard. Original design #RoyGrounds, completed 1968; exterior and courtyard walls clad in Melbourne #bluestone, pretty unusual for the 60s. The #Glassroof and that triangular thing masking the escalators part of complete overhaul in 2003 designed by #MarioBellini. What happened still makes me mad, there’s more floor space, but the woody … Continue reading NGV, so altered →

October 2014: If you look up, there’s lots to see ! Looks rather Islamic, and happens to be an Afghan Restaurant 25 November 2024 Photo of some ghost signs in Brunswick Street in 2016, above @lucrezia_and_de_sade near Alexandra Parade. Can’t read any of it except perhaps laundromat, which would therefore be 1950s ? Did they … Continue reading Brunswick Street shop tops →

14 September 2017 Repost 2017: The old (second) #AMPbuildingmelbourne, Collins corner Market Street, 1931. I can see why it’s described as ‘cubic’, but you have to be at the right angle, a function of being built up to the #132ftheightlimit. Suitably massive for an insurance co, it’s very fine, all Sydney sandstone, stylised classical, with … Continue reading AMP Building, Collins Street →

Repost 2019: This small but cute Art Deco block on #HoddleStreet in #EastMelbourne has an odd splay and steps back down the side - not just to offer a nicer side garden, but in order not to build on the #HurstbridgeLine ! Which was connected to the city via this cutting and tunnel through a … Continue reading Flats on the edge →

Repost 2018: The #MelbourneMint, the second best thing by #JJClark after the Treasury Building. A fine #RenaissancePalazzo design featuring paired #ionic columns on the #pianonobile. This was the admin building for a complex that included smelting and stamping the gold sovereigns that were i think English pounds, as this was a branch of the #RoyalMint. … Continue reading The Mint →

Repost 2019: 10,12 and 14 #PowlettStreet, #EastMelbourne, 1886, all matching and perfectly intact. And all named after English places, where of course most Melburnians came from in the 19thC. Exeter, which is in Devon, and Edgcombe, which isn’t a place in the Uk hmm. Update: Edgecombe is a name for some cottages in a town … Continue reading English place names, East Melbourne →

Repost 2016: Spencer Street first opened in 1859, and grew as a collection of buildings from various periods, inadequate by 1891 when a grand new building was proposed, sadly never built (possibly designed by Mr Snow of the Existing Lines Branch of the Railways). They did built the enormous offices on Spencer Street, planned at … Continue reading Spencer Street Station, almost →

Repost 2017: Just when you think something is old enough to be worthy of protection, it gets changed. It happens about the 30 year mark. This one was built in 1988, so pretty close! Sad to see the #Postmodern grid covered by #parametric #foldedplate (so shiny) #222ExhibitionStreet, #DentonCorkerMarshall; new work by @graypuksand. So much for … Continue reading Postmodern cruelty →