Repost this day 2019: Generally considered #IMPei’s gift to #Melbourne, the #twintowered, #citywithinacity #CollinsPlace, initial design prob c1970, ANZ tower finished 1978, the hotel tower in 1981. Seems not Pei himself though, since the #PeiCobbFreed website has a CV for #HenryCobb listing it as his, and he did the big towers it seems, but let … Continue reading Collins Place (not IM Pei) →

In #HighStreetThornbury, another one of those fine #ArtDeco #CommonwealthBank branches, symmetrical, with slightly leaning out fins, and the original terrazzo entry floor pattern. There’s another about 2 miles down the road, corner Separation Street. They usually had great grills /gates too, but long gone here. They havnt even repainted since the bank left though. Another … Continue reading Art Deco Commonwealth Bank x 2 →

1 February 2021 A lot of #ArtNouveau details under the cream paint on the 1915 #KilkennyInn, cnr Lonsdale and King, probably showing the hand of #RobertHaddon, doing work for #SydneySmithAndOgg, who did many many pubs 1900-1920s. The circular open corner is also very unusual - and about all that would be left if the current … Continue reading Not just a facade ! Kilkenny Inn, King Street. →

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 →