Original post 30 July 2020: There’s these grand terraces across the road from my place in Dalgety Street St Kilda, with huge front gardens, and I’m a bit surprised to learn they’re 1858 ! Called Lansdowne Terrace, they still have their original very simple elegant timber verandahs. There were 6, but three were demolished c1970 … Continue reading Grand Terraces, Dalgety Street, St Kilda, 1858 →

Original post 28 July 2020 Save the MLC building in North Sydney - sign the Petition ! Sydney’s first really big office block, designed by #BatesSmartMcCutcheon, and completed just before their more famous #ICIbuilding, it’s a fine essay in#glasscurtainwall, with the added twist of patterning in the spandrels, giving movement to the otherwise massive wall. … Continue reading Save the MLC building in North Sydney! →

Original post 27 July 2020 The #GreatMelbourneTelescope was installed at the #MelbourneObservatory in 1869 and was one of the biggest in the world - I thought it was long gone, then heard it hadn’t disappeared completely - turns out there’s a huge restoration project putting it back together and recreating parts at #Scienceworks only got … Continue reading The Great Melbourne Telescope (1869) →

Original post 27 July 2020 I didn’t realise that the rebuild of #LaMama after the fire in may 2018 involved a whole new building (even though it was announced a year ago !). Anyway, the #openhousemelbourne video on the topic has the architect #MegWhite (also an actor) giving a bit more detail, that not only … Continue reading La Mama reconstruction plans →

Original post 4 October 2019 This unassuming little building in #HardwareLane is actually one of the first examples of #ArtDeco in Melbs, dating from sept 1930, about 6 months after Harry Norris’s Bourke St Coles, which was the first. #CycloneHouse was built as the showroom for the #cyclonewirefence company, and was designed by #ArthurPurnell, who … Continue reading Cyclone House, Hardware Lane, 1930, one of Melbs first Deco. →

Original post 5 October 2019 The Jewish Holocaust Centre Melbourne in Selwyn Street #Elsternwick is partly in this building, which is rather attractive and unusual, but I don’t know for sure what it was. Perhaps it’s the #Dispensary Hall that is mentioned from the early 20s ? Which might have been built by the Hibernian … Continue reading Dance Hall to Holocaust Museum →

Original post 25 July 2020 Another great video in #openhousemelbourne - on the #SidneyMyerMusicBowl structure, with original engineering drawings and old photos I’ve not seen before. I now understand that the theres 35 long cables (held firm by a 13m deep foundation) that drape, while the cross cables are there to hold it down in … Continue reading Myer Music Bowl engineering →

Original post 25 July 2020 It’s #OpenHouseMelbourne virtual weekend, lots to scroll through, I found the Governor Dessau's husband Tony Howard doing a tour of #GoovernmentHouseMelbourne, where he repeats the often told story that the ballroom is bigger than that at #BuckinghamPalace (1856), which displeased Queen Vic, who said make it shorter, but too late … Continue reading The Government House Ballroom IS longer than the Buckingham House one. →

Original post 24 July 2020 Photos 15 July Unusual - looks like what was maybe a pair of Victorian houses or an usually wide one, executed in nice #polychromebrick, that got fine over if day in the 30s, with a new stylish entry, but leaving the bricks mostly untouched. It may have been a private … Continue reading Mr Fletcher’s boarding house, Port Melbourne →

Original post 24 July 2020 And suddenly it’s nearly all there - looking much bigger curvy and concretey than I thought - but I think I like it ! I hadn’t realised that it really cascades down, right to the footpath wall, the part I didn’t like, but I see it fits really. #victorianpridecentre, @grantamonarchitects … Continue reading Pride Centre update →