First published Instagram 6 November 2019 Delightful little #ArtDeco number on #ABeckettStreet, built 1939, for A G Way & Co, sheet metal workers, especially milk cans 😮. Designed by Alder & Lacey (who I’ve never heard of). I like the way the darker brick horizontal #spandrels stick out a little. Fortunately got #heritagelisted as part … Continue reading Part protected, part not.
Published Instagram 7 November 2019 Sisters
Original post 7 November 2019 Didn’t look like there was anything up this stair on Crossley Street above those tiny shops, but of course its an architects office ! #HerbertAndMason, that’s Lucinda Mason, never head of them but they do shops, extensions, and hospitality eg Gingerboy (across the road) and #KingAndGodfrey. Seems to me theres … Continue reading What’s upstairs ? Architects of course.
Original post 2 February 2020 Photos 1 October 2019 Eagle House in #BourkeStreet was completed in 1972, and replaced #OxfordChambers of the previous post. Designed by supreme Modernists #YunckenFreeman it’s actually #LateModern, when it was all about slick surfaces, and this is the stand out example, and so it’s on the #VictorianHeritageRegister. I nominated it … Continue reading Late Modernism in Bourke Street – Eagle House, 1972
First posted 1 February 2020 While I’m on #lostmelbourne, there’s the famous ones, but there were quite a lot of ornate #highvictorian ‘chambers’ like this that mushroomed in the 1880s and disappeared in the 50s-70s, mostly with only a few photos now in archives - and @heraldsunphoto_retro has a great collection slowly filling up their … Continue reading Oxford Chambers, Bourke Street, 1889-1970
First posted 31 January 2020 The Hotel Australia, in the middle of #CollinsStreet, opened June 1939, and hard to believe, but it was demolished as late as 1989. I remember being shocked when I heard (this was just before I started working at the NationalTrust), I guess it wasn’t highly regarded architecturally because it was … Continue reading Australia Hotel, Collins Street 1939, glamorous and gay.
First posted 30 January 2020: The #ChevronHotel in #StKildaRoad wasnt heritage listed an nearly demolished in the early 2000s for a high rise, but surprisingly it didn’t happen (helicopter flight paths ?), instead the main part was kept as apartments, a rear wing knocked off, and 10 storey blocks built on the inside edges of … Continue reading Chevron Hotel, St Kilda Road, 1934, high class back in the day.
First posted Instagram 28 February 2020 A bit of fun design from @johnwardlearchitects; the angular brick I mean #bricktile entry to the office block he designed plonked on top of the #ElmsFamilyHotel. I like it, though better in #redbrick like the old buildings either side, and like the little industrial bldg it replaced. In fact … Continue reading John Wardle in Spring Street
First posted Instagram 27 February 2020 The Anglican Mission To The Streets And Lanes in Spring Street was treated much better than the #ElmsFamilyHotel by the @australianunity office thing; they just took out a back corner (a kitchen) and kept the rest of it more or less intact, though I didn’t get to see the … Continue reading Spring Street Mission House done over first time in, well, maybe forever.
8 Nov 2019 😮 not a fan; but if you’re going to cantilever, at least do it a long way up and make it look like a hanging part of the building, not a whole building leaning out. That angling inward bit is unfortunate, and wasn’t meant to be there, it was just going hang, … Continue reading 80 Collins Street new tower
If the Nazi's never took power, would Berlin have Europe's tallest skyscraper and East Prussia be a honeymoon destination ?
Storey of Melbourne 