April 2026 The Presgrave Building, #littlecollinsstreet, #MarcusBarlow, 1935/7, a bit of fine Streamlined Moderne (a subset of Art Deco) doing a good job of standing out in this narrow street, with a curved banded corner on #howeyplace and a bit of a tower motif. Though the horizontal speedlines turn the corner then abruptly stop. Marcus … Continue reading The Presgrave Building
First posted Instagram 3 Nov 2019. 😮 This #colourscheme on the old #AngusAndRobertson building on #ElizabethStreet has just been revealed (thanks for the photo @tristan_davies) - it’s cheery but so very wrong ! Apparently it’s some kind of mistake, and they (not sure who, but @plusarchitecture are moving in) certainly didn’t get a heritage permit. … Continue reading NOT heritage colours, Elizabeth Street
2 February 2025 Photos of what’s now Collingwood Yards in Johnston Street I took in 2014 and 2020, plus two recent ones. Fabulous striking entry, with an arched rising sun motif, and scalloped brickwork above, a fine effort by Public Works chief architect Percy Everett, completed in 1939 as the Collingwood Technical School. It is … Continue reading Collingwood Tech, 1938
First posted Instagram 3 Feb 2020, updated 2026 Went to the #TammieBrown show yesterday (hilarious) so of course snapped the #KeithHaringMural, which is looking fine. He painted it in 1984 on a big blank side wall, with the help of the students. He was just hitting his peak fame at the time, with his unique … Continue reading Keith Haring mural Collingwood, 1984
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.
If the Nazi's never took power, would Berlin have Europe's tallest skyscraper and East Prussia be a honeymoon destination ?
