First posted instagram January 23, 2020 For anyone not from Melbs, this is northern Victoria topsoil /desert dust come loose due to the drought, blown by the storms the last few days, then dumped by yesterday’s downpour. I read it on the news then was surprised walking down the street it was literally everywhere ! … Continue reading Mallee dust lands in Melbs
From my friends at @melbourne_heritage_action - A case of #facadism+a bit more, almost but not quite acceptable (thanks samantha stoney for the photo) - this 1938 factory on A’Beckett Street is a particularly notable example of European Modernism, designed by #EFBillson, a pupil of #WalterBurleyGriffin, but that didn’t stop the original 2015 proposal that would … Continue reading More Melbourne facadism
Melbourne Gotham, one of the interwar towers that manages to look like an #ArtDeco skyscraper even though built under the #132ftHeightLimit (40m). Designed by the Commonwealth Dep of Works for the #CommonwealthBank, and competed 1941. I like how it’s one-sided, all nicely detailed on the laneway side, but the other side is quite visible, an … Continue reading Melbourne Gotham
Creepy creepy #MyersChristmasWindows keeps to the tradition of not quite cute in fact a bit creepy. Including the weirdly jerky movements. #SnugglepotAndCuddlepie gone bad.
Help needed - this is #MaryImmaculateIvanhoe, designed by #MockridgeStahleAndMitchell and built in 1961, and pretty intact - BUT the parish has submitted plans to ruin it - they were going to demolish but I think that better than this mess ! Additions on all sides, with angular and curved walls in brown brick, demolishing the … Continue reading How to wreck a church
#FootscrayCityPrimarySchool, which I think is pretty cute, a madly squished up collection of #Tudor features, built 1887, added to the more typically spreading rectangular 1877 earlier part, set back from the street. Both parts seem to have all original windows, which is rare. I’ve put the 1960s photo first because of that #poorlyplacedtree. I think … Continue reading Picturesque Footscray City Primary, 1877 + 1887.
A lovely well preserved #melbourneterrace, with original #tuckpointed #polychromebrick, all reasonably typical, except the #castironlace balustrade panels, very heavy floral, complete with fruit (?), but with curving sides, leaving some space, rather than more straight side, or joining up to create a continuous pattern. The same iron is also on another house around the corner, … Continue reading Some florid cast iron, South Melbourne
Repost 2020: Just got the 1983 book Australian Iron Lace (published in Sydney so I’d never heard of it) and the first street I look at - Ward Street, South Melb, near the market - about half the terraces have the same cast iron, though the houses themselves are different. So clearly after the first … Continue reading Six houses, same cast iron, Ward St, South Melbourne.
‘Shandon’ sits majestically on #BeaconsfieldParade near Fitzroy St #StKilda, looking might fine. Built 1885, no architect, but the unusual ‘uneven arcading’ is supposedly inspired by Pistoia Cathedral, but this is actually way more uneven. Also interesting that it’s built like a mini-palace, with the main rooms on the first floor up a grand staircase, with … Continue reading Intentionally uneven arches on Beaconsfield Parade
Now that’s how you make an entrance ! There's fabulous figures by each of the three entrances of #NondaKatsalidis’ 1994 Melbourne Terrace. They were sculpted by #PeterCorlett, and they must make every occupant here happy just to get to their front door. This one is an #atlantes, a male figure that holds up something, in … Continue reading A gift of sculpture – Melbourne Terrace, Franklin Street, 1994.
If the Nazi's never took power, would Berlin have Europe's tallest skyscraper and East Prussia be a honeymoon destination ?
