The transformation of the Edwardian #OsloGuestHouse for #theBlock2019 is complete ! I’ve got photos going back to Dec last year when they started. Not bad, but annoyingly in the currently popular black and grey #colourscheme, and the #palmtrees are pathetically lacking in fronds (I suppose they’ll grow) and I reckon they detract a bit too, … Continue reading The Block 2019 – 9/10 for the frontage restoration. →

A nice Victorian pub ? No, a pretty bad reproduction from 2007, built after the original 1871 Victoria Hotel in #SouthMelbourne was demolished in 2003 because it became ‘unstable’ while they were reducing it to two facades for the giant development behind. It’s made out of #tiltslab panels, you can see the joins and #weepholes. … Continue reading Historic reproduction fail. →

#NewburnFlats in #QueensRoadSouthMelbourne were built in 1939-41, and was prob the most high-profile announcement of the arrival of European #Modernist multi-level living in #Melbourne - which is no surprise since it was designed by recently arrived German background Swiss trained architect #FrederickRomberg, who was also the developer, so he could do what he liked (almost). … Continue reading Newburn Flats, Frederick Romberg bringing Euro Modern to Melbs, 1939-41. →

#MunicipalDesign is getting better, but still not as satisfying as the olden days - this is the base of a #tramwire support post in #FitzroyStreetStKilda, which for some reason has a new one right next to it, which is not only not decorated, just plain steel, but much fatter - why are new posts bigger … Continue reading Tram Poles old and new. →

Every building in the #MelbCBD has a story - I knew this as #AncientTimesHouse, a private collection of mummies and antiquities I saw on a school trip in the 70s (no idea who ran it..) though it’s been a shop ? and apartments for ages now - and clearly it’s an Edwardian #redbrick #warehouse, apparently … Continue reading Ancient Times and Communism in Chinatown →

#Greyday, shiny tower, happens to be almost on axis with #MarketLane off #BourkeStreet. It’s the tower that’s next to the #WesleyChurch, far too big and too close imho.

16 July 2019 After the @heritagecouncilvic @openhousemelb Heritage Lecture last night by #KerstinThompson at the #VictorianCollegeoftheArts in Southbank, we got a tour of of one of her works, the conversion of the 1912 #PoliceStables last year into studios ! Lovely work, very nicely detailed, fits in the space snugly, though I was a bit disappointed … Continue reading Police Stables transformed by KTA →

The fabbo #DomedBankingChamber, I should have had my wide angle, so here’s a horizontal and a video ! And what I said in 2016 : The extraordinary and somewhat spookily lit 'domed banking chamber', was originally the banking hall of the head branch of the Commercial Bank of Australia (which I remember as 'the CBA'). … Continue reading I would have banked there just for this – the Domed Banking Chamber →

So many faves, here’s another, a rather neglected one, #ElizabethChambers, near the station, built 1890, another one of those #tallthinfrontages, designed by #WilliamSalway, in a nicely decorative #RenaissanceRevival with a #QueenAnne flavouring. After 40 years of neglect, with everything above grind floor vacant, it’s going to be restored, and not a #facadism job either, just … Continue reading Elizabeth Chambers, tall thin and gorgeous. →

#Stanhill in Queens Road is thrillingly #Modernist, all off-white concrete and huge areas of glass, a set of stacked volumes that get higher and step forward, giving every flat great views over the oval to #AlbertPark. Designed by #FrederickRomberg in 1943, built 1947-50, a time when restrictions meant not much was being built, let alone … Continue reading Stanhill, Modernist landmark, Frederick Romberg, 1947-50 →