Once voted Geelong’s ugliest building (I think) Ive always always liked this one, the #GeelongStateOffices, completed 1979. Or rather, I've always been impressed by the chutzpah required to actually design it and build it - and it was the State Government ! Guess they wanted to make a splash. Plus the Victorian #PublicWorksDepartment was totally … Continue reading Brutalist Beauty – State Offices, Geelong, 1979.
It is a splendid thing, all #EdwardianBaroque curved bits and knobs and ins and outs - and I was surprised many years ago to see a photo showing that inside the clock mechanism is a tiny box ! 1910 electric clock tech. #FawcettandAshworth, HPC Ashworth was an engineer, so guess he knew what he was … Continue reading Flinders Street Station Clocktower.
I’m not a fan of 60s sculpture, and in fact I’ve never looked closely at this one. ‘Children’s Tree’, by #TomBass, 1963, Elizabeth Street, cnr Collins. But I do like #DrumMan think I remember he started out with only buckets ?
23 November 2018: Didn’t know this large elaborate Victorian thing in #ToorakRoad was #CoffeePalace, until I edited the Wikipedia article on Coffee Palaces (like you do) where it’s clear the Melbourne was the epicentre for the movement to build residential hotels that didn’t serve alcohol (the most visible result of the #temperance movement, hoping to … Continue reading South Yarra Coffee Palace, 1887, still there – oops now just facades.
The impressive Richard Allen & Sons warehouse in #FlindersLane is a case of perfectly fine #heritagecompromise - a whole 18m depth was kept, as well as the lane, #RamsdenPlace to one side - from an old #Mahlstedt map I can see that this is half the building - it had a big brick wall in … Continue reading Richard Allen & Sons, Flinders Lane, first Romanesque
#TheComoCentre, #ToorakRoad #SouthYarra, always think it’s odd, a suburban shopping mall transplanted to the inner suburbs, where there’s arnt many, don’t like them but I know that's how most people actually shop. This one always seems empty, but then I only see it when I go to a movie in the evening. The complex in … Continue reading The Como Centre mall, South Yarra, stylish-is but always empty.
21 November 2018 #ClarendonStreetSouthMelbourbe is very intact because of its unique history - the whole block, the #EmeraldHillEstate, was originally the Melbourne Protestant Orphan Asylum, till 1877, when they sold the middle bit for the #SouthMelbourneTownHall, but hung onto the rest, leasing the blocks for 50 year terms, so it was pretty much all built … Continue reading Emerald Hill Estate, South Melbourne
#ThingsISaved/#ThingsIdidntSave - I might be the only one who knows what these are and why they’re here - if you’ve ever looked up in the food court at Coles in #AclandStreet, you’re looking at a #heritagecompromise, #rooftrusses from what was here before put back in a different spot as part of the c2000 #AclandCourt shopping … Continue reading Things I sort-of-saved: St Kilda Market/ Acland Court roof trusses
21 November 2018 Taradale, #BrightonRoad, #Elwood, 1936, Walter Mason; went looking for this one (it’s practically in Glenhuntly!) thinking it was by Esmond Dorney - it’s got his signature #semicircular balcony projections, and great modelling overall of horizontals and verticals - but it’s not ! Don’t know much about Walter Mason except he did the … Continue reading Taradale, Elwood, 1936, not Esmond Dorney
November 2018 My favourite bit of #streetscape in #Melbourne, a whole strip of crunchy, masonry facades, all #ragtrade #warehouses built 1898-1940. It’s the south side of #FlindersLane looking west from #SwanstonStreet. Everything is under the 99ft #heightlimit (the limit on the big streets was higher, 132ft- that limit was reimposed in 1982 thankfully). So the … Continue reading Flinders Lane streetscape is the best !
If the Nazi's never took power, would Berlin have Europe's tallest skyscraper and East Prussia be a honeymoon destination ?
Storey of Melbourne 