One of #myfavouritebuildings, the McCray & Way film company offices of 1983, down #FrancisLane in #SouthMelbourne, but #Biltmoderne, the original name of #starchitects @wood_marsh (when they had three partners). This is one of their few early works still intact. Almost the definition of #Postmodernism; a bit of #baroque and bit of #Victorian (pressed cement bosses … Continue reading Postmodern delight : McCray & Way film company, 1983, South Melbourne, Biltmoderne →

A series of excellent Victorian parapets in #clarendonstreetsouthmelbourne, a bit larger and more elaborate than usual - and there’s one with a book, must’ve been a bookshop, and another with a #wheatsheaf for a bakery ! #melbterraceparapets

Fab #CoatofArms, probably from the 1880s, well before #Federation, but it was being talked about, and designs similar to this were popular - this seems to the #MelbourneCoatofArms with a lively #emu and #kangaroo flanking. Love the extra Baroque #brokenpediment too. #ClarendonStreetSouthMelbourne.

18 November 2018: #FlindersStreetStation #tiles in the #DegravesStreetSubway all cleaned and broken ones replaced, very schmick. Second photo looks blurry but its tiles that havnt been cleaned. The new tiles are whiter, or maybe they’re old patching ? Not sure. The tiles in the toilets are more even. Very hard to exactly match old #crazedtiles. … Continue reading Flinders Street Station tiles →

This is the sort of place my mother used to call #workingmanscottage- an excellent example of a little #VictorianTerrace in #DorcasStreet, #SouthMelbourne, with intact #tuckpointing on the #polychromebrick, Victorian colour scheme, even a good plain #picketfence, rather than an overly ornate one. Probably intact because it’s on the #EmeraldHillEstate, the whole block that was was … Continue reading Lovely brick cottage, South Melbourne →

14 November 2018 Monaco House, #McBrideCharlesRyan, 2007; a crinkled corner pointing up to the sky on a tiny side lane, love it; and now that I look it up properly, I want to see inside too ! Pretend I’m emigrating to Monaco ? Cute little pop of purple, a signature colour of theirs. A bit … Continue reading Origami Architecture →

November 2018 😮 Went looking for St Kiernan flats on the #OrmondEsplanade, designed by #EsmondDorney, and built in 1939 - and found this ! Got a permit 2 years ago to ‘restore to 30s grandeur with new apartments with beach views’ but the one-line planning permission I found didn’t say ‘keep only three exterior walls’ … Continue reading Just a facade : St Kiernan flats, Elwood. →

8 November 2018 Love it. #RoyalMailHouse, #SwanstonStreet, 1963, #DGraemeLumsden, possibly the most high profile example of #MidCenturyModernMelbourne that comes from the fun, decorative, stream rather than pure minimalist or structuralist. Anyway, still looks good despite losing (for no particular reason !) about 15 years ago the verticals that joined the projecting window hoods, making it … Continue reading Op Art Architecture: Royal Mail House, 1963 →

7 November 2018: I do like this one, though it’s rather massive in an otherwise low scale area around the GPO. London Stores 1925 by the prolific Tompkins brothers #tompkinsandtompkins (who also did Myers Bourke Street opposite 10 years later). Excellent example of #CommercialPalazzo, an idea straight from US really, sometimes called #beauxarts, the 'base … Continue reading London Stores, Bourke Street, 1925, Tompkins & Tompkins →

‘The Lawn at Flemington’, #MelbourneCup, 1887, one of my fave depictions of #MarvellousMelbourne, I mean look at the crowds ! Also love the detail of the figures in the foreground, in the height of 1880s fashions with #bustles and #bonnets. The artist, visiting Austrian Carl Kahler, was said to have asked various wealthy people for … Continue reading Melbourne Cup: The Lawn at Flemington, Carl Kahler, 1887 →