15 January 2021: Hosie’s Hotel, in a shot I took in 2013. Always liked this one, and what’s not to like ? Jaunty 1950s shapes and colours. The architects #MussenMackayAndPotter weren’t doctrinaire modernists, but it was very modern for Melbourne in 1956; it was built in anticipation of the Olympic Games that year, opening 15 … Continue reading So very 50s →

9 January 2025 A lesser but quite nice work by @dentoncorkermarshall in Flinders Street from 1989, which has suffered a bit since then. As in the first photo (possibly 1989), it once had bright yellow fins, and a stylised cornice. My photos from 2015 show how faded the yellow was by then, and the cornice … Continue reading Faded Pomo in Flinders Street →

10 January 2025 This extravaganza of High Victorian stucco makes quite a statement, but oddly nobody knows much about its creation. It sits boldly on the corner Nicholson Street and King William in Fitzroy, near the Exhibition Buildings, and I took the pics in 2014. It’s on the Heritage Register, but all they say is … Continue reading Swainsthorpe House, Fitzroy →

6 January 2025 The St Kilda Synagogue in Charnwood Grove was completed in 1927, much larger than the first 1872/1904 one across the road, able to seat 1000. It was designed by Joseph Plottel in a suitably exotic stylised Byzantine, with a big low dome (which actually you only see from a distance down the … Continue reading St Kilda Synagogue →

6 January 2025 A bit of Brutalism hiding down Poplar Road in Parkville which I snapped in 2014 (first pic however is @brutalistcharm 2016, better than mine). I knew nothing about it then, and now it’s now proposed for heritage listing in the very recent Parkville Heritage Review, which tells me that it’s the WR … Continue reading Brutalist Lab in Parkville →

4 January 2025 The Presbyterian Church on Barkly Street St Kilda has dominated the hill since 1885, and just sold after only 2 weeks on the market. It’s got so little land, no room for underground parking for instance, so perhaps it was another denomination, or going to be a large house ? The church … Continue reading Presbyterian Church St Kilda →

2 January 2016, updates 2025: A pair of similar grand 1880s banks in High Street Northcote, both quite intact, and both with first floor arcaded porticos. The first was the #LondonCharteredBank, can’t find a precise date, but was by #OakdenAddisonanandKemp - a surprising style for them, they liked to do the latest Queen Anne, which … Continue reading Two grand banks, High Street Northcote →

31 December 2024 I knew the St James Park Estate in Hawthorn had some big houses, but I’d forgotten how big (as my friend driving me around said f** off big). It all started off as the huge estate for the bluestone Gothic Invergowrie, 1st pic, first part built 1840s, and it’s still there nestled … Continue reading St James Park Estate Hawthorn →

29 December 2024 The new refurb of 120 Collins Street by @hassell_studio includes a new glass entrance, which is nicer than the stripey lumpy grey it was before, but I think that sharp roof introduces a discordant note on Collins Street. And it wasn’t necessarily a good idea to reveal side wall that was never … Continue reading 120 Collins Street →

30 December 2024 I posted a pic of this curiosity in 2018, saying I’d seen the plans about 1994, but couldn’t believe they were serious, so vaguely surprised when I saw it for real ! Not only is it rather literal ‘Parisian’, it’s got rather too much mansard roof, and it’s squeezed down a narrow … Continue reading Paris ‘style’ in Toorak →