14 July 2024 Photos winter 2021; a big severe bluestone thing half hiding behind trees and creeper and shadows, not the best pics. Anyway, the front ‘A Block’ was built 1860-1867, designed by Gustav Joachimi of the Public Works Department in a very restrained Italianate style, with no decoration whatsoever, and multiple entrances for some … Continue reading Victoria Barracks →

13 July 2024 In The Age today: Shenley Croft, a very interesting 1906 Edwardian Art&Crafts style house in Mangarra Road Canterbury by architect John Edmond Burke was unfortunately largely destroyed by fire in Dec last year, and @cityofboroondara is trying to force the owner to rebuild. It was sold to a property investor in 2019, … Continue reading Destroyed by fire, to be rebuilt ? →

12 July 2024 I’ve always quite liked this Modernist curtain wall bldg in Collins Street next to the Block; being narrow and under the 40m height limit it fits in, but also stands out with its red spandrels. It was built for Allan’s Music Store in 1957, and designed by Godfrey Spowers Hughes Mewton & … Continue reading Allan’s Music Modern →

11 July 2024 The c1960 Nylex Sign was in the Age today, noting that the developer Caydon went bust two years ago, and the Richmond Maltings site remains part vacant, part demolished - and now I look closer Im a bit aghast again at the development permitted by Heritage Victoria in 2018. At first they … Continue reading Nylex Sign and silos →

10 July 2024 This great stonking pile was called the Cromwell Building, and once stood on the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth. Five floors of projecting pilasters, deep set windows, big circular windows in the ‘attic’ floor, and two stubby towers. It was built in late 1891, and designed by a team of DC Askew, … Continue reading Cromwell Building, and postmodern Pavilion →

9 July 2016 A most excellent example of #polychromebrick in Webb Street Fitzroy. Probably 1880s. Update 2024: It was tiny! And rather heavily done over c1980, sandblasting the bricks and opening up the interior, judging from sale pics from 2012, and since then done again with a big rear extension. It’s part of a row … Continue reading Polychrome brick beauties, Fitzroy →

8 July 2024 Very cute but curious old shop/house on the east side of St Kilda Road, near Alma Road, showing the angle of the lots to the street. It looks like a house with an added shop, but it was built 1867, and you can see it in a photo of the street in … Continue reading Old shop survivor, St Kilda Road →

7 July 2024 Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank, photos from 2021. Opened in 2009, it was designed by @armarchitecture - the idea is it’s like a precious package, half opened still in its bubble wrap/polystyrene, and the bluestone side is the box it came in. Crazy and a bit literal, but I like it ! Especially … Continue reading Melbourne Recital Centre →

7 July 2014 I pass this place every other day on the way to the supermarket, cnr Fitzroy & Argyle Streets, Fitzroy. It’s going to be redeveloped, fortunately not by #facadism ! Left more or less as is, with an extension to one side for aus vollees intnl. Anyway theres a heritage report so I … Continue reading Brick factory, Fitzroy →

6 July 2024 This rather mad thing once stood at 480 Flinders Street; it was a renovation of an old pub in 1915 to create a home for the wharfie’s union, and one of the very few things known to have designed by Robert Haddon (though as a ‘design consultant’ he had a hand in … Continue reading Wharf Labourers Building →