Melbourne & Australian Architecture Topics

Tram and Omnibus Building for sale

Yesterday, 23:47

by Highriser (Posted Yesterday, 23:47)
It is a great building. We visited it on Open House day. My pics are not as good as some here in this thread.
http://highriser.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-house.html

Hoyts Cinema Centre, Bourke Street

Yesterday, 22:32

by ewokracing (Posted Yesterday, 22:32)
Timezone? Laserzone? I think that was the name of the laser tag centres that popped up around Melbourne in the 90s. I got my nose broken at the Tullamarine one...

I remember a few birthday parties at either one of those places or a plaster fun house. REALLY starting to show my age now. Damn flashbacks.

As a little kid (mid 80's), I can remember that we had to go into the city to see a movie. Later on Hoyts started opening more and more centres out in the 'burbs. Greater Union always seemed like they were lagging behind, their cinemas always seemed smaller too.

Railway Museum Closes "Temporarily"

Yesterday, 22:26

by ewokracing (Posted Yesterday, 22:26)

Corio wrote:

The ARHS Museum remains closed after seven months. A little bit of work has been done by VicTrack to overcome some of the problems it said necessitated the closure. However there's still a long way to go. Even when the museum re-opens, parts of it will no longer be accessible to visitors.

Tragically, as part of VicTrack's clean-up of some of the accumulated "junk" on the site, a number of lengths of rare 160 year old Barlow rail were ignorantly carted off to Sims Metal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barlow_rail

I hope someone got a foot up the bum for that stuff up, knowing Australia and how laid back we are, I suppose they didn't.

Shame about the museum. I have good memories of it.

21-29 Wills Street Melbourne CBD. Moderne redevelopment site

Yesterday, 21:41

by robin (Posted Yesterday, 21:41)
Think it must be regraded as high risk - most of the area around it has been redeveloped for high-rises and it is not of sufficient quality to make it onto the State Register. would expect that City of Melbourne would not defend it in any way.

Templestowe homestead faces demolition

Yesterday, 19:31

by Yvette (Posted Yesterday, 19:31)
Yes, it is chunky bit of land, isn't it?

Fifty Albert - South Melbourne

Yesterday, 18:49

by hundini (Posted Yesterday, 18:49)
I found this development just off St.Kilda Rd in between King St.
294 Aprtments - 29 Storeys.
Seems to be a 'vertical vilage' with roftop gardens, bbq, spa's etc.

Nice looking IMO, subtle design in keeping with local vistas.
Better than at38 if you ask me.

Anyone got any more details about these projects?

137 Domain Road - Moderne Demolition

Yesterday, 17:20

by Highriser (Posted Yesterday, 17:20)
Demolition work has resumed today.

Melbourne photo for the day

Yesterday, 15:38

by Matt. (Posted Yesterday, 15:38)
Oh really, I had a quick look at a map I have,
and it says theres a place called James Hood Maltings near Yorkshire
which is also empty and was once storage for Yorkshire, I'm not sure if theres silo's on the site though.

Benjamin Pierce Batcheler's Bendigo

Yesterday, 11:16

by J.v.d.A. (Posted Yesterday, 11:16)
Batcheler was a professional photographer who hailed from Salem, Massachusetts. He (& two of his brothers) arrived in Melbourne in 1856 to join the Melbourne branch of his elder brother's photography firm which had opened in Collins st. Benjamin (and a brother) subsequently established their own studio in Sydney in 1858, but upon the death of Benjamin's brother Benjamin began afresh in Bendigo where he rapidly assumed the mantle of the towns leading photographer. He eventually returned to America in 1868, dying in 1891.

As with numerous photographers from this era, during his time in Bendigo Batcheler obtained government commissions to take photographs which were used to promote the area at international exhibitions in both London and Paris. His "Views of Bendigo" album of 51 photographs taken in 1861 is in the collection of the Latrobe library - the following are examples from that album (the quality varies).

The Bank of Australasia:

Town Hall:

Colonial Bank of Australasia:

Bendigo Court House:

Sayer's Brothers Brewery:

The Victoria Hotel:

Theatre Royal:

View Point Hotel:

Metropolitan Hotel:

Pall Mall:

Cemetery:

The Gaol:

Bendigo Fire Brigade:

Bendigo Street:

400 - 402 St Kilda Road Botanica

Yesterday, 11:13

by urbanejane (Posted Yesterday, 11:13)
I believe the upper windows are fake and they are using the ceiling cavity to grow certain substances.

Jane

733 Glenferrie Road Hawthorn. Mansion soon to be lost

Yesterday, 11:00

by Yvette (Posted Yesterday, 11:00)
Oh no! Not another one! Hawthorn is becoming unrecognisable. Let me guess, they will knock it down and build student accommodation, no?

All things Sydney-like

01 Sep 2010, 23:31

by Corio (Posted 01 Sep 2010, 23:31)

robin wrote:

There were changes to Liquor licensing legislation in both states that required many pubs to update their equipment and facilities. Whilst many were delicensed and closed down as a result, many others were reequipped and remodelled in the latest style - what we now call Art Deco style. The breweries engaged a number of architects who became specialists in this field. Fortunately many survive in Australian cities.

Thanks for that info. It explains a lot. I suppose the de-licensing of many pubs at the time is at least partly related to the strength of the temperance movement in the early decades of last century. That's the era when a number of areas voted to become "dry" by local option, most notably, perhaps, a number of suburbs now incorporated in the cities of Whitehorse and Boroondara in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Southern Cross Station (Spencer Street Railway Station)

01 Sep 2010, 22:35

by Highriser (Posted 01 Sep 2010, 22:35)
Wow, that You Tube vid is amazing. It is lucky that no one was injured.

'Richmond House' - Talbot

01 Sep 2010, 22:20

by J.v.d.A. (Posted 01 Sep 2010, 22:20)

Quote:

but at the same time that look appeals a lot more to me and my camera

It is a particularly nice photograph.

Sydney's dead centre

01 Sep 2010, 15:28

by Corio (Posted 01 Sep 2010, 15:28)

franfran wrote:

Mind you, imposition of a grid without consideration for any other factors can be just as bad, as in the town of Kiama, on the NSW South Coast, a favourite place of mine. You find streets that stop abruptly where there is a sudden drop and others where the roadway suddenly changes from being on the level to going up a steep hill........

The "Hoddle grid" imposed on the landscape of Melbourne had related problems, the most obvious one being the fact that Elizabeth Street happened to be exactly where an ephemeral creek ran down to the Yarra. The creek tended to re-emerge frequently in the nineteenth century, during wet periods. I think someone may have even drowned in it.

Although the creek is now contained in a drain, it still roars into life occasionally. This is Neville Bowler's famous photo taken in 1972.

Queen Vic Markets Redevelopment

01 Sep 2010, 11:28

by robin (Posted 01 Sep 2010, 11:28)
apparently they relocated the ones that were identifiable and marked but, as it was a public cemetery, there were many that had no markers or headstones. Those with no records remained where they were. A scandal occurred in 1930 when a steam shovel that was excavating started tossing up body remains

Melbourne Art Deco - new book

01 Sep 2010, 11:24

by williampitt (Posted 01 Sep 2010, 11:24)
" title="Applause" /> congratulations to Robin

Ferals in Melbourne - a pictorial special

01 Sep 2010, 10:31

by stikibunn (Posted 01 Sep 2010, 10:31)

tom wrote:

If you ant to see some feral animals, go to the train stations in the mornings and watch the teen kids spitting everywhere and swearing and generally being vile. What happened to the old addage 'children should be seen and not heard'?

Or the Flinders Street station kids, those non-conformists who think that under the clocks is a hangout, not a meeting place.
I'm surprised the don't all bring folding chairs and cushions!

Aerials of Melbourne (Melbourne from the Air)

01 Sep 2010, 10:14

by pegasusbsb27 (Posted 01 Sep 2010, 10:14)

The Collector wrote:

From flickr.

Could you post the link?...

Before and after photos: Melbourne City

31 Aug 2010, 22:38

by slumberjack (Posted 31 Aug 2010, 22:38)
Nice comparison shots, PB70, did you take a few to get the right angle?
When I've done them I copy the old images into a Word doc and print them out and try to work out the angle when I get to the location but I need a spotter to ensure I don't get run over as some of the spots are fairly busy. It's a pity the Old Melbourne Gaol doesn't have the creepers over the facade like it did, I like that look. It must have presented a better feel to such an austere place back then. Regarding the time J.v.d.A, I think you're correct to say the 1930s. The car on the left looks similar to a Model B Ford (aka 32 Ford) judging by the sweep of the front guards in to the running boards - probably a police car. The speedster on the right-of-centre looks like a lawyer's car, or Jessica Rabbit's.
The palm trees would be the same as they take a long time to grow; they look similar to the date palms from Mt Alexander Road to Essendon in size.

Towns that Melbourne has engulfed in its expansion

31 Aug 2010, 22:24

by slumberjack (Posted 31 Aug 2010, 22:24)
I found this information in a great book I picked up for $2 at Laverton Market entitled 'Australia's First Century: Facsimiled from the pages devoted to Australia appearing in Cassell's Picturesque Australasia' Four volumes of Cassell's were printed in 1889 and this book was published in 1978 incorporating the pages relating to Australia in to one volume of 979 pages.

Quoted directly, including what I found to be interesting grammar, particularly closing a sentence during inverted commas.

P65:
Within the circuit of Greater Melbourne no fewer than seventeen boroughs are included. Of these, five are classed as cities, one is a town, and eleven are only boroughs. It may be asked wherein the distinction lies. If in England, according to the old doctrine, a bishop and cathedral made a city, what make it in Victoria?
The Local Government Act requires that a borough shall not exceed in area six square miles, that no point in such area may be more than six miles distant from any other, and that there shall not be less than 300 inhabitant householders. All towns and cities are boroughs, distinguished from other boroughs by the amount of gross municipal revenue in the year proceeding the declaration of them as such by the Governor in Council. A gross revenue of £10,000 makes a town, one of £20,000 a city.
The five cities are South Melbourne, or Emerald Hill (population 32,500), Prahran (27,000), Richmond (26,503), Collingwood (25,500) and Fitzroy (23,500). Many an ancient and historic city in England has a smaller population than any of these. Hotham, with a population of a little under 20,000 is the solitary "town."
And the eleven suburban boroughs in order of population are St. Kilda, Williamstown, Port Melbourne, or Sandridge, Brunswick, Hawthorn, Footscray, Kew, Brighton, Essendon, Flemington, with Kensington, whilst the latest declared is Northcote. Each of these has a mayor and corporation, with all the appurtenances of municipal government.

P69 (just to fan the flames)
Carlton is a large suburb north of Melbourne. Part of it is becoming the smokiest of all quarters of Melbourne. There are huge factory chimneys which do not by any means consume their own smoke. Fortunately, they are rather intermittent in their action, but at times they send forth into the air volumes' of smoke which threaten, unless legislation intervenes, a reproduction of the English "black country." Melbourne is becoming smoky, and sometimes the atmosphere, if the whole truth must be told, is positively murky. But let us add that it is only open to that grave accusation on exceptional occasions, for we should hardly like our English readers to think that we always, or even often, live in such an atmosphere as that. As a rule, Melbourne skies can be compared, for clearness, to Italian, but this character will not long be preserved unless something be soon done in the way of smoke prevention.

West Gate Bridge upgrade

31 Aug 2010, 19:19

by stikibunn (Posted 31 Aug 2010, 19:19)
Weren't they also saying they wanted to paint the bridge too? They were "inspired" by the Golden ate Bridge in San Fransisco to paint it red but they said that would be too costly

Happy Birthday Melbourne! 175 Today!

31 Aug 2010, 10:03

by jaydee (Posted 31 Aug 2010, 10:03)
Yes, was a good day for it. Happy Birthday Old Girl! (Melb that is) I got my free KeepCup too - I hope you got yours!

Some New St Kilda Road and Queens Road Apartment Projects

31 Aug 2010, 00:38

by hundini (Posted 31 Aug 2010, 00:38)

williampitt wrote:

Geez. that poor little terrace house.

Unfortunately another very ugly tower. No matter which way you look at it.

By reports, it seems they are retaining the Terrace as part of the project.
I thought Hamton had a strong reputation for delivering quality buildings?

Reservoir/Preston in the past old pics or vids...

30 Aug 2010, 15:41

by Gary1961 (Posted 30 Aug 2010, 15:41)
If you are looking for historical photos of Northcote, Preston or Reservoir, then you should visit this website.
http://dhe.darebin-libraries.vic.gov.au/. It has a very large collection of historical photos dating back to last century

Sydney Central Station

30 Aug 2010, 15:04

by franfran (Posted 30 Aug 2010, 15:04)
There are two rows of these windows in the old booking hall. One is along the wall that separates the booking office from the concourse and the other along the outside wall, which incidentally is not open to the elements, as it is along a large covered area where the tram stop is located. That is why I couldn't get a photo that showed the full colour of the windows, as both sets are more or less in shade, although their location does ensure that they remain in excellent condition.

Parkade history non existant in Melbourne

29 Aug 2010, 23:48

by julmania (Posted 29 Aug 2010, 23:48)
Has anyone come across any history related to the 'Kings Parkade' between Little Collins and Bourke?
I know it was built before 1966, but by which architect/builder and why they built over McIlwraith Place, I can't seem to find...
Suggestions anybody?

512 Glenferrie road-scotch Hill, Hawthorn East

29 Aug 2010, 19:59

by J.v.d.A. (Posted 29 Aug 2010, 19:59)

It dates to 1880 - 81, built for Richard Fatt.

AMP Square, William and Bourke Street

29 Aug 2010, 16:07

by E13129 (Posted 29 Aug 2010, 16:07)
It's a shame that is the case, as it deserves better than that.

Peter Barrett