Snapshot, Melbourne University.

Another Melbourne Uni building, the chapel at Newman College to be exact. Another building I walk past so often I almost don't see it any more. It is pretty wonderful, I have been to several concerts inside and it has great acoustics. Even though it is in a Gothic style it still has a very mid-twentieth century feel to it. The clean lines and massed stone, a very modern re-interpretation of Gothic. Its large almost rectangular mass and the way it stands apart from the other college buildings reminds me of the Sydney War Memorial in Hyde Park. It was designed by the architects Connelly, Dale and T. Payne and consecrated in 1942, over twenty years after the college by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin had been completed.

War Memorial in Sydney, Image from Art Deco Sydney.

Protest TOMORROW against the proposed demolition of Lonsdale House

A reminder that the protest against the demolition of Lonsdale House is tomorrow (Saturday 22nd) from 12pm till 1pm. We are hoping for good numbers so please come down, bring some friends, family and let's show the government, the developers, the retailers and the council that we will not stand quietly by while our heritage is demolished. For more details visit www.savelonsdalehouse.com

Sunday Smith St Snapshots.

Despite the gusty winds and rain showers there was some nice sunshine for taking photos. Here are a couple I took as I was out doing errands on Smith St.


The discount television centre is no longer, now a shop of cheap imported knick knacks, there is still a bakery there . I guess these are the kind of signs that will vanish one day, no real reason to retain them, but the vibrant colours and the criss cross of back lines from the electrical wires and tram lines caught my eye and I thought it was well worth recording.

There are masses of really lovely old nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings on Smith St, which I think it is easy to overlook when the paint is peeling and everything is defaced with those godawful boring tags. Though admittedly I do like a bit of peeling paint and old painted signs.


Monsieur Truffe, I read a review of it a few months ago and have been wanting to try it out, this is quite literally the first time I have managed to spot it, not that it is really tucked away, I think I just forget to look for it. Looked delightful this arvo with sun streaming in through the windows.

Snapshot, Melbourne University.

The chemistry building at Melbourne University. Built in 1938 by the Victorian Public Works Department. Don't know who the architect was I'm afraid.

Snapshot, Melbourne

I'm afraid I know nothing about this lovely building. It is at 415-419 Bourke St, just up the hill from Elizabeth St. I would hazard a guess that it dates to the early twentieth century. It has quite stylised classical elements, such as the pilasters which have been reduced to mere dividers with but a hint of a capital. But then there are the large three high relief urns. Curious. Would like to know more so if you have any ideas please let me know.

As an aside I also have to add that I am very much enjoying the framing effect of the bare branches of trees in the city at the moment.

Protest against the demolition of Lonsdale House

There are plans for a protest against the demolition of Lonsdale House as detailed in the post below. Please visit the facebook group here for further details. Also, if you haven't done so already, you can sign the petition here.

It is so important that we do not stand silently by as these buildings are demolished.

UPDATED: A quick update to link to this article from The Age newspaper. Seems the council is not only ignoring their responsibility to safeguard Melbourne's heritage but actually profiting from it. This is really disturbing behaviour in my opinion. Not only the obvious destruction of Lonsdale House, but also the destruction of our laneways. It seems even worse considering the emphasis upon the value and attraction of Melbourne's laneways that was championed by the City Council under John So.

Lane sales to make $1.4m
Kate Lahey
August 4, 2009


MELBOURNE City Council will make almost $1.4 million by selling CBD laneways for a massive new shopping development, after its controversial refusal to protect a historic building on the site....

Read the full article here.

Lonsdale House may be doomed.

Some other bloggers have already reported this, but I feel so strongly about it I thought I would add my own post.

The Age is reporting that the State Government has given approval for the Myer redevelopment and given Colonial Global Asset Management permission to knock down the wonderful art deco Lonsdale House.

I am appalled that Myer, who like to advertise themselves as a central part of Melbourne, appears to have no desire to retain buildings that make Melbourne unique. How do we encourage businesses like Myer, and David Jones (who are also guilty of destruction in this area), to have a conscience? How do we make them see that they have a responsibility to save and conserve Melbourne along with the rest of us?

I am appalled that the City Council essentially washed their hands of the affair (though we have recently seen Robert Doyle's attitude to Melbourne's iconic Flinders St station). Do they not realise that Melbourne's appeal lies in the range of architecture and diversity of street fronts? Every city, even every suburban area has its glass cathedrals to consumerism, but only a few have the range of art deco buildings that Melbourne does, or should I say did.

I am appalled at the State Government. Planning minister Justin Madden, who trained as an architect, lists "20th century architecture" as one of his interests. I can only think this is a cruel joke, or that he simply has not had the chance to change it to "bending to the will of developers".

The area where Lonsdale House is has a heritage overlay, meaning essentially that the area is considered to be of heritage significance. Sadly these overlays seem to count for little and one wonders what the point of them is. It seems there is little recognition that preserving heritage is not about keeping a few surviving key examples of styles, or just keeping the biggest and brightest. It is about preserving the look and feel of a city. It is about the overall urban appearance, the range of façades along a street, not just individual examples. Melbourne suffered at the hands of development and in particular the infamous Whelan the Wrecker in the 1950s and 1960s. Philip Adams recently wrote about how these "The wreckers deserve a National Trust classification for the simple reason that Whelan helped bring the National Trust into being." Sadly it seems we have not learned from our mistakes.

I honestly do not know if there is anything else that can be done, but I will certainly be writing letters to the paper, to the government and to Myer and Colonial to let them know what I think.

Lonsdale House and its unique crystalline tower, with a view of the 1990s skyscrapers which took inspiration from art deco towers.

Help.

Jean Cotelle and the Bosquets of Versailles

The famous bosquets of Versailles were captured by the French artist Jean Cotelle in the late seventeenth century. It mystifies me that we still lack any kind of in depth study on this artist and his images of Versailles. Perhaps his work is considered too frivolous for serious consideration, or perhaps we forget in part that these are 'paintings' and simply see them as historical records. Which they are to an extent, but they are hardly objective!

Bosquet means 'small wood' in French and these places were open spaces hidden within palisades of greenery. They were meant to amaze and delight the viewer when they emerged from green corridors and acted as counterpoint of intimacy against the vastness of Versailles.

Michel Baridon in his recent, excellent, book upon the gardens of Versailles writes of the bosquets that:

" As soon as you are inside, the dominant tones of green, blue, or gray, which you see in a panormaic view of the gardens, are enhanced with complex variations. This then is a world where the geometer is ever-present of course, but often eclipsed by the set designer, the poet, or the story-teller. In other words, geometry gives way to imagination and the pleasures that men and women expected when they entered places expressly designed to delight the senses.
It would probably be going too far to represent the bosquets as a female domain, given over to entertainment and the pleasures of society life, and contrast them with the male world of the engineer, the strategist, or the politician as represented by the open spaces.... Alongside the serene geometry of the open spaces, the bosquets were a universe where sentiment mattered more than science and where illusion enjoyed a special status."

Michel Baridon, A History of the Gardens of Versailles, University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2008, pp. 170-1.

Cotelle added the figures of classical myth to his paintings, which only serves to enhance the sense that these spaces were places where the line between relity and fantasy was blurred.

'Bosquet du Marais'

'Bosquet of the Water Theatre'

'Bosquet of the Domes'

'Bosquet of the 'Salle du Bal' (Ballroom)'

'Bosquet of the Colonnade'

'Bosquet of the Trois Fontaines (Three Fountains)'

'Bosquet of the Arc du Triomphe (Triumphal Arch)'

'Entrance to the Labyrinth'

Images Courtesy of Joconde and the Web Gallery of Art.

The paintings still form part of the collection in the Musée National du Château et des Trianons, Versailles, the images can be viewed via Joconde, an donline catalogue of the collections of the museums of France.

Snapshot, East Melbourne

Some houses and their entrances on Grey St in East Melbourne. The elegant yet simple shape of the porch doorway caught my eye at No. 39. The second just seemed so simple and yet so perfect, it stood out amongst the mainly terrace fronted houses. Just a lovely combination of the old raw red brick wall, the flat and naturalistic paving stones and the stark bare tree against a white wall.

Melbourne Open House 2009 - Photos Part 1

I had a great time on Sunday. I only had about 2.5 hours to visit buildings but I managed to squeeze in seven. Not too shabby. I was disappointed to miss the Manchester Unity building and the Russell Place Substation, but the queues were just too long. I tend to agree with what some others have remarked, that the day could easily be run more than once a year, or over a whole weekend. But on the upside it is great to see so many people turning out to look at Melbourne's architecture. It gives people a chance to see inside buildings that are generally closed to the public. It also heightens the awareness more generally and reminds people (me included) to stop and actually look at the buildings around us. I saw several groups of people, little blue books in hand, stopping to admire the façades or decorative details of buildings that weren't even on the Open House itinerary.

There were so many people taking photos, and below are a few of my favourites. I did have a bit of camera envy, me with my 5 year old canon point and shoot, everyone else (it seemed) with the world's biggest SLRs. But the buildings were the stars at the end of the day.

To see others' photos take a peek at the Melbourne Open House Flickr Group, where you can upload your pictures as part of a competition.

View from the Boardroom of 101

View from the Boardroom of 101 Collins St. Forum Theatre.

View across the Boardroom of 101 Collins, with the spire of St Paul's.

Glass dome of the atrium at T&G now KPMG building on Collins St.


View of the ceiling of the new foyer at KPMG.


A much photographed art nouveau lamp at the Athenaeum Library, Collins St.

The lamp in the dome of the wood-panelled lift at the Athenaeum Library, Collins St.


The ceiling of the old boardroom at 271 Collins St, formerly The National Bank of Australasia, Collins St.


The sideboard in the dining room, adjacent to the boardroom at 271 Collins St, formerly The National Bank of Australasia, Collins St.


More to come.... or check out my Melbourne Open House flickr stream here.