It’s easy to lament the passing of old St Kilda Road. Although imagine how exciting it must have been for a young architect to get this built.
This perfect Wolfgang Sievers photo was snapped in 1972 for McIntyre & McIntyre architects.
| Wolfgang Sievers, 440 St Kilda Road, McIntyre & McIntyre architects, 1972 |
Now this is a great building. But it seems not for everyone.
The author who wrote a book on the history of St Kilda Road said “The office block was formidably ugly in the worst of the 1970s style. It rose from the ground in the cheapest grey-brown brick with metal windows and had about as much charm as a concrete outhouse.”
The scary thing is she went on to speak of the re-modelling done in 1994 by Bruce Henderson Architects “where the bricks were painted a dainty pale yellow and white wrought-iron decoration was added to the front in the form of mock balconies perhaps to remind us of the St Kilda Road of the past.”
Yikes.
| Deva, Bruce Henderson Architects, 1994 |
Julia Ritson
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