Posts Tagged ‘1890s’

Developers the Far East Consortium have come forward with its proposal, mooted earlier on MHW to demolish the Victorian era Electric Lighting station (which is important to the city’s heritage and listed on the Melbourne Heritage Scheme) as well as possibly apply for Heritage Victoria’s permission to remove the state heritage listed water tank from its current location.

The development proposal involves 2,500 budget style apartments in four 1960s looking towers.

The Victorian and Edwardians buildings of the Electic Lighting Station were possibly the oldest buildings remaining on Spencer Street within the Hoddle grid.  Although they have never been given a proper heritage study and will obviously miss the City of Melbourne’s proposed 27 year late heritage review.

If approved (which council indicated in 2006 is more than likely), this would leave  Spencer Street with just one remaining Victorian era building within the Hoddle grid- the C grade former Great Southern Private Hotel (1890).  Put in context – that building has an equal heritage grading and therefore could easily itself be replaced in future which would make Spencer (apart from the Grand Hotel former railways offices) a completely 20th and 21st century street.  Whether this is an aesthetic or cultural improvement remains for future generations to decide.

A small irony is that the photo of the buildings to be demolished on the Melbourne City Council’s heritage database has a 1982 photo of the building with a sign on the front saying simply “Future Development Site”.  Heritage indeed.

The site of the Lonsdale Street Power Station at the corner of Spencer Street and Lonsdale Street has been under demolition since 2006 for a speculative development, the details of which remain a closely guarded secret.  What also appears to be a closely guarded secret is the fate of the former Electric Lighting Station on the site.

The 1953 power station building and its industrial looking smokestack which was an undisputed Melbourne eyesore, riddled with asbestos, magnet for urban explorers and covered in political grafitti has now been demolished, however there have always been some significant heritage buildings on this large site.

While only one building on the site is on the Victorian Heritage Register – a lone metal hydraulic tank built in 1889 by J. Abbot and Co. from Gateshead in England registered in 2007,  the original 1892 brick buildings sitting near the corner of Spencer (210-246) and Little Bourke Street (620-648)  are of heritage significance as part of the council’s original lighting station and are all within a City of Melbourne Heritage overlay.

However recent proposals for the site have shown renders without these buildings and retaining only the facade of a 1920s building on the corner of Lonsdale Street (651-669), which is a disturbing indication that a deal to sell out the heritage of the site may have already been done and dusted.  Certainly in 2006, councillor Catherine Ng made suggestions to this effect.

Indications of this are that Victorian lamp posts were recently removed from the site and one of these buildings was completely demolished by Guilefoyle wreckers on behalf of the developer without public notice – contradicting the City of Melbourne’s heritage scheme – and the remaining buildings are now completely boarded up.  However as yet there has been no official response from council on this matter.

Melbourne Heritage Watch believes that these heritage listed buildings could have been cleaned up, adaptively reused and integrated into the new development.

Due to the size of the project, these remaining buildings may also be demolished which would beg the question as to whether the City of Melbourne’s heritage scheme has any remaining relevance and strike yet another blow to Melbourne’s city character.   Certainly it has recently allowed dozens of buildings in heritage overlays across the CBD to be demolished.  This would be the latest case highlighting a distinct lack of any heritage controls in Melbourne city centre.

A somewhat huge discussion  thread on the subject can be found on Walking Melbourne, much thanks to forum member mugley.

Those that follow Walking Melbourne’s heritage forums would no doubt be aware of Redcourt, a historic 14 bedroom Queen Anne stlye mansion on Orrong Road in Armadale recently for sale which had been sadly neglected under state government care.

I’m pleased to hear that despite a nervous wait, someone has bought it with the intention and means to restore it.

Real Estate Source reports that it sold for $3.9 million and I do believe they got a genuine bargain.

The Bourke Street Salvation Army Temple is  being restored thanks to a heritage grant as part of a redevelopment of the building.  The restoration of the 1895  five storey French Second Empire and Mannerist style building will also include the reinstatement of a verandah demolished in the 1950s.

I get a horrible feeling each time I walk past the Mansions on Queens Road near St Kilda Junction that I just can’t let go of and have to get off my chest.

This magnificent italianate National Trust listed mansion, neglected for many years – sadly remains so in fact arguably worse – despite a “restoration”.

The Buchan Group, who developed a tower behind the old building not only boasts that “Nothing less than exceptional design will do”,  but their website proudly proclaims:

This 19-storey residential tower of 161 apartments is situated on a prime site in Queens Road, with sweeping views of parkland, Port Phillip Bay and the city.

The highly sculptural tower has a graceful, curving glazed façade. An historic Victorian mansion on the site was retained and restored to be integrated into the development. The project was completed in 2005.

In fact in the project profile they go on to claim that the mansion has been:

retained, restored and integrated into the development, giving the project great individuality and character.

Roll on 2009 and the heritage building is still in a state of horrific limbo.

If this is restoration, then I’m completely shocked.  And if this is their idea of complete work, then I’d hate to see incomplete.  I fail to see how this sort of workmanship can contribute anything to the project.

The mansion has been left in a shocking half finished state.

The sad fact is that, determined to build an underground carpark, the developers blew their budget on engineering works for the tower.  After well publicised basement leaking, the victim of it was the heritage building and landscaping which was one of the key selling points of the tower.  Now the body corporate is probably left with a massive completion bill and it is obvious that it is low on their priority list.

In fact the exterior of the 1898 mansion built for Melbourne financier Lawrence Benjamin with its magnificent wrap around loggia today is quite possibly in worse condition than before the “restoration” began.

The building has been left with an undercoat in eastern bloc grey – one of the dodgiest, careless spray paint jobs I have ever seen.   Spray has been left on the windows and surround, on the doors and even on the ground.  An entire level has been left in its pre-restoration cream and orange colour.

Exposed electrical wiring dangles in the elements.

Render has been bashed off to facilitate the construction of the tower leaving the brick exposed.

Details have been carelessly knocked off the facade.

Sections are so patchy that the patchwork is more noticeable than the windows.

Seriously, I used to admire how well this building had stood the test of time.  Now I can’t believe how many years have been taken off its life in the guise of restoration.

Who is to blame ?  Well ultimately the council and government  rubber stamped the development.  They should have some responsibility for approving it and not holding the developers to account for such a poor quality restoration of a cultural asset. That developers can still get away with this sort of thing in this day and age is completely beyond me.

With the impending demolition of Avalon, the Mansions is one of the last remaining grand mansions which once graced Queens Road.  But you wouldn’t know it the way it has been treated.

This “restoration” must simply be seen to be believed. Some pics below taken this week as evidence.