217 Cressy Street, Deniliquin

This is 217 Cressy Street, Deniliquin currently occupied by Kevin Cole Real Estate. It is a substantial deco building and I suspect it may have been an office for the wheat board or a similar agricultural body. I say this because there are two circular plaques on the facade that include stylised wheat sheaths in their design.

The building also has two large decorated pieces flanking the steps to the front door. I can only guess at their purpose. On an American building I would suggest they were the base of some form of lights but they aren't that common on Australian buildings. Perhaps they are just for decoration.

Derwent Valley Council Chambers, New Norfolk

The Derwent Valley Council Chambers in New Norfolk, near Hobart, date from 1935. The year is, unusually, on the side of the building but more about that later.

The decoration is minimal but illustrates the rule of three deco principle perfectly.

There are three sections to the building, three steps in the roof line and three steps in the central tower. Three windows on each floor either side of the tower, three flag poles and even three decorative elements above the door with the central one a stepped pyramid shape with, well, three levels.

I mentioned the date on the side of the chambers. You can see it at the left of this picture of the War Memorial Hall, an interesting building in its own right.

A series of headlines in the Hobart Mercury newspaper between 1949 and 1954 show that raising funds and getting approval to build the hall was a drawn out process.

The result though, I think, is a handsome modernist building.

But back to that 1935 year marker. I find it a strange place to put such a marker but there must have been a reason.

Kinnaird Building, Numurkah

The date on this pair of shops in Numurkah, in rural Victoria, indicates that someone called Kinnaird established a business in the area in 1879. No doubt this is true but this particular building is aboyt 50 years younger than that.

Fountain Coffee Shop Sign, San Francisco

A House in Camberwell

This house is on the Golf Links Estate in Camberwell, Melbourne. It has an interesting double porch and balcony arrangement at the front door.

Former State Savings Bank, Portland

I assume from the name on this building that it is a former branch of the State Savings Bank of Victoria. And with a For Lease sign in the window it appears that the Old State Bank Gallery has moved on also.

Tuppel Hotel, Finley

The Tuppel Hotel is a big traditional country pub in Finley, New South Wales. Often country pubs have deep verandahs at street level and an open balcony above but the Art Deco style Tuppel just has a cantilevered verandah proving shade for the footpath but offers no balcony space for drinkers.

The building combines horizontal bands in the brickwork with darker coloured bricks provide columns and fins at the central upper storey windows.

The bands around the chimney a nice piece of decoration easily overlooked.

A series of Art Deco motifs ring the building, just below the roofline, highlighted in red and green while the name of the hotel is spelt out in metal letters on both faces of the pub and is then repeated on the edge of the verandah along the main street.

Next time I'm up that way, I'll invest in a beer or two to see what goodies can be found inside.

Portland Print, Portland

This modest shop is in Portland, in western Victoria and, while there is some Art Deco elements in the brick work of the shopfront, it is the arrangement of the angled main windows, set-back door and the windows above the door that set this building apart from other shops.

Child Health Centre, Beverley

It is not every Child Health Centre that has a Second World War aeroplane in the front yard but that's what seems to be going on in Beverley, Western Australia.

It is, of course, an optical illusion. The plane is part of the Aeronautical Museum & Information Centre next door.

A House in Somerton Park

This is a house in the Adelaide suburb of Somerton Park. It has many deco features. Curved walls and windows on the second storey, metal railings and glass brick walls at the entrance. I can't tell if it is new or old or a bit of both. Regardless, the front wall is really nice. I like it a lot.

Temple Emanu-El, Miami

This is the Temple Emanu-El, the synagogue for Miami South Beach. It dates from 1947 and was designed by Albert Anis & Charles Greco.

Reference:
Miami Beach Architectural Guide, 2003, Miami Design Preservation League

Delano Hotel, Miami

This photo shows the Ritz Plaza Hotel (L Murray Dixon, 1940), on the left, and the Delano Hotel (Robert Swartburg, 1947) at Miami South Beach.

I find the façade of the Delano interesting with the angles of the walls providing corner windows to maximise the views from all rooms. From a purely decorative perspective through, the tower with its soaring wings are the stand-out feature of the hotel.

Reference:
Miami Beach Architectural Guide, 2003, Miami Design Preservation League

Shops & Flats, Durban

This Art Deco building housing 3 shops with flats on the upper floors is in Victoria Street, Durban.

Pyrene Building, Brentford

This is the Pyrene Building in what has been dubbed Brentford's 'Golden Mile' of Art Deco factory buildings along the Great West Road. The infamous Firestone Building stood across the road, Gillette Corner is nearby and, what is now the UK Head Office of J C Decaux is next door.

Wallis, Gilbert & Partners designed the Firestone factory around 1928 and the Pyrene Building in the years immediately following that. Then, in the early 1930s they designed one of west London's other deco greats, the Hoover Building.

I can see influences for the Hoover Building in the details Pyrene Building. The curly cue features on the central tower appear at ground level on the Hoover Building but also the colours around the doors and the design of the lamps are also reminiscent of Hoover.

References:
archINFORM - Firestone Tyre Factory
archINFORM - Pyrene Building
archINFORM - Hoover Factory

Shops, Hobart

A couple of shops in Hobart that could be so much better looking but the flaking blue paint does nothing for them. I photographed them 5 years ago so hopefully they've been repainted since then.

Water Treatment Plant, near Yenda

I know, your eyes are drawn to those two huge bright blue tanks at this water treatment plant near Yenda, NSW, but what about the squat, square concrete structure. Sure, it has some unsympathetic modern additions of PVC pipes but it also has some subtle stepping about two thirds of the way up.

Murrumbidgee Irrigation Building, Griffith

These offices in Griffith, NSW, were built for the Water Conservation & Irrigation Commission in the mid 1950s.

The foundation stone was unveiled on 14th December 1956 by the Honourable A G Enticknap, MLA, Minister for Transport and local member for Murrumbidgee. It is set in the brick wall to the left of the doors partly obscured by one of the supports of the canopy over the entrance leading to the conclusion that the porch, and possibly the glass bricks, were added after the original construction.

In the view below you can make out the unfortunate location of the foundation stone but also the lovely arrangement of three small square windows on the side of the tower and the simple flagpole.

Beach Patrol Headquarters, Miami

An iconic deco styled building in that most iconic of deco towns, Miami.

Herschel Court, Sea Point

At the moment I keep getting drawn back to the wonderful Art Deco apartment block in Sea Point, Cape Town.

This is Herschel Court (1938) showing the features you would expect of sun-drenched deco flats. Open balconies with concrete eyebrows providing shade and a white colour-scheme with aqua highlights and reddish window frames.

Herschel Court also features two of these wonderful entrances.

Reference:
Art Deco Architecture Cape Town Map, The Cape Art Deco Society, 2003

Cintra, Sea Point

Cintra (1943), Sea Point

Reference:
Art Deco Architecture Cape Town Map, The Cape Art Deco Society, 2003