Park View, Potts Point

Park View Apartments in Potts Point, like many Sydney apartment buildings, uses different style and different coloured bricks for much of its decoration.

The central section of the parapret has an Art Deco panel but I think it is how the bricks have been arranged, especially the sections around the panel that have been laid vertically, that really make this building.

Eureka Stockade Hotel, Ballarat

I wrote about the Eureka Stockade Hotel back in October 2008. The hotel is a modest Art Deco pub named to commemorate one of the most important events in Australian history, The Eureka Stockage. The Stockade took place in 1854 literally just up the road from the pub.

I mentioned at the time that the pub had been painted but looked a bit dull, even naked, so I was pleased to see on a recent visit to Ballarat that a new paint job has the building looking like a million bucks.

The new colours are more like those of the Southern Cross Flag that flew over the Stockade than the dull grey that the pub has been in recent years.

Kary Building, Buffalo

It is kind of appropriate that a pawn shop, Kary Jewelers Pawn Brokers, occupy an old Art Deco building and have even taken it for their own tagging it as the Kary Building.

Coit Tower Murals, Telegraph Hill

During the Great Depression, the Public Works Art Project (PWAP), part of the US Federal Goverment New Deal program, led to the creation of a wonderful set of murals in Coit Tower. Bernard Zakheim oversaw the project that included over two dozen artits and muralists. The murals depict aspects of California and San Francisco life during the 1930s and were very controversial at the time, with the inspiration of Diego Rivera is plainly visible in many of them.

Zakheim, himself, painted 'Library'

'Library' (detail) by Bernard Zakheim


'Library' (detail) by Bernard Zakheim

'City Life' by Victor Mikhail Arnautoff is one of the more detailled murals showing many aspects of San Francisco life and city landmarks.

'City Life' (detail) by Victor Mikhail Armautoff


'City Life' (detail) by Victor Mikhail Armautoff


'City Life' (detail) by Victor Mikhail Armautoff

'California Agriculture' by Maxine Albro sits alongside Arnautoff's city view.

partial view of 'California Architecture' by Maxine Albro

Clifford Wight painted four large figures of a cowboy, farmer, steelworker and surveyor, titled, 'Leaders of California Life'.

view of the cowboy from 'Leaders of California Life' by Clifford Wight


partial view of the farmer from 'Leaders of California Life' by Clifford Wight


farmer hand detail from 'Leaders of California Life' by Clifford Wight

Commerce is represented with this mural showing a selection of shops. This image also showshow many of the muralists incorporated the features of the tower into their works. In case, like the 'Library' previously incorporates the tower's narrow windows.

Industry is represented by Ralph Stackpole's 'Industries of California' and John Langley Howard's 'California Industrial Scenes'.

'Industries of California' (detail) by Ralph Stackpole


'California Industrial Scenes' (detail) by John Langley Howard


'California Industrial Scenes' (detail) by John Langley Howard

Our tour, by San Francisco City Guides included the murals on the second floor and in the stairwell that are not otherwise accessible by the general public.

The stairwell features Lucien Labaudt's 'Powell St' showing the scene around the cable car that all visitors to San Francisco will be familiar with.

partial view of 'Powell St' by Lucien Labaudt

At the top of the stairs, Edward Terada depicts 'Sports' and 'Children at Play'.

'Sports' (detail) by Edward Terada


'Sports' (detail) by Edward Terada


partial view of 'Children at Play' by Edward Terada

A small room on the second floor presents Coit Tower's perhaps most enigmatic murals. 'Home Life' by Jane Berlandina offers a starkly different style to the other murals representing domestic life in the 30's.

'Home Life' (detail) by Jane Berlandina


'Home Life' (detail) by Jane Berlandina

References:
Coit Tower & PWAP Murals on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco
Coit Tower and the History of Its Murals
San Francisco’s Coit Tower Murals
The Murals Tour - Coit Tower

Coit Tower, Telegraph Hill

Coit Tower, on the right of this view of San Francisco, was built using money from the bequest of Lillie Hitchcock Coit who left $120,000 to the City of San Francisco on her death in 1929.

Sitting on Telegraph Hill the design for the 64m Art Deco tower came from Henry Howard of the architectural firm of Arthur Brown Jr.

The interior spaces are decorated by over two dozen muralists.

Reference:
San Francisco & 20th Century Design Tour Book, tcscm.org

Apartments, Telegraph Hill

This Art Deco apartment block is on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. They have typical stylised floral decoration on the canopy above the entrance and in a vertical panel at the top of the facade breaking through the roofline. The bay windows provide an interesting angular dimension.

Old Mutual Building, Durban

While nowhere as grand as the former Old Mutual headquarters in Cape Town, the Old Mutual building in Durban has a certain substance and style to it.

I photographed it in 2003 and I haven't been able to find out much about it.

Emporis.com lists a postmodern skyscraper as the Old Mutual Centre in Durban and one of the photos on their site shows this older building sitting in the shadows of the skyscraper.

A more concerning report, however, on realestateweb.com.za from November 2009 details the refurbishment of Mutual Mall including this paragraph.

The four previous structures included the magnificent 31-storey A-grade tenanted office block, Old Mutual Centre; 300 Smith Street, which is an economical 18-storey office block which has undergone an upgrade to an A-grade building; and Gardiner House and Mutual Building which were demolished to create additional parking - about 400 additional bays resulted in a total of 800 bays (3 per 100m²).

I don't know for sure but this doesn't read well for the Old Mutual buildng in my photo.

Ashburton Courthouse

This is the courthouse in Ashburton near Christchurch on the South Island of new Zealand. It is a very plain building with modest decoration including a stepped roofline, free-standing lamps on either side of the entrance and a low wall with a metal railing.

A plaque honouring the opening of the courthouse on 3rd May 1938 lists Government Architect, J T Mair, as the designer.