Geriva Mansions, Vredehoek

The Cape Town suburb of Vredehoek, in the shadow of Table Mountain, has a number of Art Deco buildings. Geriva Mansions, designed by J Bylsma in 1947, is situated on a block sloping up into the foothills of the mountain. It is a large apartment block designed in a U shape. As the building steps back up the hill, the two wings also step in creating a stronger feeling of privacy as you proceed further into the block.

The wings of this building flow inwards with a series of curved balconies most of which still remain open although several have been enclosed with modern windows. The rear section of the building by contrast is square.

Geriva Mansions looks down from the heights over downtown Cape Town and Lions head as can be seen in the photograph below.

Former Metro Cinema, Adelaide

The Metro Cinema in Hindley St, Adelaide was designed by architect Thomas W Lamb and opened in October 1939.

When I took this picture in 2005 I wasn't sure that the building was still in use. It looked like a nightclub but naturally there was no sign of life during the day when I was poking around. It certainly wasn't a cinema anymore.

As you can see it had an interesting paint-job, highlighting the decoration on the facade. It wasn't too badly done but I find this totally unnecessary because it almost certainly designed as a monochrome building with the light and shadow bringing out the beauty of the decoration.

This building doesn't look too bad but there are some shockers around where some of the Art Deco details have be picked out in a bright colour and frankly they just look cheap and tacky.

I was back in Adelaide last weekend and the former Metro Cinema is no more. It has been demolished and another building is being constructed on the site.

If you want to see the Metro Cinema in all its Art Deco glory have a look at the Cinema Treasures website.

On a happy note. Happy 70th Birthday to the Sun Theatre, Yarraville which opened on 30th April 1938 with a screening of the film Maytime.

Colony Hotel, Miami South Beach

The Colony Hotel is one of the fabulous Art Deco hotels along Ocean Drive in Miami South Beach. It was designed by Henry Hohauser in 1935. Hohauser designed many buildings in the South Beach precinct providing a significant contribution to the Deco heritage of the area.

The building has simple decoration. A large sign dominates the front of the building spelling out Colony Hotel in bold letters supported on an inverted ‘T’. There are several series of thin horizontal bands either side of the sign and short vertical bars along the central part of the roofline with a zig-zag pattern on either side.

The windows form recessed horizontal bands with protruding eyebrows providing additional shade from the Florida sun. The eyebrows curve around the sides giving the building a nice profile from street level.

The windows themselves cut through the corner of the hotel but there are also supporting columns giving the overall appearance of a continuous wall.

At night the character of the whole area changes when the neon is lit. The Colony Hotel is no exception as you can see from the photo below.

Dimboola Memorial High School

Last Friday saw the annual observance of Anzac Day around Australia and New Zealand. Anzac Day honours the men and women who died during war and is commemorated on the anniversary of the failed landing of the Australian and New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) on 25 Apr 1915 at Gallipoli, Turkey.

I was in Dimboola, in western Victoria and decided to have a look at the local high school which was erected as a memorial to the soldiers from the town who had lost their lives during World War I.

At the time most towns erected cenotaphs or halls to honour their war dead so Dimboola was quite progressive to build a high school.

The building was designed by W McKay, the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department and work was completed during 1924 although the Soldiers’ Memorial Higher Elementary School wasn’t officially opened until 2 Dec 1924 followed by a public banquet that evening.

A WWI honour board was erected on the front of the main hall and other boards have been added for WWII and other conflicts since. The school was renamed Dimboola Memorial High School in 1947.

I don’t think the building is particularly Art Deco but the fact that it was built shows how the First World War affected all areas of society not just those who lost family members and how something positive can come to a rural Australian town from such a terrible world-wide atrocity.

For a more detailed history of the school see Dimboola Memorial High School website.

Dilapidated Doorway, Asmara

I love this doorway in Asmara. From memory it is from an apartment block in Maryam Gmbi St, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I look at what is left of the door and it just screams Asmara Art Deco.

The large semi-circular handle is just like the ones on the doors of the Cinema Impero in Liberation Avenue. They are perfect for a cinema, very grand for an apartment block.

The metalwork in the top part of the door combines alternating curved sections with simple straight supports. Again there are similar examples of this elsewhere in Asmara.

Finally, the sunburst pattern above the door is a common deco motif, used the world over.

This is a great doorway. Sure, it needs a bit of work but imagine what it would look like with the metalwork repaired and the glass replaced. It would be sensational.

Trevu Flats, Glenelg

To be honest, the Trevu Flats in the Adelaide suburb of Glenelg is not the most spectacular building around, but what attracted my attention is the two staircases curving in the same direction. This configuration was probably forced onto the builder/architect because the block abuts the back of another property so there wasn’t the space to allow the staircases to go in opposite directions but it may well have been conceived that way in the first place. In any case I think it looks great and lifts the building to be something special.

Besides the staircases, the Trevu Flats have several Art Deco features. The name of the building is spelt out in stylish lettering on the front of the building between the ground and first floor balconies. Those balconies are enclosed by matching canvas blinds which preserves the integrity of the original structure while providing shade and privacy for the residents.

The flats are made of red brick with a horizontal cream band running around the building between the two floors. The lintels above the windows are similarly painted cream and work well against the green window frames. The tiled hip roof, for me, lets the building down. I feel it would be a more striking building with a flat roof.

The garden is surrounded by a low stepped red brick wall which is mirrored in the small concrete balcony on the side of the building.

Even now, looking at these photos, my eyes return to the steps. Whether they are an elegant solution to a physical limitation or a stylish flourish on the part of the designer, they are beautiful.

Citizen-Times Newspaper Building, Asheville

According to a postcard reproduced in “Asheville: A Postcard History” by Sue Greenberg and Jan Kahn, the Citizen-Times Newspaper Building was designed by Anthony Lord with Lockwood Greene from New York as consulting architect.

In 1930, The Citizen and The Times, two local newspapers, joined to form the Citizen-Times and the building probably dates from after this time.

The building is a relatively plain moderne building, a three-storey asymmetrical grey structure. The decoration comes from the simple raised bands near the roofline, top and bottom of the windows and to the sides of the name above the entrance.

The use of glass blocks to surround the conventional windows provides a nice visual contrast to the concrete facade. Glass blocks are also used as a vertical element in the square tower leading up to a flagpole projecting from the front of the building.

At the base of the flagpole there is a small relief panel depicting mountains in front of stylised sunburst and geometric clouds as if to prove that even plain buildings need some decoration.

Lonsdale House, Melbourne

I G Anderson, 1934-35

Lonsdale House is a fantastic moderne building in Lonsdale St, Melbourne. If you look carefully, however, you might be able to see that it is actually an update of two earlier buildings.

Architect, I G Anderson designed the renovation creating an asymmetrical building that has become an Art Deco icon of Melbourne.

The most striking feature is the geometric tower, a pile of squares and discs supporting a flag pole. A vertical band of decoration partially running down the front of the tower mirrors a similar element on the centre of the parapet on the right hand side of the building.

Viewed in isolation, this right side of the building can clearly be seen as a separate building with a symmetrical parapet. The discs on the corners are matched by the design of the left hand corner of the entire structure.

Spandrels below each band of windows are used to unify the two previous buildings. The two lower bands on the left form balconies of differing sizes.



The name, Lonsdale House, is rendered across one of the spandrels on the right hand side in stylised lettering.

Myer are planning an extensive re-development of their Lonsdale Street store, which is next door to Lonsdale House. Their plans include the demolition of this wonderful building which they own.

The Art Deco Society oppose the demolition and has nominated Lonsdale House to both Heritage Victoria and National trust for inclusion on their Registers.

I hope that Myer can alter their proposal to retain this impressive building. It would be a shame to lose such a unique Melbourne building.