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This wonderful Art Deco walnut case wireless radio was made by the New Zealand manufacturers, Temple. According to its serial number, it was made in 1935 and is very much typical of a wireless found in most middle-class homes during the 1930s. It has a pyramid case; still a popular shape after “Egyptomania” or “Tutmania” gripped the world after the discovery of Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. Its edges however, are rounded, hinting at the Streamline Moderne style so popular in the mid 1930s. Whilst the fine veneer is a warm walnut, the very Art Deco speaker grille and the two fin details on the front are made of stained blackwood. The manufacturer’s name is picked out in brass on red enamel above the convex glass dial and the lozenge knobs are of mottled chocolate brown Bakelite (an early form of plastic that came into everyday use in the 1920s and 30s). Worked with beautiful glass valves, this radio has to be allowed to warm up before use, but still works beautifully, sending forth a soft, slightly dappled sound that only wireless radios of this era and vintage can do. It can still pick up all AM radio stations as well as shortwave radio from around the world.
Private collection.
The tall and thin Victor Hotel was built in 1937. The asymmetrical hotel was one of the first to break away from the traditional Art Deco symmetry.
Long horizontal Moderne style windows and extended eyebrows counter the hotel's strong vertical element. The rows of windows end with porthole-like bosses.
To the left of the entrance is a massive square column that continues above the roof. It seems to act as a counterbalance to the building.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
The tall and thin Victor Hotel was built in 1937. The asymmetrical hotel was one of the first to break away from the traditional Art Deco symmetry.
Long horizontal Moderne style windows and extended eyebrows counter the hotel's strong vertical element. The rows of windows end with porthole-like bosses.
To the left of the entrance is a massive square column that continues above the roof. It seems to act as a counterbalance to the building.
Since: 1939
Address: 601 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth, FL
CinemaTreasures.org ID: 8239
Designed by architect Roy A. Benjamin who was also responsable for many other cinemas in Florida and other places. The theatre building was restored in the Eighties and housed several art museums and institutes since, until these ran out of money and had to close. The building is vacant nowadays, but will soon be a community theatre as it is being restored. It is now known as the Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building.
Postcard was written and stamped on May 31st 1941. ©Tichnor Bros. Inc. Boston, Mass.
This H W Miller marked enamel and carded lapel badge, similar to the Royal Scot badge within this photostream, would have been sold at train stations to raise funds for the Railway Servants' Orphanage in Derby, England. The Derby Orphanage was established in 1875 for the children of railway workers who had died in service. Criteria for entry became relaxed over the years to include children whose parents had died in both WW1 and WW11 and children whose mothers were incapacitated.
The Derby Orphanage, renamed St Christopher's Railway Home in 1948, catered for up to 300 children, but numbers started to fall after WW11 and the large orphanage was demolished and replaced by two smaller homes in 1977. In 1993 the one remaining home closed ending a fascinating chapter in British railway social history.
The quality and detailing of this enamel 'cut-out' badge exudes quality and craftsmanship and although it shows a pre-WW11 locomotive, it would have been available for purchase as a charity badge in the post-WW11 years during the late 1940s and subsequent decade.
This badge shows a streamlined Coronation class of locomotive, the first of which was the Coronation Scot (Class 6220) that debuted in 1937 and duly broke the British speed record on its first public outing. The design was attributed to William Stanier; 38 of the locomotives were eventually built, in a range of liveries, initially in the above Streamline Moderne style and later without.
The streamlined, bullet like Coronation Scot was a stunning example of its class and built for the LMS (London, Midland & Scottish Railway) express service between Euston and Glasgow; it was one of the most powerful steam locomotives to operate on British railways. The exterior casing of the locomotive reflected the modernist design styling of the period - Streamline Moderne, while the interior carriages reflected classic art deco fittings. The notion of futurism, style and luxury were all trademarks of the Coronation Scot locomotive and carriages. The chevron lines, emanating from the nose of the locomotive continued along the carriages and complimented the futuristic styling of the train.
Railway enthusiasts of course will be aware that the Coronation Scot no.6220 that debuted in 1937 was painted in Caledonian Blue, with silver chevron stripes, yet the badge shown here is also a Coronation Scot, no. 6220 but in a Crimson Lake livery and supporting gold chevron lines. In 1939, LMS showcased their streamlined locomotive in the USA at the World's Fair in New York. The selected locomotive to undertake this task was indeed the Coronation class, Duchess of Hamilton no. 6229. However, during its refit at the Crewe Works, the afore mentioned locomotive was 're-badged' as a Coronation Scot and for a short while this arrangement witnessed a blue 6229 Duchess of Hamilton in the UK and a red Coronation Scot in the USA. In 1942, the locomotive (not the carriages) was shipped back to the UK and in 1943 the identities of the locomotives were swapped back.
Today, a superb example of a restored, streamlined LMS Coronation Class 6229, Duchess of Hamilton can be seen at Britain's National Railway Museum.
Photography, layout and design: Argy58
(This image also exists as a high resolution jpeg and tiff - ideal for a
variety of print sizes e.g. A4, A3, A2 and A1. The current uploaded
format is for screen based viewing only: 72pi)
The Folger Shakespeare Library, Theater & Elizabethan Garden
architect: Paul Philippe Cret
consulting architect: Alexander Trowbridge
architectural styles: Greco Deco, Beaux-Arts, Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, American Renaissance, Elizabethan, neoclassical, Tudor
Georgia marble exterior
cornerstone laid: 1930
opened: April 23, 1932, anniversary Shakespeare's believed date of birth
administered by the Trustees of Amherst College
Capitol Hill
201 East Capitol Street, SE
Washington, District of Columbia
No time for photo taking this week, so I'm posting some of my postcards & ephemera. :-)
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I love large letter postcards. This one is very art deco in it's background design.
Art-Moderne house, built in 1939 by Jack Hambly. A rare example of Art-Moderne residential architecture in Ontario, featuring (1) a horizontal composition with a flat roof, (2) rounded corners, (3) corner windows, (4) horizontal lines, (5) smooth surfaces, (6) horizontal window panes, (7) a porthole window, (8) cruise-ship railings, and (9) a prominent door surround.
The Colac Police Station and Court House complex has been built on the corner of Queen and Dennis Streets with the entrance facing onto Dennis Street.
Designed by Public Works Department the Colac Police Station is very Art Deco in spirit. Built of cream clinker bricks it features very Functionalist Moderne windows, a concrete enclosed vestibule with Deco detailing and a stepped skyline with red brick detailing, upon which may also be found the crown of King George V which may be found on similar Public Works Department designed police stations of the 1930s around the state of Victoria.
The new Colac Police Station and Court House were built on the site of the former Court House and Police Station that were built in 1889. The original bluestone cells from the original complex still exist to this day and are in use in the Twenty-First Century.
Located approximately 150 kilometres to the south-west of Melbourne, past Geelong is the small Western District city of Colac. The area was originally settled by Europeans in 1837 by pastoralist Hugh Murray. A small community sprung up on the southern shore of a large lake amid the volcanic plains. The community was proclaimed a town, Lake Colac, in 1848, named after the lake upon which it perches. The post office opened in 1848 as Lake Colac and was renamed Colac in 1854 when the city changed its name. The township grew over the years, its wealth generated by the booming grazing industries of the large estates of the Western District and the dairy industry that accompanied it. Colac has a long high street shopping precinct, several churches, botanic gardens, a Masonic hall and a smattering of large properties within its boundaries, showing the conspicuous wealth of the city. Today Colac is still a commercial centre for the agricultural district that surrounds it with a population of around 10,000 people. Although not strictly a tourist town, Colac has many beautiful surviving historical buildings or interest, tree lined streets. Colac is known as “the Gateway to the Otways” (a reference to the Otway Ranges and surrounding forest area that is located just to the south of the town).
The Colony Hotel, at 736 Ocean Drive, was designed by Henry Hohauser and opened in 1935. One of the most photographed Art Deco hotels along South Beach, the façade of the Colony Hotel is synonymous with the Art Deco roots and influences of Ocean Drive architecture of the 1930’s. The Hotel has been renovated and remodeled extensively over the years without compromising the integrity of the original building.
Hohauser's design--one of his first--features banded teal stripes that separate three floors of large glass windows. The center of the hotel boasts baby blue and navy blue detailing that frame the hotel's large black-on-lilac neon sign, which emphasizes the vertical dimension, even though this is only a three-story hotel. Verticality and horizontality are at odds since the sign is countered by joined ribbon windows on the side bays and continuous eyebrows, both dividing the facade into clear horizontal registers. Neon accents mark the hotel as a nighttime sight.
The Miami Beach Architectural District, also known as Old Miami Beach Historic District, or the more common, Miami Beach Art Deco District, is roughly bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Alton Road and Collins Canal/Dade Boulevard and 5th Street. With 960 vibrantly colored historic buildings, it contains the largest concentration of 1920s and 1930s resort architecture in the United States.
Miami Beach Architectural District #79000667 (1979)
Wonderful way to start 2024! I am humbled by the support the community gave The Mercury to win the Global Public Vote in the Brick Train Awards 2023. Big thank you to HA Bricks for the winners brick and TrixBrix for the voucher!
Although all the rooms of the Rone - Empire installation exhibition are amazing for many different reasons, the stairwell also stands out. Part of the reason for this is the softly fashioned portrait of Lily Sullivan, but it is also for the generous, light filled space of grand proportions itself, with its sweeping staircase and wrought iron balustrades.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
Armchair by Josef Albers on display as part of the "Jazz Age" exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.
Josef Albers (1888-1976) was born ino Bottrop, Germany. He worked as a school teacher from 1908 to 1913 before returning to school and getting an education at the Königliche Kunstschule (Royal Art School) in Berlin from 1913 to 1915. In 1916, he enrolled at the Kunstgewerbschule (Art Work School) in Essen, where he began making prints. While there, he received a commission for a stained glass window in a local church. He moved to Munich in 1919 to study at the Königliche Bayerische Akademie der Bildenden Kunst (Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts).
Albers enrolled in an introductory course taught by Johannes Itten at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1920. He joined the faculty there in 1922 as an instructor in stained glass. in 1923, Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, asked him to teach the department of design's preliminary course in the principles of handicrafts. After the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, Albers began designing furniture and learning to work with glass.
After the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933,Albers emigrated to the United States. Architect Philip Johnson arranged for Albers to be offered a job as head of a new art school at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Albers left Black Mountain in 1950 to head the department of design at Yale University, where he expanded the nascent graphic design program. He retired from teaching in 1958, and worked in a variety of disciplines until his death.
This chair, probably designed and constructed in 1927, has a veneer of walnut and maple surrounding what is most likley an elm core. The frame for the seat and back is ebonized fruitwood. The upholstery is modern.
#CMAJazzAge
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
Daringly Modernist, these three storey flats stand out along Brighton Road in the Melbourne suburb of Elwood.
Built in Streamline Moderne style, they are very representative of all that was "moderne" in the mid 1930s. The clean uncluttered lines of the flats, the building's large windows, use of glass bricks and strong verticals are very Streamline Moderne in design and spirit.
After the Great War (1914 - 1918), higher costs of living and the "servant problem" made living in the grand mansions and villas built in the Victorian and Edwardian eras a far less practical and attractive option for both those looking for new housing, and those who lived in big houses. It was around this time, in answer to these problems, that flats and apartments began to replace some larger houses, and became fashionable to live in.
Flats like these would have suited those of comfortable means who could afford to live in Elwood, and dispense with the difficulties of keeping a large retinue of staff. With clean lines and large windows, it mirrored the prevailing uncluttered lines of architecture that came out of England after the war.
Although all the rooms of the Rone - Empire installation exhibition are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study is one of them. It features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study is one. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
Richardson Apartments, 3919 West 8th St, Los Angeles. Country Club Heights neighborhood. Completed in 1940, the Streamline Moderne building was designed by Milton J. Black and H. Guthrie Thursby.
Architects: Bertram Carter and L.L. Sloot, 1935, in the Streamline Moderne style, grade II listed. Showing one of the entrances comprising a four-valve oak door with glazed panels, within a ribbed surround with ribbed keystone. London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
Although all the rooms of the Rone - Empire installation exhibition are amazing for many different reasons, the stairwell also stands out. Part of the reason for this is the softly fashioned portrait of Lily Sullivan, but it is also for the generous, light filled space of grand proportions itself, with its sweeping staircase and wrought iron balustrades.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
The tall and thin Victor Hotel was built in 1937. The asymmetrical hotel was one of the first to break away from the traditional Art Deco symmetry.
Long horizontal Moderne style windows and extended eyebrows counter the hotel's strong vertical element. The rows of windows end with porthole-like bosses.
To the left of the entrance is a massive square column that continues above the roof. It seems to act as a counterbalance to the building.
Downtown Phoenix is a lot like downtown Charlotte and downtown Salt Lake City where most of the built environment from the past has been obliterated. Hanny's is an exception and it's been nicely adaptively reused into a restaurant.
Hanny's was designed by local architects Lester & Mahoney and opened in 1947. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places #85002058.
Although all the rooms of the Rone - Empire installation exhibition are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Dining Room is one. As a well proportioned and elegant space, it runs over half of the original Burnham Beeches floor plan. It features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of found dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I personally found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Dining Room is one. The Study is the other. It features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
Although all the rooms of the Rone - Empire installation exhibition are amazing for many different reasons, the stairwell also stands out. Part of the reason for this is the softly fashioned portrait of Lily Sullivan, but it is also for the generous, light filled space of grand proportions itself, with its sweeping staircase and wrought iron balustrades.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
Some more pix from my recent archive trawl 😀📷 I’m really pleased with these, buried away in a negative sheet since I took them in the 80s.
The Luma Lamp factory, Linthouse, Glasgow with its magnificent tower, now re-developed and restored, but in the 1980s looking very sad.
Opened in 1938 as a light bulb factory of the Luma Co-operative Electric Lamp Society Ltd, the factory manufactured light bulbs for the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS) for sale in Co-op shops.
Designed by Cornelius Armour, the in-house architect of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society, it is ‘B’ listed and is one of the best preserved examples of Streamline Moderne / Art Deco architecture in the city. #glasgow #glasgowarchitecture #scottisharchitecture #artdeco #artdeco #streamlinemoderne #luma #lumatower #lumalamp #scws #lightbulbs #lightbulbfactory #linthouse #govan #glasgowsouthside #southsideglasgow #1930s
Hotel Victor, at 1144 Ocean Drive, was designed by L/ Murray Dixon and first opened its doors in 1937. After closing in the mid 1960s, the Victor underwent a $48 million re-imagining by internationally renowned decorator Jacques Garcia--his first hotel in the Americas--and was reopened in 2003. The sexy 91-room boutique hotel stands apart from the cookie cutter minimalist South Beach hotels with its bold colors and rich fabrics. The decadent lobby features a Moulin Rouge color palette with backlit painted glass, gauzy curtains, and ying-yang-shaped velvet footstools. Vix, the Hotel Victor's upscale bistro, and its Turkish Spa, with its large, unisex steam room, Turkish hammam, and heated marble slabs, are hot spots for fabulati.
The Miami Beach Architectural District, also known as Old Miami Beach Historic District, or the more common, Miami Beach Art Deco District, is roughly bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Alton Road and Collins Canal/Dade Boulevard and 5th Street. With 960 vibrantly colored historic buildings, it contains the largest concentration of 1920s and 1930s resort architecture in the United States.
Miami Beach Architectural District #79000667 (1979)
This was exciting to see -- probably one of the best streamline moderne buildings I've come across. The structure is vacant and for sale.
Italian postcard by Vecchioni & Guadagno, Roma. Photo: Columbia EIA. Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt in Lost Horizon (Frank Capra, 1937), starring Colman and Wyatt. Art director Stephen Goosson won an Academy Award in 1938 for this film. The convent of Shangri-La was built in Streamline Moderne style at the Columbia lot in Burbank.
English gentleman-actor Ronald Colman (1891-1958) was a top box office draw in Hollywood films throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. ‘The man with the velvet voice’ was nominated for four Academy Awards. In 1948 he finally won the Oscar for his splendid portrayal of a tormented actor in A Double Life.
This wonderfully sprawling, sleek and stylised Streamline Moderne Art Deco mansion built in the 1930s may be found in the Western District Victorian country town of Colac.
The mansion, which spreads across the block in single and double storey sections, is made almost entirely of clinker bricks, with glazed feature bricks in darker colours above and beneath the windows and around the enclosed vestibule. It has been designed in Modern Ship Style, as Streamline Moderne was known in Australia in the 1930s. This nickname was used because the buildings designed in this style often looked very much like the cascading upper superstructures of ocean liners with their towering decks, railings and porthole windows. It features a rounded front elevation, not unlike the prow of a ship, with a rounded portico enclosed with a wrought iron grille, which is reached by a set of rounded steps. It also has chimneys designed not unlike ship funnels. The mansion has very functionalist windows, and the upper floor has a rounded “waterfall window” which also gives the building a nautical feeling as it looks like the bridge of a ship. Unfortunately, the central panel has at some stage been broken and the window boarded up. The curved glass used in “waterfall windows” is very expensive to produce and difficult to fit. The complex features an adjoining garage of equally grand proportions, displaying the wealth of the family who had this residence built, accessed via a long driveway edged with clinker bricks. The owners were obviously very keen to have a new and modern house as a status symbol, but as was quite common in conservative 1930s Australia, they couldn’t quite accept the flat roof that many Streamline Moderne houses in England had.
The whole property is surrounded by its original low brick wall which also features a capping of darker glazed peaked bricks to match those of the window ledges. The garden itself is quite large and features an expanse of lawn edged by large garden beds of creepers, ground covers and roses. Some of the garden beds feature dry stone edging, whilst others have brick edging to match the mansion and its fence. There are some well established trees in the garden which have probably been there since the mansion was first built in the 1930s.
Located approximately 150 kilometres to the south-west of Melbourne, past Geelong is the small Western District city of Colac. The area was originally settled by Europeans in 1837 by pastoralist Hugh Murray. A small community sprung up on the southern shore of a large lake amid the volcanic plains. The community was proclaimed a town, Lake Colac, in 1848, named after the lake upon which it perches. The post office opened in 1848 as Lake Colac and was renamed Colac in 1854 when the city changed its name. The township grew over the years, its wealth generated by the booming grazing industries of the large estates of the Western District and the dairy industry that accompanied it. Colac has a long high street shopping precinct, several churches, botanic gardens, a Masonic hall and a smattering of large properties within its boundaries, showing the conspicuous wealth of the city. Today Colac is still a commercial centre for the agricultural district that surrounds it with a population of around 10,000 people. Although not strictly a tourist town, Colac has many beautiful surviving historical buildings or interest, tree lined streets. Colac is known as “the Gateway to the Otways” (a reference to the Otway Ranges and surrounding forest area that is located just to the south of the town).
A great little deco theatre beautifully restored and operating as a local cinema in Yarraville, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
1533-44 North Vine Street was once a bowling alley then it became a radio studio for the American Broadcasting Company and later it was the home to the Merv Griffin Show. The Streamline Modern building was built in 1937. By the 1990s it was derelict and suffered a fire which destroyed most of the building. What remains today is the facade that serves as the entrance to the Sunset + Vine residential/retail space.
Melbourne based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) used the decaying glory of the 1933 Harry Norris designed Streamline Moderne mansion, Burnham Beeches in the Dandenong Ranges' Sherbrooke, between March the 6th and April 22nd to create an immersive hybrid art space for his latest installation exhibition; "Empire".
"Empire" combined a mixture of many different elements including art, sound, light, scent, found objects, botanic designs, objects from nature and music especially composed for the project by Nick Batterham. The Burnham Beeches project re-imagines and re-interprets the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, seldom seen by the public and not accessed since the mid 1980s. According to Rone - Empire website; "viewers are invited to consider what remains - the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning."
Rone was invited by the current owner of Burnham Beeches, restaurateur Shannon Bennett, to exhibit "Empire" during a six week interim period before renovations commence to convert the heritage listed mansion into a select six star hotel.
Rone initially imagined the mansion to be in a state of dereliction, but found instead that it was a stripped back blank canvas for him to create his own version of how he thought it should look. Therefore, almost all the decay is in fact of Rone's creation from grasses in the Games Room which 'grow' next to a rotting billiards table, to the damp patches, water staining and smoke damage on the ceilings. Nests of leaves fill some spaces, whilst tree branches and in one case an entire avenue of boughs sprout from walls and ceilings. Especially designed Art Deco wallpaper created in Rone's studio has been installed on the walls before being distressed and damaged. The rooms have been adorned with furnishings and objects that might once have graced the twelve original rooms of Burnham Beeches: bulbulous club sofas, half round Art Deco tables, tarnished silverware and their canteen, mirrored smoke stands of chrome and Bakelite, glass lamps, English dinner services, a glass drinks trolley, photos of people long forgotten in time, walnut veneer dressing tables reflecting the installation sometimes in triplicate, old wire beadsteads, luggage, shelves of books, an Underwood typewriter, a John Broadwood and Sons of London grand piano and even a Kriesler radiogramme. All these objects were then covered in a thick sheet or light sprinkling of 'dust' made of many different things including coffee grinds and talcum powder, creating a sensation for the senses. Burnham Beeches resonated with a ghostly sense of its former grandeur, with a whiff of bittersweet romance.
Throughout the twelve rooms, magnificent and beautifully haunting floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall portraits of Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of the Foxtel re-make of Picnic at Hanging Rock, appear. Larger than life, each portrait is created in different colours, helping to create seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.
Although all the rooms are amazing for many different reasons, there are two major standouts. The Study features walls of books covered with a portrait of Lily Sullivan, and the entire room is partially submerged in a lake of black water with the occasional red oak leaf floating across its glassy surface. The Dining Room features two long tables covered in a Miss Havisham like feast of a trove of dinner table objects from silverware and glassware to empty oyster shells and vases of grasses and feathers.
The Dining Room installation I found especially confronting. In 1982, I visited Burnham Beeches when it was a smart and select hotel and had Devonshire tea in the dining room at a table alongside the full length windows overlooking the terraces below. I was shocked to see a room I remember appointed with thick carpets and tables covered in gleaming silver and white napery, strewn with dust and leaves, and adorned with Miss Havisham's feast of found dining objects.
I feel very honoured and privileged to be amongst the far too few people fortunate enough to have seen Rone's "Empire", as like the seasons, it is ephemeral, and it will already have been dismantled. Rone's idea is that, like his street art, things he creates don't last forever, and that made the project exciting. I hope that my photographs do justice to, and adequately share as much as is possible of this amazing installation with you.
I think the painted DISCOUNT CARPET sign ought to be peeled off and donated to the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati. I do not trust the people of Leavenworth to know how to appreciate and enjoy the sign.
See how the narrow canopy extends onto the older building next door. Do you like that?
This was originally the B & G Motor Company, which is included in a self-published online list of former Edsel dealers. Would you rather have a discount carpet or an Edsel!
Isn't this picture beautifully composed. Nah I'm just kidding, I know it's not.
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In downtown Leavenworth, Kansas, on April 1st, 2022, Discount Carpets and Flooring at the northeast corner of Shawnee Street and North 7th Street. The building is from 1945 according to the Leavenworth County government's online parcel search tool.
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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names terms:
• Leavenworth (2036674)
• Leavenworth (county) (2000711)
Art & Architecture Thesaurus terms:
• automobile dealerships (built works) (300105654)
• canopies (structural elements) (300069732)
• commercial buildings (300005147)
• curved (300010305)
• intersections (300003871)
• lampposts (300101536)
• repurposing (300417716)
• shop signs (300211862)
• specialty stores (300005364)
• storefronts (300002533)
• Streamlined Moderne (300253564)
• traffic signals (300003915)
• vertical blinds (300204076)
Wikidata items:
• 1 April 2022 (Q69306386)
• 1940s in architecture (Q60996001)
• 1945 in architecture (Q2811871)
• April 1 (Q2510)
• April 2022 (Q61313054)
• carpet shop (Q47516346)
• Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS Combined Statistical Area (Q111496508)
• signalized intersection (Q2940218)
• streetcorner (Q17106091)
• streetlight (Q503958)
• Treaty with the Delawares, 1854 (Q111530447)
• Treaty with the Kansa, 1825 (Q111541683)
Library of Congress Subject Headings:
• Business names (sh85018315)
• Small business (sh85123568)