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11
St Leonards Apartments
In
St Leonards Apartments, 2002
Craig McGregor observed that
Katsalidis is in diametrical opposition to the
iconoclastic
Clearly Katsalidis is not speaking of St Kilda - now very much inner-city. However, he is concerned to develop traditional urban forms as an expression of our own times and ways of living at greater population density, diversity of uses and with a European sense of urbanity. As John Armstrong has sagely explained: ‘We need the art (architecture) of the past because it answers to needs we have in the present, but which modern culture is not very good at satisfying - or even recognising...the opportunity, of addressing the needs we have in the present, but which the present alone cannot minister to.’
Other then Katsalidis,
I can name only Allan Powell (13) (16) and Peter Elliot (who has
done no work in St Kilda) amongst
Around 1991-92, Nonda
Katsalidis designed two remarkable single family houses. One became
famous as a most sophisticated reinterpretation of the weekend beach shack: the
house at
In 1994, Katsalidis designed and developed Melbourne Terrace, the first major new housing project in the city for over 20 years. It combines 65 high density apartments, car-park, retail, offices and penthouses in four blocks, highly modelled and expressive, each with their own identity and strongly designed entrances. St Leonards Apartments was developed over 1995-96 on a lower budget. There are two blocks of apartments, each four stories, in a domestic environment, set at ninety degrees to each other. Stage one is over 40 walk-up apartments in one, two and three-storeyed configurations, accessed off four stairwells, with car-parking in a semi-basement. Stage two is about half that size. All units have maximum amenity: gardens or generous terraces for all, most apartments have views in at least two directions, there are no corridors. Rooms are large with high ceiling heights, abundant natural light and ventilation. Façades are very interesting: deeply modelled and vigorously articulated with a rich variety of natural materials: manganese bricks galvanised steel and strong colours. Stairwells articulate the long façade into individual elements and at stage two, by the vaulted sail-like roofs, which somehow do not overwhelm the single storied Edwardian house adjacent at number 15. Further fine Modernist townhouses by other architects have followed, erected over the past five years in this enclave. An early critical discussion of the St Leonards Apartments, after the completion of Stage one, was written by Professor Leon van Schaik:
In late 1995, after increasingly desperate
searching for accommodation, he and his family moved into St
Leonards. He notes how
Katsalidis draws on European apartment forms and the ‘commonsense layouts
of better 19th century housing in
St Leonards Residential Development Plan, 1996
Van Schaik himself
has played a particularly significant role in debates on architectural practice
and urbanity internationally, in
His pervasive influence has been through his
entrepreneurial teaching, his prolific writing (72 publications listed by 2002)
and particularly his patronage. This has led to an impressive portfolio of
recent significant architectural commissions at RMIT, which appears to have in
turn influenced some comparable architecture at Monash, Deakin and the
Since, St Leonards, in 1996 Katsalidis’ Silo Residential Apartments at 22 Abinger Street, Richmond turned the reinforced concrete wheat silo of Daly’s Malthouse, which had defeated previous developers’ capacities, into a sculpturally powerful block, with fabulous views. But in 1997, Nation Fender Katsalidis’ (NFK) design for a 38-storied tower at the Esplanade Hotel (14) alienated thousands of St Kilda residents and Espy fans, who had doubtless been happier with the low-scale St Leonards Apartments.
Republic Tower Apartments,
Other major apartment blocks followed for Katsalidis and NFK: Spring Street (1999); Elgin Street, Carlton; Wills Street and Hero, Russell Street (2001) in Melbourne’s CBD; World Tower in Sydney (2000- ); HM@S at Beach Street, Port Melbourne (2002); ERA Townhouses in Dover Street, Richmond and presently under construction the 88-storied Eureka Tower (2002-05), at City Road (corner Southgate Avenue), Southbank, the tallest residential tower in the world.
Nonda Katsalidis
was born in
Katsalidis
and Axia developed the Argus Centre,
As the firm has continued to act as not only
architect, but also developer for ever larger buildings since 1995,
predominantly residential, there has been an expectation that its design
sensitivity and formal invention would decline, but to date it has not. There
was no opposition from the National Trust to the development of the
extraordinary
On
When Dimity Reed, professor of architecture at RMIT University, talked about ‘neighbourhood character’ in her evidence for the St Leonards project in VCAT, she talked about how the design grew out of the architectural history and design culture of St Kilda to produce a building of its time. Today the phrase ‘neighbourhood character’ has become code for keeping things as they are. The ethos is exclusionary and anti-change. I believe that several recent exciting contemporary, small to medium-scale developments have demonstrated that this is not presently true in St Kilda, nor has it ever been. It would be a sad day for the expression of our contemporary culture if it were.
References
Armstrong,
John. ‘Art of Desire’. The
Age.
Baird, Diane.
‘Constructing a learning environment.
An interview with Leon van Schaik’.
UltiBASE
Articles.
Birnbauer,
William. ‘Delahunty ticks off style offenders.’
The Age.
Day, Norman.
‘
Evans, Doug.
‘The Secret Life of Contemporary
Evans Doug,
Executive editor. Aardvark.
A Guide to Contemporary
Gallagher,
Brett. ‘Let’s dare to dream of a better city.’ The Age.
Goad, Philip.
Kennedy, K. ‘The Calculation of Sophisticated Artistry’. Monument. No 5. 1995. L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui. No. 285, February 1993. McGregor, Craig. ‘Stretch of the Imagination’. Good Weekend. (Date?).
‘Nation Fender
Katsalidis’.
Philip Goad and Patrick Bingham - Hall.
New Directions in Australian Architecture.
Schaik, Leon van.
‘Katsalidis Towers’.
Architecture
‘Two Beach
Houses’.
Architecture
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