Melbourne & Australian Architecture Topics

Who designed this place?

Has to be one of the most interesting apartments in Melbourne, worth a look if you are down that way!

Melbourne Architecture
Philip Goad

Woy Woy flats
77 Marine Parade, Elwood
Built 1935-36
Designed by Mewton and Grounds

Woy Woy Flats are the stuccoed version of Geoffrey Mewton's nearby Bellaire Flats at 3 Cowderoy Street, St. Kilda (1936).
Those flats point to Mewton's interest in the work of Dutch architect Willem Dudok.
By contrast, austerely functional with all ornament stripped away, the Woy Woy flats still evince a daring minimalism.
The name of this pacesetting block of International style flats is its only flight of fancy.

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The Collector's Marvellous Melbourne

http://www.thecollectormm.com.au/

good work collector

just a bit more on this building - some more stuff I have researched - in the late 60's owners of the block undertook renovations and opened the size of the front windows to allow more light in, in the process they included the roof light room. They also added the year of completion in between the light room on the roof and the vertical stairwell windows. The changes mould well with the style of the building and don't detract from it's original form. To guage the size of the originial windows the ground floor windows where never changed

Firstly hi and sorry for digging up an old thread !
but
I think I may have found a long lost cousin to the Woy Woy flats in St Kilda and a possible explanation for its name , I found the similarities in this local building some years back and have tried to contact the SKHS a few times about it with no success , tonight I chanced upon this thread in a Google search and thought someone here might be able to help.

When I first seen the SKHS page http://www.skhs.org.au/skhsbuildings/42.htm on the Woy Woy flats I immediately got a familiar feeling and went out and took these photos of an old block of flats on the waterfront at Umina , I'll let the pictures do the talking........

A shot of Woy Woy in St Kilda and the flats at Umina , both are located on a waterfront parade at both have pine trees planted out front




Front view - Rear view , flats are offset on block to face bay



View of tiled wall on rooftop area and original tiled entry



Umina is located on the Woy Woy peninsula , which may explain the name of the building in St Kilda if built by the same fella , the only info I have found so far is that this building has been around since the 1940's
Appreciate any comments cheers

Im afraid the similarities are very superficial - the sydney one looks very 1960s, whereas Woy Woy is an early modernist place, built 1936. And yes its on Marine Pde, facing the bay.

Thought should mention that I remember that Woy Woy was somewhat altered, I think the early 1990s, the windows on the left were enlarged a bit downwards, the two top ones originally like the bottom one, and the box on top added; it was quite severe originally.