This is the kind of drop-dead, highly endangered stunner MA was started for. An iconic beauty, a c.1956 Mid-Century dowager carrying all the wealth of the era’s optimistic design and the possibility for a stunning revival with a steady hand and appreciative mindset. Take a look at those windows, split levels, northeast orientation, stone walls, balustrades and (as per the plan) the kidney-shaped pool. This could be the renovation project of the year triumphantly producing the residence of a lifetime, wholly infused with a Hollywood Modern cool no build today could fully capture. Or – it could be just a another devastating loss to the streetscape and suburb, one more MCM beauty in a parade of other Beaumaris fallen stars, razed to make room for an overblown altar of vanity and/or multi-dwelling wealth creation scheme, designed with all the architectural dexterity of the sales spiv tasked with flogging it.
Which will it be people? How many of these beautiful homes can we waste? How shameless, tasteless and gormless can one location become? Our culture is presently beset with superhero narratives, so today we make the call that this home and our local MCM heritage desperately needs a hero too. Send out the signal.
**Update** Turns out this was a local and notable Mid-century builder’s own home one Mr Allan Pike and commentary from Bronwen (a former resident from 1967-1986) not only attests to its beauty and livability but also that each brick used in this build has the Olympic logo stamped in (we assume to celebrate Melbourne’s leap on the world’s be-trackied dias in 1956) how marvelous!
