What were people smoking in the 60's & 70's?

[laxor]

The amount of beutiful buildings that were destoryed during this period in Melbourne, Sydney etc is criminal. By the same token every building that was built during this period is ugly!

[Amaruu]

I guess they didnt have the benefit of hindsight that we have now.

Melbourne didnt demolish all of its buildings back then. The city still has some grand old buildings which blends in well with the newer stuff.

[Blindfold]

Tell us about it!

Its one of those periods that makes today's architects, planners and the general public cringe.

Perth also lost a shocking amount of beautiful architecture in this period. The CBD's office core is almost devoid of anything older than 1960. The loss of Perth's CML Building in the 70's (which was architecturally similar to those around Australia and Perth's first skyscraper, is a travesty). It was obviously much more viable to demolish and rebuild higher during this period. A lot of older buildings were just unsuitale for changing office needs.

Thankfully Perth's retail precinct has much more heritage but still a lot was lost.

The very same can be said of the UK which has some of the worst 60's/70's planning and architectural distasters imaginable. Thankfully they are slowly being corrected. These include the clearance of whole neighbourhoods either due to WW2 bomb damage or slum clearance and the construction of cheap high-rise, high-density housing. These developments were both unsightly and disasterous on a social level and are now being pulled down. London's Elaphant & Castle is a perfect example. In fact nearly all British cities have examples somewhere. Slum clearance/bomb damage and the resulting high-rise tower blocks were a national phenomenom. Hello Glasgow and Birmingham!

The City of London (financial core) and most of the East End was devasted during WW2 and lost much of its heritage to be rebuilt in the 60's/70's with monstrosties.

I could go on about this forever but i'm sure there are some more knowledgable people on these forums who can go on and on about this topic......

[Wilko]

I call them 'Horror Blocks'

[christarrant]

Makes me wanna puke.
I assume that every American and Aust city did similar stuff in the 60's and 70's, to varying degrees ???
Paris looks like a city where the inner ring is wonderfully preserved ( I know that the outer burbs are pretty average). Wonder what they did differently to Oz ?
I think Sydney lost the most stuff.

[crawf]

Originally Posted by laxor

The amount of beutiful buildings that were destoryed during this period in Melbourne, Sydney etc is criminal. By the same token every building that was built during this period is ugly!

I tottaly agree, Adelaide has lost some its grandest buildings to ugly things

tho not all of Adelaides grandest buildings have been lost - thankgod

[Blindfold]

Originally Posted by christarrant

Paris looks like a city where the inner ring is wonderfully preserved ( I know that the outer burbs are pretty average).

Paris was occupied by the Germans and wasn't bombed to f*ck like London in WW2 plus Hitler wanted Paris as the capital of his empire. However, don't know what thet did that was so different to Australia to retain so much of their rich history in the centre.

[zulu69]

Yeah i hate most of the stuff during this era. It really doesn't age well either to make matters worst. The only good to come out of it is to preserve our heritage even more now.

[JayT]

Originally Posted by laxor

The amount of beutiful buildings that were destoryed during this period in Melbourne, Sydney etc is criminal. By the same token every building that was built during this period is ugly!

It was called progress - the war had ended and a brave new world of consumerism had dawned. People looked forward to the future - and lived under a cloud of possible nuclear holocaust at any time.

Have a look around at the architecture happening right now - there are similar things happening now that were happening in the 50s and 60s.

[KJBrissy]

It makes me sick every time I think about the georgous pub that got pulled down to build the Hilton in Brisbane. What I think is wierd about a lot of this, is the amount of undeveloped land that wasn't touched, yet they rip down a heap of buildings for their ugly highrises. Thank God we're now building taller to hide them all!!!

[Anton]

Originally Posted by laxor

The amount of beutiful buildings that were destoryed during this period in Melbourne, Sydney etc is criminal. By the same token every building that was built during this period is ugly!

I agree too many glorious buildings were lost. But i can't agree that all that were built in that period were bad. There were some stunners. Australia Square, 140 William, Reserve Bank Building, AMP Centre. ICI. These are slowly becoming respected nowadays.

Also, we It's funny how we relate to architecture and the fashion of the time. Ie, when it is new most stuff looks at least OK (even if it is crap), then when it is 50 years old EVERYTHING looks beautiful even if it was crap at the time. the in between time, the architecture is derided - like now, anything built in the 60's and 70's is considered shit. Back in the 80's, anything in the 50's to 60's was considered shit. Back in the 1960's, anything pre-war was considered terrible - yet ALL new buildings then were considered great.

When i was a kid, anything Art Deco was considered garbage. now it's all the rage - even shit art deco. When my Dad was a kid, Federation was considered crap, but it's been "in" for at least 20years now.

The point being, everything new looks at least OK and we always see everything very odl through rose coloured glasses - not everything that is old was or is good.

SYdney's GPO (today)

[James Saito]

Does it mean Q1 will be considered as an ugly building in 20 years time?

[Anton]

Originally Posted by James Saito

Does it mean Q1 will be considered as an ugly building in 20 years time?

nah - 5 years.

Seriously though, some arcitecture lasts, but most dates - until its reaches the magical 60 years and then it's all good. lol

[christarrant]

In 10-20 years time we will be talking about the following precincts and wondering WTF happened to taste and style !!!! >>
1- Docklands apartment towers ( apart from a couple of them )
2- anything white or beige in the southern Syd CBD + inner south
3- anything near Storey Bridge in Bris CBD
Infact they were already redundant peices of crap even before they were designed.....

[KJBrissy]

Too scared to say Admirality???

I reckon Devine will have a lot to answer for, especially in Brisbane!

[CULWULLA]

We have had many threads on "lost treasures".
One of the reasons many 1880's boom scrapers of melbournes gold rush period were demolished in 1960's and 70s was beacuse most had quite small floor plates and were virtually useless with the new wave of giant office towers coming through. Companys like CML wanted new premises and this ment demolshment of the 1896 blgd and erection of a new larger 20storey block. Some were saved like Stock exchange,Olderfleet,Stalbridge chambers,safe deposit,lombard bldg,national mutual ect.
sadly great skyscrapers like-APA,Finks,Fed coffee palace,all the 4prell buildings,Oxford chambers and many more were razed from existance.

federal Coffee palace


Colonial Mutual Life (Originally Equitable life assurance of USA) of 1896
probably Australia;s greatest pre 1900 skyscraper?



just look at its grand entrance>

how could anyone put a jack hammer to this?




its replacement
V



Most were replace with worthless substitutes.In the 60;s and 70;s office bldgs were in the infancy and flat top boxes were the most modern design.
And that was just in melbourne. sydney had many great bldgs demolished for an inferior design.

sydney's first "skyscraper" was the 7storey/31m Mutual Life Bldg of 1889. The magnificent bldg stood for 70 years cnr george/wynyard sts and was replaced with a 60's box.
sorry for small pic'



T&G was Sydney's tallest in 1930 but that wasnt enough to save it from another 70;s box


another grand skyscraper from 1919 UNION HOUSE was pulled down to make way for the giant towers of QANTAS & NAB in 70's.




thank god bldgs like AWA TOWER were saved from demolishers.

[Randwicked]

They were smoking concrete, duh.

[Avatar]

Originally Posted by James Saito

Does it mean Q1 will be considered as an ugly building in 20 years time?

LOL it depends who you ask. Maybe it's already ugly

[crawf]

Originally Posted by CULWULLA

.

federal Coffee palace

OMG, how could they let this glorious building be demolished :O, tho this is just one of many elegant buildings demolished in the 60s,70s,80s in our major capital cities

[Adam from Oz]

imagine that as a restored, very exclusive set of apartments.

DROOLS!

cul, which city did the most destruction?

Cheers,

Adam