10 Tusculum Street, Potts Point

These apartments at 10 Tusculum Street,Potts Point has a fantastic Art Deco entrance and door.

Cahors, Potts Point

Cahors is a large block of flats in Macleay St, Potts Point, at the top end in Sydney's King's Cross area.

It was built in 1940 and designed by architects Joseland and Gilling. The State Library of NSW has a series of b+w photos taken around the time construction was completed.

Most of the building is free of decoration but at the top few floors there are panels bearing geometric Art Deco patterns. The tops of the three main brick columns on the building are capped with rounded structures, stepped back towards the flat face of the facade.

At ground level the entrance to the flats and the fronts of the two small shops have been finished with light blue tiles. They curve into the three doors along the street, the flats and the two shops, and extend above the canopy of the porch covering the central part of the first storey.

The windows above the entrance to the flats and on the central windows on the first floor above that contain amber glass and the decoration is completed with the name 'CAHORS' spelt out in large gold letters.

References:
Art Deco Sociey of New South Wales
State Library of New South Wales

Kanimbla Hall, Potts Point

This is Kanimbla Hall, a piece of Sydney confection at 19-19a Tusculum Street, Potts Point.

Unfortunately I don't know when it was built or who was the architect but it is a large residential block with a simple roofline and curved section on the corner of the building.

At nice touch, I presume added at a later date, are the metal bars on the ground floor windows are in a sunburst pattern. As are the fence and gates at the garden area between the wings of the building.

17 Wylde St, Potts Point

Aaron Bolot designed this large block of flats at 17 Wylde St, Potts Point. It was constructed between 1948 and 1951 and shows the style of modernism that was appearing in Sydney architecture in the early post-WWII years.

The majestic curve of the facade is interrupted by two large blocks of balconies although most have now been enclosed by glass perviding more living space but changing the architect's original vision of the building.

Reference: Elizabeth Bay and Potts Point Walk, Twentieth Century Heritage Society of NSW

Park View, Potts Point

Park View Apartments in Potts Point, like many Sydney apartment buildings, uses different style and different coloured bricks for much of its decoration.

The central section of the parapret has an Art Deco panel but I think it is how the bricks have been arranged, especially the sections around the panel that have been laid vertically, that really make this building.

Wychbury, Potts Point

Wychbury is an impressive block of flats in the Sydney suburb of Potts Point. It was designed by Emil Sodersen and completed in 1934.

The use of brick as a means of decoration on Wychbury is astounding. I really like the scalloped roofline and the subtle differences in scale between the two inner columns and windows the outer ones.

It must have been a bricklayers nightmare. Each time I look at the building I see another variation in the brickwork. Look as the chevron pattern below the second top row of windows and the vertical lines of recessed bricks on the outer edges of the building creating deep shadows under the Australian sunshine.

At street level, around the main entrance the brickwork, if anything, has increased with a series of steps below each of the windows and then further stepping to the recessed doorway.

Wychbury just shows what can be done with the humble brick and they didn't even use contrasting colours.

Macleay Regis, Potts Point

Yesterday, The New York Times plublished a story on the Sydney suburb of Potts Point mentioning the gorgeous mix of Art Deco apartments and Victorian terraces sitting among the restaurants and cafes of Macleay Street.

One of the best Art Deco apartment blocks in Potts Point is Macleay Regis at 12 Macleay Street. Designed by architect Eric C Pitt and built in 1939. The Library of NSW has a series of photos taken by Sam Hood in April 1939 showing the interior and exterior of this fabulous building.

I took my photos on a typically glorious Sydney winter's day in July this year, 70 years after the construction of Macleay Regis.