News & Discussion: CBD Real Estate & Market Conditions

[Shuz]

I love Westpac House. Took a photo in all its glory yesterday
My friend calls it the 'Big W'... lol.

[Edgar]

LOL

[frank1]

I never realised until the other day that the facade of westpac house is actually a layer of polished granite giving it that brown appearance. I always thought it was a shit paint job.

[Will409]

Considering that building once was (and once again is) a bank building, should it serve any surprise that it would have such a large amount of granite or other modern stonework?

[bm7500]

I think that its a classic example of late 80's architecture. The square cornered triangular design just makes this building special.

[Shuz]

It should be heritage listed, as well as the Grenfell Centre.

[Omicron]

Speaking of '80s buildings, I would be very sad to see the lobby of the Hyatt altered from the brilliant, glitzy design it is now. We won't see that sort of indulgence again. Am I right in thinking that the Hilton lobby was similar, but has now been toned down?

[rhino]

The saddest example of glitz lost is David Jones. What a fantastic ground floor that old DJ's store had! Unclutterred with polished grey marble and granite everywhere, high ceilings, and when the chap was playing the grand piano, it was really something special as far as a shopping experience goes.

[Edgar]

any photos to show what you are talking on? I've never seen the old DJ.

[rhino]

Unfortunately I don't have any, maybe someone else knows where to find some? I went to DJs in Sydney and Melbourne in the 1980s, and it looked like an attempt had been made to make them look like the Adelaide store, but once you'd seen the Adelaide store, you realised how far short the Sydney and Melbourne attempts had fallen.

[frank1]

The old DJ was much nicer than the current one (especially the food court in the basement). It is just a pitty that they found asbestos in the building and had to demolish it as it was cheaper to build a completely new one than to fix up the old one. They would never get all the fine particles out.

[Ben]

The old DJ was much nicer than the current one (especially the food court in the basement). It is just a pitty that they found asbestos in the building and had to demolish it as it was cheaper to build a completely new one than to fix up the old one. They would never get all the fine particles out.

The building is still there.... Just has been refitted.

[Omicron]

The saddest example of glitz lost is David Jones. What a fantastic ground floor that old DJ's store had! Unclutterred with polished grey marble and granite everywhere, high ceilings, and when the chap was playing the grand piano, it was really something special as far as a shopping experience goes.

Oh, goodness yes! How could I have forgotten? That was indeed a tragedy - I only have the barest of memories, but they are of a fantastically extravagant space of times past. The elegance of that entire building has been lost forever since those awful windows were cut into the facade. A real shame.

[Omicron]

Unfortunately I don't have any, maybe someone else knows where to find some? I went to DJs in Sydney and Melbourne in the 1980s, and it looked like an attempt had been made to make them look like the Adelaide store, but once you'd seen the Adelaide store, you realised how far short the Sydney and Melbourne attempts had fallen.

The current Adelaide store is the most conservative, deathly-dull effort I've seen in a long time, especially considering the money that went into it- at least Myer tried something slightly impressive with the central atrium, and provided sufficient floorspace, unlike the rabbit-warren mess of DJ's ground floor.

[Brando]

The saddest example of glitz lost is David Jones. What a fantastic ground floor that old DJ's store had! Unclutterred with polished grey marble and granite everywhere, high ceilings, and when the chap was playing the grand piano, it was really something special as far as a shopping experience goes.

So true mate, that was an amazing ground level.
As a kid i remember always watching the cookies being made at the Cookie Man from the stairwell that led to basement level.