7th Floor Lobby, The Carlu, Toronto

Towards the end of October 1930, Eaton's opened their College Park store in Toronto with the undoubted highlight of the building the seventh floor.

Lady Eaton commissioned French designer Jacques Carlu to design the seventh floor. Carlu had designed the interiors of the great ocean liners Normandie and Ile de France which were particular favourites of Lady Eaton.

The seventh floor consisted of a huge lobby, circular dining room, an auditorium and a number of lounges and offices.

By the mid 1970s, the taste for these spaces had declined. Eaton's had moved to a new retail complex closer to downtown and the fabulous seventh floor was sealed up. What remained, although damaged and compromised from the original design, was protected by its designation as a national Historic Site by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The seventh floor remained empty for almost 30 years but after a multi-million dollar restoration it has emerged as The Carlu an Event Space like no other.

I was lucky to visit The Carlu as part of the Doors Open Toronto program in May 2009.

The three photos so far have been of the seventh floor lift lobby but this small office or lounge was also open for viewing.

I don't know if this was added during the restoration or was part of the original design. I don't think that matters.

It is a fabulous space which leads through to the Round Room which I will write about tomorrow.

A House in Camberwell

I adore the front of this house in Camberwell. I don't know if it is a deep verandah or an enormous porch behind that complete semi-circular arch.

On a hot November Saturday in Melbourne I look at this house and wonder if it is cool in there.

1255 Phillips Square, Montreal

1255 Phillips Square in downtown Montreal was designed by Spence and Mathias and constructed in 1949.

The overall design of the exterior is simple with streamline features. Curved stone walls and windows draw people towards the entrance.

Horizontal bands of windows emphasise the streamline design as does the curved corner at the major street intersection.

The high quality lobby is finished in cream, green and black colours with brass for the mailbox and the shop windows and doors.

Storage Depot, Asmara

I was intrigued by this amazing building from the first time I saw it.

The facade is rounded, in fact it is a completely circular building with a central core and roadway within the structure.

The two storey high frame around the doorway is striking but in the end even that is dwarfed by the height of the monumental entrances either side of the administration block.

In Asmara - Africa's Secret Modernist City by Denison, Yu Ren and Gebremedhin the building is identified as originally being the Spinelli Store when it was built in the late 1930s.

From their information it appears that Spinelli was a local businessman who owned a nearby villa. It is now the Africa Pension and that is where I stayed when I visited Asmara in 2003.

Warwick Court, St Kilda East

I absolutely love these four garages at Warwick Court in St Kilda East. It is lovely to see the original doors still intact. I reckon I could just fit my car into one of the garages but I'm not sure I could open the car door to get out once I was in there.

Dominion Court, Durban

Dominion Court in the Grey St or Indian area of Durban harks back to South Africa being part of the British Empire. A nearby building is called Empire Court.

The building has several Art Deco features. A flagpole with a nice example of a rule of three decoration at the base.

The central panel below the second storey balconies bears a stylised sunburst that could also represent the Union Flag of the United Kingdom. The bays either side are decorated with a tapering horizontal stepped design.

Dominion Court has seen better days but with a bit of work could become a very stylish building once again.

Office Building, Twickenham

I snapped this Art Deco office building in Twickenham in 2003 when this fabulous clock tower attracted my attention.

I know nothing about the building but from the decoration I suspect it was associated with a local Electric Board or and Electrical Showroom.

A relief above the door shows a disembodied hand perhaps generating or conducting electrical waves to transmission lines.

Other reliefs on the building are less ambiguous clearly showing a lit electric light globe.

Co-Op Building, Woolwich

This is the former Co-Op department store in Woolwich. I took these photos in 2003 so I can only imagine that the building has deteriorated further since then.

I see on the We Love Woolwich that the building is earmarked for demolition by Greenwich Council to make way for the Woolwich Triangle re-development.

I hate to see a building like this demolished when it could become a landmark feature of the redevelopment and provide a tanigible link to the past use of the site.

Please sign the online petition to Save the Woolwich Co-Op building and hopefully we will see this beautiful building occupied and operational again.