HOUSES

30 and 32 Sunnyside Avenue, built in 1920-21 are significant as two unusual and fine examples of the variations within the Arts and Crafts bungalow style.

The properties are of local historic, architectural, aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.

30 and 32 Sunnyside Avenue Camberwell are historically significant as houses constructed for the same owner, Isabel Crawford who purchased adjoining lots in Sunnyside Avenue in 1919 and 1921. Historical significance is attached to the architectural practice of Schreiber and Jorgensen within Boroondara for their work at Xavier College Chapel and the Burke Hall campus. More broadly, Justus Jorgensen is better known as an artist and one of the founders of Montsalvat. (Criterion A)

30 and 32 Sunnyside Avenue demonstrate in their modest proportions, the tenets of the Arts and Crafts movement whereby there was virtue in the handmade and the unpretentious. Furthermore, the two bungalows exhibit a plainness of wall surface that is advanced for its time, looking towards this feature of modernism. The Arts and Crafts character is demonstrated in the composition of No.30 with its chimneys and low, proportions enhanced by wall buttressing. In No.32 this is demonstrated through the plain wall surface, the five tall chimneys and the emphasis on the structural piers. (Criterion D)

30 and 32 Sunnyside Avenue are aesthetically significant for their different expressions of the small Arts and Crafts bungalow. This is embodied in the picturesque composition of No. 30 including the large stepped chimneys as a dramatic counterpoint to the low horizontal proportions of the house further anchored to the ground with corner buttresses. The use of engaged wall piers to articulate the front facade and the characteristic use of porch piers as used on Schreiber and Jorgensen's 57 Droop Street provide integrated, rather than applied, decorative detail. The characteristics for which No. 32 is notable include the porch piers with repeated decorative motifs, tall chimneys, eaves brackets and roughcast wall surface (also at No.30), Timber-framed sash windows on both houses are typical of the period but add to their overall integrity. (Criterion E)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House