Vedere

‘Vedere,’ 44 Panoramic Road, Balwyn North, built in 1947 by builder J H Campbell is significant. Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include: • asymmetrical built form with attic storey • glazed terracotta tiled roof with extremely steep pitches and vergeless gable ends and deep boxed eaves • red-blue clinker brick walls and slim manganese Roman brick borders to the windows and vergeless gable ends • clinker brick chimney, stepped in plan and each step capped with manganese brick. • circular arched entrance porch of slim manganese Roman brick and catslide roof • slim manganese Roman brick dwarf piers either side of entry arch • steel framed windows • front fence clad in slate crazy paving including pointed piers and mild steel infill panels and gates. The 1972 sunroom addition at the rear of the house is not significant.

The house is of historical and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara

44 Panoramic Road, Balwyn North is of local historical significance for the evidence it provides of the settlement boom that was to characterise the area in the Post-war period. The settlement boom was spurred on by the extension of the electric tram route along Doncaster Road to Balwyn North, which opened in 1938, but which was delayed by the onset of WWII and associated restrictions on private building activity. Although the land was part of the 1929 Camberwell City Heights subdivision, the success of this and other 1920s and 1930s subdivisions in the area were delayed because of the sheer distance from useful public transport links. Although an architect could not be found for the house design, the house exemplifies the concentration of high quality individually designed houses built in Balwyn and Balwyn North during the Post-war period. (Criterion A) 44 Panoramic Road, Balwyn North is of aesthetic significance for its skilful execution of a highly original and complex design in the interwar Old English mode, with its exaggerated roof pitch and catslide entry porch, dramatic massing and picturesque setting within an established garden. The retention of the early stone front fence, with mild-steel infill and matching gate adds to the picturesque setting of the dwelling, adding a layer of rusticity and contrasting with the overall refined presence of the place.