Palais de Danse, St Kilda

The Palais de Danse was originally located in St Kilda’s Lower Esplanade, inner southern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Palais de Danse once stood as a striking piece of interwar architecture. Constructed in 1925, it was designed by the renowned American architect, Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937), and his wife Marion Griffin (1871–1961).[1]

Architecture

The Palais de Danse embraced the Interwar period in architecture, which saw the emergence of the newer modern styles, in response to the Great Depression.[2] Architectural styles of this period portrayed in the Palais de Danse included Modern and Classical.

The Griffin’s short-lived two-storey interior for the relocated old timber Palais de Danse has been illustrated as an interesting Modernist design of purely geometrical elements, in a sequence of ascending vertical chevron panels, like vertebrae.[3] The gently arched ceiling was supported on organic trunks, with umbrella branches in folded, prismatic forms. It seated as many as 2,870 patrons. Its triangular entrance awning was supported on staggered columns.[3]

The Palais de Danse was commonly used as a hall and is remembered for its magical atmosphere.[3] Although supported by abstracted Doric columns, the frieze above was entirely Modernist, with complex, prismatic panels up lit. On hot nights, the louvered wall panels hinged up, to capture sea breezes wafting off the bay.[3]

The outcome

In just over two decades there have been four different Palais cinemas in St Kilda, most confusingly, three of them on the esplanade. In 1913 they built the Palais de Danse next to Luna Park, which was converted to Palais Pictures in 1915.[3] A new cinema was built on the site in 1920, and the Palais de Danse was recreated on an adjoining site.[3]

A spectacular fire engulfed the stage in February 1926, just before completion, bringing a halt to work.[4] When the Griffins moved on to Sydney the fire convinced the Phillips brothers to erect the forth Palais Pictures, a much grander and splendid theatre on the site. For this ambitious enterprise they commissioned the theatre architect Henry E. White (1888-1952) of Sydney.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Lives & Works". Walter Burley Griffin Society Incorporated. 1988. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  2. ↑ "Palais de Danse: Lower Esplanade, ST KILDA". Walking Melbourne. 2001. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Peterson, R (2005). A Place of Sensuous Resort. Australia: St Kilda Historical Society.
  4. ↑ "Palais Theatre Lower Esplanade". Buildings of St Kilda and Their People. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  5. ↑ "St Kilda Palais". National Library of Australia. 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2012.

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