CARINTHIA, NEO-CLASSICAL MASTERPIECE

Carinthia is an elegant eleven-storey apartment building facing north-south at 7 Springfield Avenue, Potts Point, which also backs onto Earl Place.

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It is a silent sentinel in its streetscape and was built 1925-26 by Walter Leslie Nielsen. He also designed Carisbrooke apartments (1927), 11 Springfield Avenue, Franconia at 123 Macleay Street (circa 1927) and Kentwood apartments (1920), 3 Springfield Avenue. He had more impact on this street than any other single architect.

Unsurprisingly, this accounts for this avenue’s harmonious landscape. It is often used as a period backdrop for weddings, advertisements, plays and TV productions where its Belgravia, London-style ambience gives it a timeless aesthetic appeal.

This area was once part of the Springfield Estate. When the land was subdivided, Springfield Avenue was created and named after the original Springfield Villa, which faced Macleay Street but was later demolished.

Carinthia, along with Carisbrooke, were both built as investment properties and the flats, as they were then known, were not originally intended for individual purchase. In 1927, when the building was still very new, it was sold for £75,000 (about $10 million in today’s terms).

Mr Nielsen used the Inter-war Neo-classical style, popular in the 1920s and 30s alongside other styles such as Art Deco, Mediterranean style, also previously called Spanish Mission style, and Olde English style. All were common in this era. Some buildings used a mixture of popular styles to appeal to a broad market.

Elements of the neo-classical style are evident in Carinthia’s exterior pediments, Tuscan columns, laurel leaf garlands, well-proportioned upper windows, a pitched entrance canopy and ground floor arched windows with carved, vermiculated stone work .

The original plans are still held in the NSW State Mitchell Library.

The building retains its rich, wood-paneled lobby with herringbone flooring, wooden letterboxes and the two original lift carriages with their brass button panels. The original, beveled, fan-light windows above the entrance door remain but the fanlights above each apartment entrance door has been replaced with a full-height fireproof door. Elaborate cornices in the entrance foyer an individual units add to the period touches.

Springfield Avenue has several other heritage apartment buildings including Carisbrooke, The Vanderbilt (c1925) and Mardon Hall (c1925), all of which add to the cumulative effect of classical streetscape.

By Andrew Woodhouse

Heritage Solutions