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CRA Building

Buildings and structures demolished in 1988Collins Street, MelbourneDemolished buildings and structures in MelbourneFormer skyscrapersModernist architecture in Australia
Office buildings completed in 1962Office buildings in MelbourneSkyscraper office buildings in AustraliaSkyscrapers in Melbourne

The CRA Building (also known as CRA House, Consolidated Zinc Building and Comalco House), located at 89 - 101 Collins Street (aka 95 Collins Street), was a curtain-walled office building in the international style, designed by Bernard Evans and Partners for Conzinc Riotinto of Australia. It was the tallest building in Melbourne at the time, a mantle it held until 1969 when it was surpassed by AMP Square in the western end of the city. When it was demolished in 1988 it was the youngest major building and the first skyscraper to be demolished in the city.The CRA was first truly high-rise office building to be built within the Hoddle Grid; at 26 floors, it was 10 storeys taller than the other new office towers within the CBD, and as the first tower on top of the Collins Street hill in the eastern half of the city it was a very prominent in distant views. As an International style skyscraper it was built as an almost free standing building, with plaza/garden setback to the street, which was beset by strong winds due to the downdraft formed by the sheer face of the building catching strong northerlies. With its vertical ribbing emphasising its vertical proportions, and the setback interrupting the highly valued historic streetscape of the 'Paris End' of Collins Street, by the 1970s it was seen to be out of place, and it was not missed when it was demolished in 1988. It made way for the 57 storey 101 Collins Street development, completed in March 1991, designed by Denton Corker Marshall.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article CRA Building (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

CRA Building
Flinders Lane, Melbourne Melbourne

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Wikipedia: CRA BuildingContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N -37.814491666667 ° E 144.970625 °
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101 Collins

Flinders Lane
3000 Melbourne, Melbourne
Victoria, Australia
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Cherry Bar
Cherry Bar

The Cherry Bar is a Melbourne city bar founded in December 1999 by former Cosmic Psychos drummer Bill Walsh. Located on ACDC Lane (off Flinders Lane between Russell St and Exhibition St), the bar replaced existing artists studios in the building to make a rock music venue that has become a popular concert after-party venue for touring bands and their crews. Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was so taken with the bar during the band's 2002 Australian tour, he made an offer to purchase it. Other high-profile international visitors included Mick Jagger, Johnny Marr (from The Smiths) and Lady Gaga. In the early 2000s punters were brought to Cherry through its Deep Funk nights on Wednesdays with John Idem, hiphop Thursdays, and the consistent rock n' roll weekend nights. Thursday nights was Soul night, while rock from all genres and eras was played on weekends by founder Bill Walsh, Max Crawdaddy, Rock DJ Paul Miles, and Little Scotty. Later, the DJ roster included rock DJs Mary M, Dom, Kez, DJ Mermaid and Leaping Larry L, with radio PBS announcers Vince Peach and Pierre Baroni helming Thursday night's Soul In The Basement. Local promoter and former radio and television presenter James Young has been managing Cherry with a consortium since 2006. Although inaccurately reported by Melbourne's Herald Sun that the building was destroyed by fire on 5 June 2008, it was in fact the offices located in the floors above which burned, whereas the Cherry bar, being located in the basement of the building, suffered only water damage. The bar was expected to reopen following two weeks cleaning and restoration of the electricals damaged by the water used in the fire-fighting effort but building complications delayed the re-opening until New Year's Eve. As regulars of Cherry, rock band Airbourne reference the bar in the lyrics of their song Fat City: "Midnight bite at the Cherry, so sweet is the juice." Melbourne-band Jet also drew upon their many long nights spent at the bar as an influence for their song Rollover DJ, after an inebriated band member was rebuked for spilling his drink over the in-house DJ's records. In 2018 indie rockers Glomesh released the track Crawlin' Up AC/DC Lane. The filmclip for Kylie Auldist's track Sensational was filmed at Cherry, as were scenes from the big-budget 2002 vampire flick Queen Of The Damned, featuring locals among the extras. In 2019 Cherry's management announced that they would be relocating to the former location of late-night venue Pony (AKA Boney), 68 Little Collins St, Melbourne.