Mordechai Benshemesh
| Mordechai Benshemesh | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mordechai Benshemesh 16 January 1911 Tel Aviv, Ottoman Palestine |
| Died | 22 December 1993 (aged 82) Melbourne, Victoria |
| Nationality | Palestinian Australian (6 December 1946) |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Spouse(s) | Herma |
| Children | Lisa, Joseph |
Mordechai Benshemesh (Tel Aviv, 16 January 1911 – Melbourne, 22 December 1993) was an Ottoman born Jewish émigré architect, who practiced in Australia from the 1950s to the 1970s. He was the designer of one of Melbourne's first large scale modernist apartment blocks, Edgewater Towers.
Mordechai Benshemesh was born on 16 January 1911, in Tel Aviv, which at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire. He studied Polytechnical School in Tel Aviv between 1930-33 before travelling to London where he completed diplomas from Institute of Engineering Technology and International Correspondence School. It was in Australia where he produced his most notable work. Benshemesh arrived in Australia on 13 June 1939. and spent the next ten years working with numerous Melbourne architects; most notably Arthur W Plaisted (1940–41) and Harry Raymond 'Ray' Johnson (1946–49). Benshemesh was naturalised as an Australian citizen on 6 December 1946. When Johnson retired from architecture Benshemesh opened his own architectural firm in 1950, where he gained reputation for multi-storey apartment designs, primarily within the St. Kilda area. Benshemesh died on 22 December 1993.
Edgewater Towers located at 12 Marine Parade, St Kilda, was constructed in 1959-1960. When construction was complete the tower was advertised in The Age as "everything you'd find in a Manhattan building, only minutes from Collins Street". The apartment block was important at the time as it was the first multi-storey apartment block in St Kilda and it was also one of the first in Melbourne. The tower supports 100 one bedroom and two bedroom apartments all with patios, laundry and garbage disposal chutes, lounge rooms and dinettes. Throughout the 1960s numerous planning permits were permitted to allow enclosed balconies. The design of the Edgewater Towers is considered in the style international modernism and is constructed largely out of reinforced concrete. The building is listed on the City of Port Phillip's Municipal Review, which lists its significance as being "the first of St Kilda's residential highrise developments". The listing goes further to state "It still plays an important symbolic role in the perception of St Kilda's character and imagery." "Standing somewhat like a towering section of a stranded ocean liner, it announces St Kilda's uniquely nautical cosmopolitan zone at its southern approaches."
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