Joseph Plottel (1883 – 28 May 1977) was a British born architect who was active in Melbourne, Australia between 1911 and World War II, working in a range of revival styles, as well as Art Deco in the 1930s.

Here he was embraced by the local Jewish community and soon found his feet again, initially taking up a position with the Railway's Engineering Department where he worked as a draftsman for about three years.

As inspiration he presented a photo of the recently completed Temple Isaiah in Chicago, and his design was closely modelled on it, a smaller and simpler version of its exotic grand, domed, 'Byzantine Revival' style.

[7] The Masonic Club, in the heart of the city at 164 to 170 Flinders Street, in 1927 again featured the extensive use of decorative brickwork, this time in a variation of the Neo Grec theme, showing the style's usual chaste ornament, formed by swags, antefixes and a shallow pediment.

[12] In the late 1920s, like many architects, he undertook an overseas tour in 1929 to study the latest trends in both Europe and the United States, where he was impressed by the Spanish style houses of Pasadena and Beverly Hills.

Bradmill's had previously been McPhersons Jute Works and Barnett Glass Rubber, but under the ownership of Bradford Cotton Mills the site was greatly extended with "Factory block No.

It adopts an unusual eclectic Romanesque or even Byzantine mode, which had previously influenced Plottel for his St Kilda Synagogue, arranged in a formal Palladian manner with a central classical portico with attached receding wings either side.

The exterior incorporates a finely detailed entrance loggia with Corinthian columns, variegated brown brickwork highlighted with intricately modelled buff faience work and a terracotta tile mansard roof.

The Beehive building has been described as 'one of the most distinctive buildings in Melbourne', while Yoffa House is 'almost modern in concept, the Moderne note is sounded by the 'architectural terracotta' applied to the facade and the portholes intended for its walls' Further flat designs also came in the 1930s such 'Clovelly' at 136 Alma Road, St Kilda of 1938, featuring the Old English style which was a fashionable and romantic style for flats in the period 1919–1941, described as 'a cheery tonic after the rigours of the Great War.