Nicholas Building

Designed by architect Harry Norris and completed in 1926, it is the grandest example in Melbourne of what is known as 'Commercial Palazzo' style, featuring a solid base, vertical middle floors, and a large cornice.

In 1939, a five level Victorian era building to the south was replaced by a lower three storey extension, also designed by Norris, extending the area of the Coles store.

The building was home to various businesses, at first many associated with the Flinders Lane garment trade, and later commercial artists, medical practitioners and architects.

[5] Valerie (Vali) Myers (1930-2003) had a studio on the seventh floor from 1995 until her death in 2003; she was a dancer and artist who moved to Paris in 1949 and lived and worked in Positano and New York before returning to Melbourne in 1993.

[7] In 2003, a stencil, believed by UK artist Banksy, was painted on the building, on the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Lane.

A piece of plastic was put up over the work to protect it from the elements but it was later painted over by city council workers, upsetting the art community.

[9] In 1964 it was purchased by the Anglican Church as an investment,[10] who then sold it in the 1970s to a consortium of families from the wealthy suburb of Toorak, who put it on the market in June 2021.

Following the style of American 'Beaux Arts' or Classical revival, the exterior has a base of four floors, supported by piers and Doric columns, while giant order Ionic pilasters divide the upper façade into bays, and the top is defined by a wide cornice.

The main facades are clad in grey terracotta faience designed to give the appearance of stone, manufactured by Wunderlich as ‘Granitex’, chosen for its durability and ease of maintenance, since it was promoted as able to 'self-clean'.