The Other Centra(l) Park

My friends Guy Wilkinson and Rory Toomey (both in the lower left) giving me a tour of the new project. Photo ©Darren Bradley.

Sydney's latest neighborhood renewal project is in the heart of what was once a fairly modest, working class area called Chippendale, on the site of a former brewery. To ensure its success, the developers commissioned a starchitect to design it - Jean Nouvel. 

The latest addition to the Sydney architecture scene

Museum of Contemporary Art by Sam Marshall opened in March 2012. Photo ©Darren Bradley

I was excited to finally see the new Museum of Contemporary Art when I passed through Sydney a couple of weeks ago. It's a beautiful building that works very well, functionally. I quite like the design. Of course, it's easier to appreciate if you don't know the story leading up to it. 

Adelaide

South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), by Woods Bagot, sits perched like an alien spacecraft next to Adelaide's main railway station. Photo ©Darren Bradley

I've been to Adelaide several times, for both work and vacation. I rarely take many photos there because, frankly, there's not a lot of modernist architecture to speak of. It now appears that the city is trying to change that. 

The Box

Melbourne Recital Centre by Ashton Raggatt McDougall. Photo ©Darren Bradley

As you may have noticed from my previous two posts on Melbourne, the design team of Ashton Raggatt McDougall have been on a bit of a tear in that city for some time. This studio has landed some of the most prestigious commissions in Melbourne, including this Recital Centre above. I liked this building as soon as I saw it, but I was also a bit confused by it. I couldn't understand the shape of the white forms on the facade. Then I spoke to some of the locals and they explained it to me. You won't believe what they represent... 

Firing for effect

RMIT Swanston Academic Building in Melbourne was designed by Lyons Architecture and completed in 2012. Corbett Lyon is from Melbourne, but he worked for a time under Venturi Scott Brown in the US. Photo ©Darren Bradley.

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (known to everyone as simply RMIT) is another university in the heart of Melbourne. It wears its credentials as a leading institution for architecture and design on its sleeve, as it were... Many of its campus buildings make bold architectural statements. RMIT's influence can clearly be seen across Melbourne today. 

Melbourne

Southern Cross Station. Photo ©Darren Bradley

First off, apologies for the long absence. I was in Australia again, as I mentioned earlier. I had this crazy idea that I would be diligently taking photos and editing them and posting them to new blog entries every couple of days while I was over there. But of course, I didn't do any of that. 

Harry Seidler: father of modernist architecture in Australia

My daughter is an expert at photobombing. Photo ©Darren Bradley

When the Austrian-born architect Harry Seidler arrived in Australia after World War II (via North America - that's a long story), he didn't make many friends in the local architecture community. He called the local architecture "sad brick shacks" and poor copies of outdated European architecture. Town councils and distinguished local architects returned the favor, decrying his modernist designs as flimsy and "un-Australian". 

A [Soap] Opera in the Land of Oz

Trying to make the best of a cloudy afternoon. Photo ©Darren Bradley

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most well known, magnificent structures in the world. It's up there with other man-made structures like the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal as a singular achievement for civilization. And like most other great achievements, it was almost never built. In fact, it was quite a soap opera...

How to take original photos of the Salk Institute

Yes, even me... Photo ©Darren Bradley

OK, that title is meant as a bit of a joke (photographer humor?), because there's probably no such thing as an original photo of this building - and certainly not the one above. In fact, it's the most obvious shot and the one everyone takes. C'mon... if you've been there, you've taken this shot, too. You can't help yourself. And since no series on the Salk Institute is complete without this shot, I thought I'd get it out of the way first thing.

New York City

Photo ©Darren Bradley

Last summer, I took the family back to New York City for a quick trip (just a few days) to attend a family wedding. We didn't have much time to sightsee (or do much photography), but I did bring my camera, of course, and take some shots while running around town. There are many, many modernist landmarks to see and photograph in that fair city. This is only a random sampling of them.