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.