Lend Lease Property Services has blown up a John Coburn painting to beautify its Renzo Piano construction site in Sydney.
NATIONAL
The RAIA is debating how to write or reword several policies: education, urban design and the Code of Professional Conduct. None will be binding • In this year’s Boyer Lectures, broadcast on Radio National and published as anABC book, author David Malouf noted recent recognition of Australia’s early buildings as “products of an age when architectural design was a matter of spirited play—between landscape and architecture, style and history, history and function; but strongplay … as an act of appropriation.” He suggested that contemporary development designs should still combine opposing aspirations • The Industrial Relations Commission has rejected an appeal by the Association of Consulting Architects Australia (employers) against an earlier award for salaried architects. Graduates must earn at least $23,814 and registrants at least $29,450 • The RAIA has backed a call by WA Greens Senator Dee Margetts for a halt to Fred Hilmer -style competition reform until three inquiries report next year. Meanwhile, the National Competition Council has recommended abolishing Trade Practices Act protection for intellectual property rights • Michael Rayner , director of Cox Rayner in Brisbane, won this year’sRAIA/ACI Sisalation Scholarship, to research links between art and architecture.The Institute is now taking applications for the next award • A sudden job-shift by RAIA PresidentGraham Humphries —to join Rodney Moss as joint directors of Cox ’s Canberra office—caused spirited debate at the last National Council meeting, with Robert Peck of Melbourne claiming that councillors are elected from their firms and should give notice when they plan a transfer • A recent case in Perth, involving an acoustics failure, indicates that the law is requiring project managers to be responsible for all aspects of their jobs, and must seek advice on matters beyond their competency • Financial Reviewwriter Jenna Reed Burns has identified some “bankable architects” whose designs should enhance developers’ profits • RAIA Archicentre expects home renovations to boom before the GST begins • The Housing Industry Association has introduced a voluntary code of conduct intended to educate a “blokey” industry on customer service • Developers are still bullish on prestige apartments in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane • After a recent survey by member groups (including the RAIA), the Australian Council of Professionshas announced that some schools of architecture are no longer viable. We’re asking which schools for next issue.
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Businessman Terry Snow ’s plans to upgrade Canberra Airport are upsetting Queanbeyan residents concerned about noise • The Federal Golf Club is trying to sell some of its land, cheaply acquired from the Crown, for a development of 59 houses • Roy Grounds ’ leaky copper dome at theAustralian Academy of Science is being repaired for the centenary of Federation • Although ACT has only 115 prisoners (in NSW jails), it plans to spend $25-$30 million on its own prison • Economic researchers predict that construction will decline in Canberra over the next 10 years unless the mooted fast train lends a boost in 2003-4 • Action groups are decrying plans by the ACT Governmentand the National Capital Authority to build 14-storey ‘landmarks’ along Northbourne Avenue, to form an entrance from the city’s bush environs.
NEW SOUTH WALES
Planner Jeremy Dawkins has been appointed Harbour Manager at the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority . This new agency of the Department of Urban Affairs & Planning(DUAP) is absorbing various quangoes planning waterfront precincts • DUAP Director-General Sue Holliday has promoted Deborah Dearing , her urban design advisory chief, to a deputy’s role as Metropolitan Planner • Despite a thumbs-down from Frank Stanisic and Professor James Weirick to the Eric Kuhne/Lend Lease design for Cockle Bay Wharf, the harbourside leisure precinct is booming • Days before Christmas, the government reached agreement with the Construction, Forestry and Mining Employees Unionto end a National Trust -initiated green ban by moving a shoe-boxy Botanic Gardens visitors centre away from its Conservatorium of Music development. Although the Trust approves recent removal of brutalist accretions to the Con’s castellated colonial HQ, it remains outraged about subterranean extensions which include monumental walls and terraces facing the gardens behind trees • Ed Lippmannwon the City of Sydney ’s competition to design $4 million improvements (an unrealistic budget) to the Andrew Boy Charlton Pool on Woolloomooloo Bay. But the council has been challenged for compensation by Mulloway Studio , a jury-approved team which was forced to withdraw on the eve of second-stage judging after anonymous complaints that its principals were working with John Choi , a Hassell colleague of juror Ken Maher • In another legal drama, the council is appealing a court order to pay $770,000 to fountain guruRobert Woodward over his work on Chifley Square (a development which erased one of his water sculptures) • Public Works and Services Minister Ron Dyer has announced a batch of ‘young architects’ competitions for small projects—eg bridge toll booths—to be run by the RAIA• Tonkin Zulaikha is designing townhouses to replace the Blackwattle Studios at Glebe Point; waterfront sheds for architects, artisans and builders • Senior urbanists are debating the probity of having commercially active architects on public bodies which generate and review major developments. Government Architect Chris Johnson , Allen Jack + Cottier ’s Keith Cottier and Cox ’s John Richardsonare cited as examples • Perhaps tarred by his firm’s heritage consultancies on the Walsh Bay, GPO and Woolloomooloo developments, Clive Lucas has not been re-elected to the National Trust council. Architects on board areHelen Lochhead , Peter Webber , Geoff Bailey and Peter Johnson (who recently retired after 11 years as Chancellor of UTS) • Plug: AA editor Davina Jackson ’s Lend Lease -sponsored exhibition of work by 40 rising independents, displayed on 12 towers of Marblo resin, will launch at Darling Park on February 18 and repeats at Interior Designex in Melbourne in May. It’s called 40 Up: Australian Architecture’s Next Generation • Clouston ’s masterplan for a harbourside park (instead of housing) on three obsolete industrial sites at Waverton has been praised by activist Tom Uren and North Sydney Mayor Genia McCaffery • RAIA NSW President David Brown has criticised a Land and Environment Court ruling which accepts 95 houses on the HMAS Platypus naval base at Neutral Bay • Following Jørn Utzon ’s video appearance at a late-night reception for the Opera House’s 25th anniversary, he met Denton Corker Marshall ’s Richard Johnson for three days in Majorca, discussing how to improve the icon’s access and internals • Customs House reopened in November with dramatic outdoor night performances directed by the city council.
QUEENSLAND
Responding to forecasts of traffic gridlock in 10 years, Lord Mayor Jim Soorley is seeking federal and state support for a $1 billion program to build a city bypass, inner-north busway and to widen Coronation Drive and
Waterworks Road • Separately, the mayor has bagged the nearly complete, neo-masonic aesthetics of the State Office Block designed by Donovan Hill with Davenport Campbell • Cox Rayner are the architects and Minale Tattersfield Bryce are design consultants for Mango Hill, a new town for 25,000 people being developed by Lend Lease near the north Brisbane suburb of Redcliffe • The old Cairns Courthouse is being renovated as part of an eight storey, “resort style” residential and retail centre called Cairns Calypso • QUT is seeking donations for a design gallery in honour of the late Tom Heath , a former Dean and Architecture Australia editor • Brisbane City Council is debating a new code to discourage brick houses in streets of timber Queenslanders • Graham Davis is the council’s new Principal Architect City Design • Richard Lonn has designed Sunshine Central, a $19 million waterfront business park at Minyama on the Sunshine Coast.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Professor Judith Brine , an architect and UniSA super-Dean, has RAIA support in her candidacy for the Adelaide City Council , aligned with Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith• Danvers has restored the earthquake-damaged Gothic facades of Beehive Corner at King William and Rundle Streets • Uni Adelaide architecture graduate Richard Marshall has been appointed by Harvard as Assistant Professor Urban Design • The Bookmark Biosphere Trust , administering 700,000 hectares of UNESCO -watched wetlands, is holding a design competition for an environment centre at Renmark: entries close April 3 •Heritage SA (a government authority) has been accused by architect John Chappel of “unfettered prejudice” over its recent abuse of architects as “wacky”, “only concerned with getting the building erected” and prone to “putting self-interest before community interest” • After winning a Civic Trust Award for their Encounter Coast Interpretive Centre at Victor Harbour, the National Trust is working withMulloway Studio on two more visitors centres—one at Glenelg and another at Kadina • Developer Gerry Karidisis pushing residential and pedestrian-life developments around Hutt Street • Six apartments for disabled UniSA students have been built at Stamford Court to designs by architecture and interior design students.
TASMANIA
Hobart architect Jamieson Allom says the profession is busier and more optimistic than it has been in several years • Forward Viney ’s design for a six-storey concert hall and convention centre, linked to and funded by the Grand Chancellor Hotel on Sullivans Cove, worries some Hobartians because it lacks windows. Garry Forward has patiently explained the acoustic issues in a Mercury report • Four UTasmania students have topped an international field of 300 students in the annual Graphisoft CAD concepts competition. Andrew Maynard and Stephen Meeswon first prize for their ‘Ballroom of the Devil’, Daniel Kohran third for his ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and Jad Silvesterscored an honourable mention for his ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ • The Oceanport cruise terminal scheme for Princes Wharf is continuing to generate public anger, but promoterTony Ashford has promised to answer criticisms in detail during the next public comment phase. Meanwhile, a former partner of Oceanport , the Great Oyster Bay Trading Company ,is working with architects Heffernan Button Voss to revise its 1996 scheme for the same site; hoping to topple Oceanport from preferred tenderer status. The new Bacon (Labor) government is applying a stricter set of guidelines for the project than its Liberal predecessor • Heffernans are working on internal alterations to the Royal Hobart Hospital and a fishing lodge at the Great Lakes • Only a few Tassie architects took up a request to sketch their urban visions for Hobart for the recent ‘Passion Desire’ exhibition run by fin.design , a group of UTasmania design graduates with ambitions to ignite debate.
VICTORIA
The Kennett government has approved the 113-storeyDenton Corker Marshall design for Grollo Tower at Batmans Hill in the Docklands. The site’s old railway sheds are now intended to become a retail complex • The AMPhas also won permission for a 56- storey tower at Bourke and William Streets • Deakin Uni ’s Kiwi Dean of Architecture and Building, Mark Burry , has been using software for designing aircraft to help continue construction of Antoni Gaudi ’s Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona. Burry says that Gaudi’s shapes are still too complex for conventional CAD • Port Phillip Council has rejected the Nonda Katsalidis-Becton scheme for a 38-storey tower behind St Kilda’s historic Esplanade Hotel and has asked interventionist Minister Maclellan to also dismiss the proposal. However, the council has confirmed its DA conditions for the long-delayed St Kilda Sea Baths refurbishment, so the property can now be sold by the current owners’ receiver • Hoping to top up $50 million of federal funds, the state government is already looking for investors to build and tenants to occupy various major retail and hospitality facilities at Federation Square • UMelbourne architecture lecturer Clare Newton has won a $48,030 federal grant to develop her ‘Pathways into a Maze’ multimedia kit for teaching students about relations between design and the realities of construction • Bird de la Coeur and its client, Telstra , have won the Facilities Management Association’s Excellence Award for three schemes to convert surplus space at still-operating telephone exchanges into apartments • The Urban Land Corporation has begun building a bridge over Skeleton Creek as part of an $80 million program to supply infrastructure to an emerging waterside suburb at Point Cook; where 5000 houses are to be built over the next decade • Australia’s top 10 housing builders—notablyJennings , Henley , Multiplex and Mirvac —are squeezing out small players with increasing activity in more diverse projects • The Heritage Council of Victoria ’s new chair,Catherine Heggen , has attacked the state’s new building laws, and its system of having private surveyors supply planning permits without reference to councils. This follows partial demolition of a 133-year-old Wesleyan chapel at Flemington, approved privately to suit the Education Department , against the wishes of the local council •Allom Lovell and Daryl Jackson have finished revising the Customs House in Flinders Street for museums of immigration and Hellenic antiquities.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
A public square is being built above the new Subiaco train station; part of a major retail development called Subi Central • Creditors have lost $1.5 million from the collapse of the Hobbs Winning architectural group. Its former principal, now known as Mark Mitcheson-Low , is completing some of the old practice’s projects as Perth head of Woods Bagot • The Gloucester Park trotting complex in East Perth may be sold off for housing • Premier Richard Court has launched a new plan to sink part of Riverside Drive (below the water table) to allow Barrack Square to reach the Swan River. The $88 million scheme, designed by Hames Sharley , includes a children’s beach, jetties, a lap pool, boardwalks, pavilions and an 80 metre-tall Millennium Bell Tower to house 18 bells of 14th century design (from the church of St Martins-in-the-Field) which were a Bicentennial gift from London.
INTERNATIONAL
Lobb and HOK , once-rival architects for international sports stadia are joining forces in Kansas City. This move may split Lobb (founded by Queenslanders) from its Sydney Olympics partners, Bligh Voller.
