Headlines: Architecture Australia, July 1999

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1 Jul 1999

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Right UTS’ newly named Peter Johnson Building, designed by Cox Richardson.

Scanning the nation for architectural news and noteworthy nuances.

NATIONAL
Many architects designing public spaces are not wise about the needs of teenagers, suggests a federal government report >> Robert Cheesman, Louise Cox, Joan Domicelj, James Kerr and Bruce Mackenzie received AMs in the latest honours list. An OAM was awarded posthumously to Harold Krantz of Perth >> A large international practice, DesignInc, has been formed from the merger of SJPH in Sydney, Eggleston MacDonald in Melbourne and Noel Robinson in Brisbane >> The RAIA is introducing the Peter MacCallum national student award for a project about architectural practice

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
The Australian War Memorial has been criticised for using RAIA-supported qualification-based selection for the design of its new Anzac Hall. After tenders closed, Sydney architects Peter Myers and Andrew Nimmo called for an open competition to allow design excellence to prevail over CV experience. They noted that Emil Sodersten, was only 27 when he won the original war memorial competition >> Freeman Leeson and Bligh Voller Nield have published contesting shadow diagrams for a BVN scheme to heighten a Manuka cinema; concerning cafés across the road >> The National Museum of Australia is being constructed to a design by Ashton Raggatt McDougall with Robert Peck von Hartel Trethowan, which (contrary to our May/June Radar item) is still showing a bright yellow lakeside facade. The scheme is being explained as a “Gordian knot” of Griffin axes, with a new line coming into the site from Uluru >> After criticism from Civic shop-keepers, a $50 million scheme to update the Canberra Centre has lost an eight-screen cinema and 60 percent of the mooted retail >> Alan Saunders, host of Radio National’s The Comfort Zone, chaired a debate at the National Gallery on architecture and museums; it was broadcast later >> Canberra’s economy seems to be healthier. Housing prices are rising and key retail centres are expanding >> Cox Humphries Moss expects a visit from Chinese design institute managers to discuss joint ventures >> UCanberra’s Donald Dunbar has criticised the federal government’s plan to sell John Andrews’ heritage-listed Cameron Offices and allow the 1960s ‘bureau landschaft’ exemplar to be partly demolished >> After settling a claim from the Parliament House Construction Authority, Mitchell/ Giurgola & Thorp has lost its suit against a textiles consultancy for the cost of moth-munched woolblend panels in the House of Representatives Chamber. ACT Justice Terence Higgins ruled that MGT’s failure to specify mothproofing was “the sole cause” of damage from bogong plagues

NEW SOUTH WALES
Peddle Thorp & Walker is working with Perth pool architects Kim Donovan and Carl Payne on the Olympic water polo complex at Ryde >> The NSW Property Council, supported by Andrew Andersons, Greg Crone and Philip Cox, is contesting the City of Sydney Council’s plans to reduce floor space ratios from 12.5:1 to 8:1 along the east side of Darling Harbour; introduce 55-metre height restrictions in some precincts, and reward developers who either employ an architect “recognised for excellence” or find a design through an architectural competition. Cox’s criticisms include a “fear of heights” that’s inappropriate for an international city, and potential for “cronyism and elitism” in administering design quality controls >> At Flashpoint 99, the national student conference at UNSW in July, competition submissions on homelessness will be shown at Redfern’s obsolete Museum Station >> This year’s SOLARCH/James Hardie Sustainable Building Design competition has produced three commendations but no winner >> Mirvac has lost a Land and Environment Court appeal against council

requirements for more sun in 30 of 142 townhouses it’s developing at Carlingford. This will require removing a few houses >> UTS has named its Cox Richardson-designed Building 6 (containing Design, Architecture and Building) after a former USydney Architecture Dean, Peter Johnson. He retired as UTS’ Chancellor late last year >> A craze for designer-brand apartments continues in the eastern suburbs, but analysis of the 1991 and 1996 censuses by USydney’s Planning Research Centre suggests that city apartments are mainly being bought by migrants, and that spacious suburban houses are still in demand. The centre’s Jon Hall rejects Sydney’s current housing targets and strategies >> The Railway Square bus station and pedestrian tunnel—designed by Margaret Petrykowski of the Department of Public Works and Services (DPWS) with artist Merilyn Fairskye—has opened to general praise for the tunnel artwalls and some “grumpy” complaints about the dynamic aesthetics and scant weather protection of the bus shelters >> In a move condemned by Sydney Morning Herald columnist Geraldine O’Brien as “bastardry”, the NSW Labor Government and the Liberal Opposition have jointly voted for a law which retrospectively validates the Walsh Bay development and kills the National Trust’s legal case that the scheme’s current approval is illegal >> The Fox Studios development at Moore Park is revealing some hidden architectural marvels concealed by later alterations. Meanwhile, the restaurant, retail and cinema strip is 90 percent leased ahead of its November opening >> In a Heritage Week promotion, the National Trust has identified seven Sydney “sites of shame”: Woolloomooloo, East Circular Quay, Cook & Phillip Parks, the demolished Regent Theatre and State Office Block, Walsh Bay and the Conservatorium. In the Trust’s Heritage Week Guest Lecture, environmentalist Peter Garrett argued that the Sydney Basin is in a state of extreme stress >> Hassell and the DPWS have been married together by assessors of six submissions to develop Victoria Park at South Sydney. Apparently the Hassell design was appreciated—and the DPWS scheme included innovative water management strategies from the Manly Hydraulics Lab>> Source four ninety’s first Design Progress lecture attracted a design industry crowd of 350 to hear Brisbane architects Donovan Hill explain their two projects from AA’s last issue >> Harry Seidler, Philip Cox and Greg Crone have designed for the City of Sydney an alternative to the Roads and Traffic Authority’s “cheap and nasty” scheme for a cross-city tunnel. Their notion to keep the tunnel going east under William Street would cost $140 million more than the RTA version, but would avoid freeway entrances outside the Australian Museum >> Hassell has hosted a seminar on transport infrastructure at the Museum of Sydney >> John Andrews’ Canowindra Grossi chardonnay is now served to Qantas’ first class passengers and guests at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (a building he designed) >> Philip Cox has ticked off the Olympic Co-ordination Authority for “lack of courage” in dropping Melbourne artist Kerrie Poliness’ concept to wrap his Homebush Bay car park with bandages of metal mesh. OCA’s urban design director, Bridget Smyth, said tests showed rust problems >> Art Deco expert Roy Lumby is setting up an Australian branch of DOCOMOMO to support 20th century architecture >> Bligh Voller Nield is working with Clare Design@DPWS on major changes to the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay, while Tonkin Zulaikha is updating Quay restaurant at the north end >> USyd has extended its dead-line for Chair of Architecture applicants

Right Melbourne artist Howard Arkley celebrates suburban houses in ‘The Home Show’, Australia’s exhibition at the next Venice Biennale.

Scanning the nation for architectural news and noteworthy nuances.

QUEENSLAND
The state government is committing 2% of its building budgets to artworks—a progression to be administered by the Public Art Agency >> The government and RAIA have been considering candidates—eg Michael Keniger and John Simpson?—for a new position as Government Architect; a part-time advisory role adapted from the NSW precedent >> Matt Miller, general manager of the Building Services Authority, which supervises building designers and contractors, has criticised the Boards of Architects and Engineers as “not as effective as they might have been”. There’s support for reforms to bring architects and engineers under the same rules as the rest of the building industry >> Noosa council has purchased 500ha on the shire’s north shore; a rescue from ambitious developments >>QUT’s oldest known graduate, architect Walter Kerrison, 96, has opened the Bligh Voller Nield-designed D Block at Gardens Point; containing the architecture school >>Donovan Hill withdrew its C House from the RAIA Awards because the Courier Mail (a sponsor) named its client in defiance of the confidentiality specified on its entry form. The newspaper said its ID came from other sources >> Professor Bob Stimson, director of UMelb’s Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, has attacked Brisbane City Council’s new plan—particularly the ‘blanket coverage’ which defines existing commercial premises as character housing >>Daryl Jackson won UQ’s $100 million Institute of Molecular Bioscience >>Brisbane council is converting the New Farm Powerhouse into an arts centre—a project linking its City Design department, Cox Rayner and Allom Lovell >> DEM is designing two airport rail stations >> Bligh Voller Nield with Donovan Hill won the Queensland College of the Arts competition >>Cox Rayner’s Southbank Bridge is being moved away from noise-conscious apartment dwellers, to link with the maritime museum

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The Foster-Hassell-Woodhead-Walker masterplan for the city stretch of the Torrens proposes “extraction and reconnection”— including new walkways from the city to the river, a footbridge connecting the Festival Centre with Memorial Drive and the Adelaide Oval, a waterside promenade, a floating stage, removing part of the Festival Centre plaza and terracing the embankment down to the river >> Grocon is developing the ETSA Building on Greenhill Rd as upmarket apartments >> Housing developer Delfin has unveiled plans for a 24-hour town centre at Mawson Lakes >> Adelaide councillors have claimed ignorance of a staff-approved scheme for an 18-storey hotel behind the heritage-listed Elders Building in Currie Street. But staff said councillors were briefed before last year’s election >> Hassell is working on new aesthetics for the Anzac Highway and Port Road >> The SA RAIA is importing some Melbourne architects chosen from the 40UP exhibition to give monthly talks: so far Kerstin Thompson, Six Degrees and John Wardle

TASMANIA
After a damaging assessment report, the state government has abandoned the “over-scaled and unviable” Oceanport passenger terminal designed by Crone for Hobart’s Sullivans Cove, and will reoffer the site to developers, with more controls >> Heffernan Button Voss is designing improvements to the Bellerive Cricket Ground

VICTORIA
In an RAIA Victorian Awards shock-horror, a Carey Lyon-led jury gave the Urban Design Award to handicapped housing by Williams & Boag and commendations rather than merits to Denton Corker Marshall’s City Link Gateway and Peter Elliott’s Spencer Street Footbridge. Norman Day explained the result to Channel 9 viewers as a failure by the runners up to have taken the jurors to lunch. Meanwhile, DCM is thinking of trademarking the structure popularly known as ‘Jeff’s Dick’: there’s potential for tea towels >>Bligh Voller Nield now

incorporates Pels Innes Nielsen Kosloff; a merger said to be “a natural development” from their shared office and collaboration on the State Netball and Hockey Centre at Royal Park >> Tim Hurburgh, a Bates Smart veteran for 26 years, is leaving with associate Mark O’Dwyer to set up an environment-oriented studio called h20. They are taking projects for RMIT and Australia Post >> Painter Howard Arkley, known for lurid suburban houses, is Australia’s exhibitor at the next Venice Biennale >> Bayside councils and residents are opposing pressures for waterfront towers—supported in the government’s Gateway to the Baypaper >> Planning Minister Rob Maclellan declined to join an Age forum on Melbourne’s planning, which included RMIT’s urban design professor, Dimity Reed>> As Victoria’s building boom slows, Minister Maclellan has urged the industry to look offshore >> The state Property Council and Housing Industry Association want architects and draftspeople to assess and certify planning approvals >> A syndicate including apartments guru Nonda Katsalidis has bought the troubled Waterford site >> UMelbourne architecture lecturer Dr Julie Willis is producing a book on Australia’s forgetten women architects; highlighting role models like Ellison Harvie, who designed the Lyceum Club and St Hilda’s College >> RMIT Aspro of Environment and Planning, Dr Michael Buxton, has claimed that bad medium-density housing is threatening heritage suburbs >> Ballarat’s historic courthouse, police station and library are being upgraded by the state government >>Grocon will retender its DCM -designed Grollo Tower for Batmans Hill, despite abrupt cancellation of its contract with the Melbourne Docklands Authority >> American architect-developer Roberta Plackett is converting a 1930s woolstore on Spencer Street into 12 residential shells to be known as Cinnabar Place >> Melbourne City Council’s new planning committee chair, Kevin Chamberlin, has flagged new pedestrian malls at Elizabeth Street, in front of Parliament House and Bourke Street as far as Spring Street. The council has reopened Swanston Street Mall to traffic >>UNESCO has linked with Monash and the state government to to introduce an urban design and education program, designed to advance standards of sustainable urban design in developing nations >> Graeme Gunn opened RMIT’s Shane Murray-curated Pause exhibition, a Biennial display at Melbourne Central of works by 16 emerging architects

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Torres Strait Islander Naomi James has been spotlighted as UWA’s first indigenous architecture graduate. She has a job with Riley Hair and is on the case to plan new models for Aboriginal housing >> Brand Deykin & Hay has married Woodhead International >> After an outcry about its “too-futuristic” belltower, Hames Sharley has revised its Barracks Square scheme to have a belltower of copper sailforms. Meanwhile, Premier Richard Court has been querying the cost of burying Riverside Drive >> The WA RAIA has held a charette for ideas on the future of Perth, initiated by Nigel Shaw and led by Professor Lorenzo Matteoli from Turin. Key concerns were how to create a 24-hour living city centre, and improve access to the river >> WA RAIA president Harry Schubert has told The West Australian that architects should approve building applications because they’re best qualified to judge

INTERNATIONAL
The Channel Tunnel beat Sydney’s Opera House in an international poll to decide the century’s top 10 construction achievements >> Works by Donovan Hill, Engelen Moore and DCM are in the ‘Home’ exhibition, curated by Craig Bremner, at the Glasgow Year of Design festival. Greg Burgess showed and told there in May >> Lend Lease is bunching all its brand names under the new global label of Lend Lease Projects, with Ross Taylor as CEO