17 July 2005

Images of Canberra - Ugly New Building in the Heart of Civic

| johnboy
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Another of Samuel’s recent efforts is this view of the alarming new structure gone up where once we had perfectly usefull car-parks in Civic.

Ugly Development in the heart of Canberra

Look closely, in a desperate attempt to mask the bog-ordinariness of the building, they’ve whacked an even uglier screen in front of it. Those are GIRDERS that have been welded onto a lighter structure to provide the artistic “effect”.

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Drove past this morning, they seem to be adding some sort of timber panels to the contraption. As predicted earlier, must be some sort of screen form the Alawah flats and/or accoustic baffles.

In summary: F*ck it’s ugly.

…albeit a DELIBERATE one?

Has anyone considered that the whole thing just might be….a very bad MISTAKE?

The reason the architecture in the Parliamentary Triangle is better is because it had money spent on it.

This thing probably looked good on paper, but has been built extremely cheap.

I think the idea with that thing down the side of the building is framework for a sight screen to block out Allawah flats.

Growling Ferret4:04 pm 18 Jul 05

Come on thumper, discover the pluses of buses 🙂

Or better still go back to your rebellious old days, and hop on the motorbike! No paid parking for motorbikes…

on the side of the road with your bonnet up

the meter nazi’s might pick up on you in a few days though if you’re planning on doing that kind of thing for a long time

Yeah, like bulldog said. i often notice people crammed into the Ainslie Arts Centre (that’s the old ainslie infants school) back carpark where there’s no signs about anything.
K

Opposite the old Ainsie (?) Primary School near Gorman House. If you’re there early enough you can snaffle a free park.

Correct you are; and just in case anyone has been counting; How Long have the top carparks in the city been out of action with all the construction? It seems about two years or so, in any case Parking in the city is a major cluster-f*ck at the moment and Braddon is geting increasingly worse.

Has anyone heard when we can expect the development to be finished as I have been lead to believe that there will be a new under-ground carpark in one of the new centres (the hole certainly looked deep enough).

And on this new building; If anyone cares I think it’s shit. I bet they will stick up some of those accoustic dampeners to cut out the road noise; that will look shitter still.

i really like it! it’s a lot more interesting than if it didn’t have the grate-thing in front of the building.

i just don’t like that they’ve built right up to the road. makes it feel cramped. and i definitely do not like that it has taken years to do!

Samuel Gordon-Stewart12:19 pm 18 Jul 05

Speaking of town centre buildings, I really dislike that Sky Plaza thing in Woden….it might look better when it’s painted, by I’m not counting on it.

Samuel

Agree on the awards bit! I guess my point was that perspectives can be different. Your ugly is my interesting.

Dysfunctional should never be allowed. This is the ongoing argument with the Cameron Offices in Belconnen. Allegedly an outstanding example of the ‘brutalist’ style of architecture, the architect is still fighting it’s demoltion. Wants it heritage listed in fact. Sadly it’s dystfunctional and it would take a fortune to reverse that state. Whatever it’s value as art, as a building it’s a failure and should go. (IMHO)

Agree that Canberra has some superb stuff, but on the whole our Town Centres are bland bland bland.

It looks well dodgy, but like Vic, I’ll wait until its done before passing judgement.

Having said that, be it in art or architecture, I always appreciate anything that evokes a reaction. Positive or negative.

Sadly Canberra is a city whose buildings are usually so similar that that no reaction at all is forthcoming.

It’s not as ugly as the Canberra Centre carparks next door. But we’re used to them. And we’ll grow used to this new youth centre too.

And no, Samuel, this frame is not supporting the building, it is just a design feature.

I believe Canberra is adopting the Melbourne modern school of architecture (yay?), eg:

Red Poles
Federation Square

When the building settles into the poorly-compacted clay, then the girders will be in perfect alignment.
It takes a great deal of architectural skill to second-guess the lousy work of some of the builders around here….I know, it’s happened to my house.

Vic Bitterman2:11 pm 17 Jul 05

It’s different, that’s for sure.

I’ll hold off my final judgement until it’s all finished though.

Samuel Gordon-Stewart12:54 pm 17 Jul 05

I just hope it isn’t supporting the building as it looks like it’s about to topple over from the other side.

“Monstrosity” is about the most I can say for it.

Samuel

Um. May I say ‘crap’ again?

Yup, and then they use that knowledge to do the best they can with what the client is willing to pay.

So make your own judgments about the “Quality” of this project.

Do people actually go to Architect School so that they can ‘design’ such crap?

Gah it’s amking me dizzy.Let;s hope it’s not on anyone’s walk home from their favourite nightspots

Girders 5 and 6 (from the left) appear to be leaning towards each other too.

Wonder if that’s intentional?

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