27.June_Paddington

Saturday morning we got up fairly early to head over to Paddington Reservoir. It’s another adaptive reuse project by Tonkin Zulaihka Greer. This time, Tim Greer, one of the firm’s principals met us at the reservoir to give us a tour and explain the project.  The project, as you may have guessed, was a reservoir that TZG redesigned as a public park, leaving the remains of the reservoir as a ruin and adding new materials that play off the existing to create a really interesting space. You get the ideas implied by the ruins of the reservoir creating an interesting dialogue with the new materials and generating a very relaxing environment to spend time in, interesting that it gave me this feeling with materials being brick, concrete, steel, aluminum and heavy timber.

We then walked down the street to the Australian Photo Gallery, then Paddington Market, full of odd trinkets, jewels, artwork, wooden bowls, and some pretty delicious looking food (mmm cheese steak). The market was pretty overwhelming and quite odd, but an interesting experience.

Reservoir_Illustrates Existing vs New Materials

Lower Level

Upper Level

Lower Level from Upper Level

26.June_Pretty Standard

                  Friday wasn’t overly exciting, we had class, discussed the project we need to do but still aren’t sure what it’s going to be. Mind you, we’re a week into the 4 weeks that we have here in Sydney, final project now due in three weeks, and we aren’t sure what our project is going to be. It’s alright, we’re flexible.

                  Friday afternoon we met with two artists from Matchbox Projects (we think this project is going to have something to do with artists and artist run initiatives). So the two girls, Naomi and Leanne, identical twins mind you, are artists in Sydney that talked to us about their work and what they may need for an exhibition space. We then spur of the moment left the university to go on a walking tour around the area to some local ARI’s (artist run initiative, a work/gallery space for artists run by the artists).

                  Friday evening we celebrated the end of our first week with a few Aussie beers, Little Creatures, Toohey’s New, and Pure Blonde. They were all pretty good, but Little Creatures (my choice) was the best.  The worst part is that a sixer of beer here costs generally close to 20 bucks. Not cool.

25.June_These Classes are Fantastic

25.June_Thursday

                  

Opera House_Reflection of Myself, Gina and Andrew

Thursday began very similar to Tuesday, meeting Eoghan downtown again for another architecture walk.  This time we started outside the Museum of Sydney, still didn’t go inside, but we chatted about the actual building for a few, walked a few bocks to Aurora Place and Government square (the most expensive piece of real estate in the city), then proceeded through a portion of the botanical gardens up to the opera house.  

Aurora Place_Renzo Piano

The main focus of this walk was the Opera House so we sat on top of a hill with a clear view of the opera house for the initial history of the building, the design competition, the ideas behind it, some sketching and some lunch. We continued from there around the Opera House, learning more and more about it as we went. It has a very extensive history, from competition to budget to exterior vs interior, etc and Eoghan just kept pulling all of this information out of his head. I realize it’s part of his job to give these tours, but it’s simply amazing how much this man knows. We continued around the Opera house, in, out, underneath, everywhere, for near 4 hours or so.  

Opera House_Interior and Exterior

24.June_A Pretty Different View

Wednesday started out like a normal class day, some sketching, class discussion on regionalism, lunch, the usual. After lunch however, we met with an Australian architect by the name of Paul Pholeros.  He spends about 70% of his time doing residential work to make some money and the other 30% doing social work and designing for people that need it.  He isn't too famous and you'd never know how much he's done, not asking for international recognition or a statue in the park, just an ordinary guy working hard to give people what they need and conserve the environment at the same time. For me, he's basically what every person should strive to be.

Following his philosophy of "building nothing is the best design", he really opened up a new view of things for most of us on the trip. We've all been taught about sustainability and green design, but this guy has taken it differently, as a social and environmental practice, both in the field of design and outside.  He really made me think pretty hard about where I'm headed and what I'd like to accomplish in my life.

Then, after our discussion at the university, we continued the chat at dinner at Thanh Binh, a vietnamese restaurant that Paul really liked. (We all really liked it, but he knew where to go.) We also had some other fantastic guests at dinner. First, both professors, Michael Zaretsky and Adrian Parr, and their son, Lucien.  Next we have Adrian's Aunt, Julie Rrap, a very famous contemporary artist. Brian Zulaihka of Tonkin Zulaihka Greer and his wife Jennie Lawrence, another well-known contemporary artist. 

So class, sketch, lunch, chat with an architect, contemplate life, dinner with some famous people, go to bed in awe of your own life thus far.  That's a pretty nice little Wednesday.

22.June-23.June_Walking to some Architecture

22.June_The first day of class

Really a pretty low key day, we met at the Uni at 10 AM, none of that early nonsense around here. We cleaned the space we’ll be working in, went over some syllabus type stuff, realized we still don’t have a project to start working on, did a bit of sketching, and took it easy the rest of the day. Can’t argue with that.

23.June_Walking to some Architecture

Tuesday morning, we had our second day of “class”, meaning we met downtown around 10 with a young local architect, Eoghan Lewis (pronounced Yowen Looooisss).  He runs a tour thing called Sydney Architecture Walks and it was probably the best way for a group of design students to get heaps of information about architecture around the city and a great way for us (We’re not from around here) to sorta get some bearings in the city.

Customs House

So the walk…We started out at the customs house, which is currently a library, café, and some other stuff with a giant glass floor and a huge scale model of the city of Sydney under the floor. From there we moved to a large outdoor map in the park and then started the real walk. 

The Map (P.S. That's Eoghan)

We first passed by one of the early works of Tonkin Zulaihka Greer, an interior renovation that continued outside to an awning of sorts and an interesting stair. From there we continued through The Rocks, a part of Sydney initially filled with convicts to my understanding. No worries mom, no convicts there now.

Sirius_Housing Project

We cruised past a brutalist housing project, a sports complex, and an intersection that looked like it should be in Disney world. 

MGM Studios anyone?

Next we walked through the harbor bridge to observatory hill, then down the hill to the Five Finger Wharfs, which include adaptive reuse projects focusing on reusing the old wharf machinery and structure as new structure and ornament. 

Observatory Hill

Adrian, Harbor Bridge, Gnome, Andrew

The wharves now house a few small cafes and restaurants, high-end condos (we believe Nicole Kidman lives in one of them, did I mention high-end?), some offices and such. 

The Wharves

Next we walked to a building called “30 The Bond”.  This could take some explaining to get you the right idea so get comfy. Sydney is a city built on a lot of sandstone, surrounded by water on most sides due to Sydney harbor and all of the harbors around. Somewhere along the line they cut large chunks of sandstone out of its natural location and put it into the harbor to create areas of deep water for large shipping vessels. In one of the places where they removed this sandstone, they decided to fill the gap with a building.  So you have a large sandstone wall with a street running parallel to it and then all of a sudden, you have a building with its façade about flush with the sandstone wall and the rest of the building goes back into the stone. On top of it being cool, it ranks as one of the highest in environmental design without looking for any recognition or flashy plaques. It’s just good design, not looking for fame and glamour, just well-planned functional architecture.

From there we continued to a Harry Seidler Building with a cool lobby and ended at the museum of Sydney, not going inside, but discussing a sculpture at the front entrance. And so a lot of information and around 5-6 hours later, even Michael decided it would be a good time for a nap.

19.June-21.June_What would you do with your first weekend?

What would I do with my first weekend in Sydney? I'm glad you asked.

Friday, we met as a whole group after having some real sleep. We walked down the street to Sydney University where we will be studying for the duration that we're in Sydney. It's about a ten minute walk instead of the hour of trains and buses to get to University of New South Wales where we originally intended to study. I'll take it.

We met in the Architecture building (apparently it's a law that all architecture buildings in the world must be pretty ugly and only som

ewhat functional). So I felt right at home, just like Cincinnati's architecture building. We caught our first fleeting glimpse of the studio space we'd be working in and then went to see some presentations that second year students had put together for Ms. Anna Rubbo's class.  

After such a strenuous morning, I think it's lunch time right? Yea I could eat.

So we went out to lunch with Michael Zaretsky and his wife, Adrian Parr, whom we were all meeting for the first time.  Hey she has a real Australian accent. Not that I would want her not to, but I didn't think she would for some reason. More importantly, I had the curry.

So Adrian chatted with us for a few and we all decided she's alright and this has the potential to be the best summer of our lives. We had no idea...

Wow, that was a long day, so we take the afternoon off. We used the afternoon/evening to hit up Sydney Harbor, check out the opera house for the first time and mill around downtown. After all that walking, we probably need a drink and why not? We're all legal! We celebrated Ms. Gina Lorubbio's birthday in style. (too bad 21 means nothing here) That's a solid Friday in the great state of New South Wales.

Sydney Harbor at Night

And now onto Saturday…

Saturday was a pretty awesome day, but the weather was not so good, pouring down rain for most of the time that we spent walking around outside. So we started the day pretty early, taking the train all of two stops away to Redfern where we met Caroline Pidcock and her husband, 

both architects familiar with the area and the history of Sydney and surrounds.  We departed from the station on foot to be led around Redfern, which is supposedly not the best neighborhood, but full of character.  First stop, Eveleigh Market.  It’s basically just your average fresh local market where you can find just about anything, cheese to coffee, produce to pastries, bread, oil, wine, meats, might need a toothbrush but I’m ready to live here.  The market is located each Saturday under cover yet still outdoors at an old train station under a canopy that I believe was used for repairing trains as they pass through.

Directly behind the market, in another old train building, is our first taste of the work of Tonkin Zulaihka Greer Architects, Carriageworks. Now an art museum and gallery space, the adaptive reuse of the space leads to an interesting combination of new and old producing a rich contrast which alludes to the spaces prior uses. Throw in a splash of bright orange and fastidious attention to detail and you’ll understand exactly why we like TZG so much.

From there, we continued through the surrounding neighborhoods, looking at Terrace style houses, large glorious looking fig trees, and eventually wandered through Sydney University again for more information and a better tour than we had previously seen.

So after all that walking? To the pub of course. We went to Duck & Swan, a small out of the way bar and restaurant for a glass of wine and further discussion with our tour guides. Turned out to be a pretty nice little day despite the weather, rain won’t bring us down.

And Sunday, finally a day off…

And I say finally as if we’d had so many days of work, but after the trip here, two full days seems like a lot and not doing much Sunday was nice. Andrew Gauggel, Gina, and I decided to be good students and head over to the library at Sydney Uni.  After spending close to two hours there and getting maybe a half hours worth of work done, we decided a bottle of wine would help us focus on our work. So we stopped at the store on the way home, had a bottle of wine, or two, and enjoyed the sites and sounds of King Street in Newtown with cheeks slightly rosier than normal.

Not a bad start at all to 8 weeks in Australia. 

18.June_ I have Arrived

So the past few weeks have flown right past and I now have some time to regale you with my Australian adventures. For your sake, I suggest playing along and pretending it is in fact the 18th of June and I did not start writing two weeks late. Please and thanks.

So, I made it, best plane ride ever. A bit on the long side, 10 hours or so, but two hot meal that were actually worth eating, free popsicles, a snack, mint tea, hot chocolate, free mini bottles of wine, and I'm here.

Off the plane, collect your luggage all that jazz and customs.  Customs is not something I'm accustomed to, but they took my bag of almonds and sent me on my way without looking for anything else. Granola bars are safe to transport into Australia though, just so we're all clear.

Next, find a taxi and the youth hostel. Easy enough, but why is everything backwards here? They drive on the wrong side of the road and standard traffic laws are no longer standard traffic laws, so I walk in a huge circle trying to figure out why there aren't any taxis over here. Anyway, I found it, felt a bit foolish, told the guy where I need to go, and he says "Where's that?"

Now hell if I know chap, I couldn't find the taxi. I kinda knew the street name so we looked up the street and he dropped me off at the end of what I thought was a scary alley, collected his fare and went on his way. So I muster my best mean mug and head down the alley, suitcase in tow to find that it is in fact where I need to be and there are plenty of shining american architecture student faces to greet me. Phew.

After all that I just sit down and pass out yes? Aber nein, kann ich jetzt nicht schlafen, weil ich zu dem Uni gehen muss. So I run upstairs with my suitcase, change out of my blue traveling shorts and head to Sydney University for a lecture I managed to stay awake for but didn't actually absorb a single word. Now I go to sleep. It's been a long day.