heritage news
Lonsdale House doomed?
Planning permit approved . Going, going…
27.07.09 in buildings heritage
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Moscow crumbles
The Moscow Architectural Preservation Society has released an update to its 2007 report on the sad state of many of the city’s important buildings. In an atmosphere of gung-ho development, more old buildings are at risk than ever. Here are a few.
26.07.09 in heritage
Life in a heritage overlay
An Albert Park resident is having the usual problems trying to demolish his “bog standard” deco house, and has gone to the press with it as consultant fees top 150K. “When we’ve put extensions to [the council] previously they said they didn’t like architecture that mimicked previous periods… Then we bring in a contemporary design and they say it introduces new elements. I thought they were a bunch of megalomaniac tossers.”
Luna Park, QVB get heritage listing
Luna Park, the Queen Victoria Building and Sydney Town Hall finally get state heritage listings. They didn’t have them already?! Its making me wonder if they’ve gotten around to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge yet?
30.06.09 in heritage
Windsor Hotel
Denton Corker Marshall is working with the Halim Group on a design for a 15 storey tower behind the historic Windsor Hotel. The tower will reportedly wipe out part of the Hard Rock Cafe – no great loss there. But the National Trust isn’t happy – CEO Martin Purslow saying, “This proposal is over twice the statutory height limit under Melbourne’s planning scheme. It says the statutory height limit is to preserve the scale of the Bourke Hill precinct, and that’s the bloody reason we have these limits.”
Italy wobbles
It isn’t too much of a surprise that many medieval buildings fell over in this week’s earthquake in L’Aquila, 6.3 on the Reichter scale. What is surprising is the number of modern buildings that were also affected. The worst example as L’Aquila’s 15 year old hospital, which was declared structurally unstable – not good at the time it was most needed. Roman architect Paolo Rocchi says that it should have survived the earthquake if it as built to code – that it didn’t might be evidence of substandard materials having been used.
10.04.09 in heritage structural-engineers
Shrine pickle
A two week public hearing starts next week into the fate of several sites very close to Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.
Bowling
Northcote bowl (1963), that one with the arches – the only interesting piece of non-domestic architecture I can think of in that part of town, may be demolished for an apartment development, GFC permitting. A demolition permit is currently moving through the trays at Darebin Council.
Rudolph Art & Architecture building tarted up
A follow up to a post last year that no one will remember. Paul Rudolph’s Art and Architecture building at Yale University has been reawoken with a major reno by Gwathmey Siegel . Unfortunately Gwathmey has tried to be respectful but has ended up building a pretty bland lean-to that looks so light that it could fly off Rudolph’s grand hulk (maybe it will one day). This review at Bloomberg is not full of praise of Rudolph’s design, and manages to use the word “ghastly” twice within three paragraphs – to describe the reinstated light fittings and orange carpet. Susan Sontag didn’t like it either, calling it, “style at the expense of content.” What great brutalist style it is though.
Nakagin Capsule Tower
To make up for last week’s shock about the demolition of Shin Takamatsu’s Syntax building in Kyoto, a building that I thought had been demolished is still just hanging in there. The demolition and replacement of the late Kisho Kurokawa’s Nagakin Capsule Tower (1972) was announced early last year, but there is no sign of action that I can find on the web. Residents have been trying to get the pod stack rebuilt since 2005. Kurokawa’s metabolist intention that the pods be individually updated as required has never been fulfilled, so the 36 year old facilities are getting a bit worn. Asbestos and earthquake concerns are also cited as reasons for the impending tumble. And I don’t know where you get new spooling music tapes for the built in hifi units .
24.08.08 in buildings heritage
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India builds schools, watches monuments crumble
In an address to the nation today (India’s 61st birthday), Indian PM Manmohan Singh announced that education would be given something of a boost to improve access to education and health. Two new architecture schools are planned, and… lordy… “6,000 new high-quality model schools, 373 new colleges, 30 new universities, eight new IITs, seven new IIMs, 20 new IIITs, five new Indian Institutes of Science, 10 new NITs and 1,000 new polytechnic institutes.” In 2007 there were about 100 institutions in India offering architecture courses, up from 40 in 1988 and just one in 1948.
Waitangi Visitors' Centre
A proposal for a Visitors’ Centre near the Waitangi Treaty House has the NZ Historic Places Trust up in arms. The Northern General Manager for the Trust says, “This is one of the most important, intact and sensitive heritage landscapes in the country – it’s certainly no place for a dominant structure like this.” The proposal, which includes 8000 cubic metres of earthworks, is led by Connell Wagner, with HB Architecture and Ignite Architects on board.
31.03.08 in heritage
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Deco Pub Demo
Oh dear, this is one of those articles that make you wonder. A Melbourne Pub, The Stork, was built in 1855 and given an art deco facelift in 1925. According to the owner the 82 year old facelift means the pub was ineligible for heritage protection. It closes tonight and will be demolished in the new year.
31.12.07 in heritage
Opera House ups and downs
30.06.07 – The Opera House has just made it onto the World Heritage List, so that’s good.
30.06.07 in buildings heritage
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