New Technology and Old Buildings
Today was possibly my favourite day at work thus far. It wasn't so much being at work, but the things I got to do away from the office this morning.
Yesterday evening Cindy had invited me along to a run-of-the-mill site visit in Surry Hills to check out a heritage building that has a proposed addition. I was deep in work by 9:30 when we headed out with Hui and met up with one of the planners from the seventh floor, and without thinking I left my phone at my desk, so upfront warning - there are not pictures of the ensuing adventures.
Since there were four of us, and the location we were going was not quickly accessible by public transit, we headed down to the underground Council car pool beneath Town Hall House and hopped in one of the Mitsubishi I-Miev all electric cars painted in bright green City of Sydney livery. I have been in a Prius (hybrid) before, but this was my first all electric car experience (a plug in, etc.). The City is really big about environmental responsibility as per our 'Sydney 2030' campaign which is the driving force behind everything the City does. The fleet of vehicles the Council keeps consists of quite a few Prius hybrids (just white with the city logo) and a hand full of I-Mievs, the all electric cars, which are painted in a vibrant green and kind of resemble frogs (http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com.au/vehicles/cars/i-miev/).
Anyways, we headed out of the car park and up into Kent Street and around to Surry Hills. We visited the site, which turned out to be a building John had showed me last week (it is one of the older rows of terraces in the area near St. Margaret's). The entire process was quite fast, and we were soon back in our little frog-mobile to Town Hall House.
When we drove back into the car park we saw Tony (my boss) getting in a Prius to head out. He saw me get out of our car and called me over to join him on a trip out to Glebe. Hopping into alternative fuel vehicle #2 of the morning, I was back out on the streets of Sydney, this time heading west to Glebe. On the drive over Tony briefed me on what we were going to check out - Glebe Town Hall. Built in 1880 to serve the then independent municipality of Glebe (as I told you the other day, Sydney is currently made of 32 individual suburbs, most of which used to operate independently and have their own town halls, schools, police stations, courts, and post offices), the town hall is now a community centre, but is undergoing a massive refurbishment to restore it to its original appearance, as well as an addition and update to make it fully accessible.
We walked into the construction zone (hard hat, neon vest, etc.) and got to wander through the building as we were talked through all the things going on by the contractor, the architect, and the heritage specialist. To say it was beautiful is a massive understatement. While it was all in a state of disrepair (as it was a very active construction site), it was at the point where you could see both the historic fabric of the building (as various layers of paint were exposed, door frames were pulled off, etc.) as well as how it will begin to take shape over the coming months. I was so glad Tony invited me (and was sad I didn't have my phone to take pictures) as I really got to see the guts of the building and the approach and methodology to restoration, preservation, and gelling the old and new.
Took me on a bit of a tour around Glebe on the way back to Town Hall House. We drove through the site of an old sugar refinery on a cliff overlooking Sydney Harbour and the ANZAC Bridge that is now being redeveloped into condos. I have to go back over to the area with my camera before I leave as the views were spectacular. We saw a few more sites and returned to Town Hall House by midday. I worked the rest of the afternoon, nothing too profound, and am happy that is is the weekend so I can catch up on some sleep and some chores that need doing.
Tomorrow morning I am skyping a seminar at GHP (the summer program that I attended in 2007 and was an RA at in 2010) about Australia. I am looking forward to catching up with a few of my friends who I worked with and talking to all the high schoolers about Australia, or any other topic! Isn't technology great?
On an unrelated note (but actually related to Sydney 2030), here is a nice video produced by the city regarding light rail alignment along George Street (the main road through downtown). It is an ambitious plan, but seems like it will move forward, and radically change the city for the better... http://sydneyyoursay.com.au/george-street.
Yesterday evening Cindy had invited me along to a run-of-the-mill site visit in Surry Hills to check out a heritage building that has a proposed addition. I was deep in work by 9:30 when we headed out with Hui and met up with one of the planners from the seventh floor, and without thinking I left my phone at my desk, so upfront warning - there are not pictures of the ensuing adventures.
Since there were four of us, and the location we were going was not quickly accessible by public transit, we headed down to the underground Council car pool beneath Town Hall House and hopped in one of the Mitsubishi I-Miev all electric cars painted in bright green City of Sydney livery. I have been in a Prius (hybrid) before, but this was my first all electric car experience (a plug in, etc.). The City is really big about environmental responsibility as per our 'Sydney 2030' campaign which is the driving force behind everything the City does. The fleet of vehicles the Council keeps consists of quite a few Prius hybrids (just white with the city logo) and a hand full of I-Mievs, the all electric cars, which are painted in a vibrant green and kind of resemble frogs (http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com.au/vehicles/cars/i-miev/).
Anyways, we headed out of the car park and up into Kent Street and around to Surry Hills. We visited the site, which turned out to be a building John had showed me last week (it is one of the older rows of terraces in the area near St. Margaret's). The entire process was quite fast, and we were soon back in our little frog-mobile to Town Hall House.
When we drove back into the car park we saw Tony (my boss) getting in a Prius to head out. He saw me get out of our car and called me over to join him on a trip out to Glebe. Hopping into alternative fuel vehicle #2 of the morning, I was back out on the streets of Sydney, this time heading west to Glebe. On the drive over Tony briefed me on what we were going to check out - Glebe Town Hall. Built in 1880 to serve the then independent municipality of Glebe (as I told you the other day, Sydney is currently made of 32 individual suburbs, most of which used to operate independently and have their own town halls, schools, police stations, courts, and post offices), the town hall is now a community centre, but is undergoing a massive refurbishment to restore it to its original appearance, as well as an addition and update to make it fully accessible.
We walked into the construction zone (hard hat, neon vest, etc.) and got to wander through the building as we were talked through all the things going on by the contractor, the architect, and the heritage specialist. To say it was beautiful is a massive understatement. While it was all in a state of disrepair (as it was a very active construction site), it was at the point where you could see both the historic fabric of the building (as various layers of paint were exposed, door frames were pulled off, etc.) as well as how it will begin to take shape over the coming months. I was so glad Tony invited me (and was sad I didn't have my phone to take pictures) as I really got to see the guts of the building and the approach and methodology to restoration, preservation, and gelling the old and new.
Took me on a bit of a tour around Glebe on the way back to Town Hall House. We drove through the site of an old sugar refinery on a cliff overlooking Sydney Harbour and the ANZAC Bridge that is now being redeveloped into condos. I have to go back over to the area with my camera before I leave as the views were spectacular. We saw a few more sites and returned to Town Hall House by midday. I worked the rest of the afternoon, nothing too profound, and am happy that is is the weekend so I can catch up on some sleep and some chores that need doing.
Tomorrow morning I am skyping a seminar at GHP (the summer program that I attended in 2007 and was an RA at in 2010) about Australia. I am looking forward to catching up with a few of my friends who I worked with and talking to all the high schoolers about Australia, or any other topic! Isn't technology great?
On an unrelated note (but actually related to Sydney 2030), here is a nice video produced by the city regarding light rail alignment along George Street (the main road through downtown). It is an ambitious plan, but seems like it will move forward, and radically change the city for the better... http://sydneyyoursay.com.au/george-street.
Comments
Post a Comment