A Vivid week

Since I returned from Melbourne last Monday, the weather turned pretty bleak and cold with strong winds and intermittent rain. And while the weather wasn't stellar most of last week, I managed to keep busy anyways.

On Tuesday night, I caught up with a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a few weeks to check out Vivid, a massive festival that involves hundreds of interactive lights displays across the city. Many of the city's most famous structures are covered in light installations and projects, and there are also dozens of musical performances that happen to coincide. By far, the biggest draws are the projections on the Opera House, lights on the Harbour Bridge, and the surrounding district of Circular Quay.

In its tenth year (Jason, Rebecca, and I saw it back in 2012), the event was completely mobbed. There had to be tens-of-thousands of people jamming the waterfront, enjoying the view from the ferries in the harbour, and crowding the footpaths linking the different installations. Overall, it was cool to check out, though the colder weather, wind, and crowds were definitely detractors.

The lights of Circular Quay and the Opera House,

This year there are also a ton of smaller installations in the Botanic Gardens, just east of the Opera House and Circular Quay.

One of the light installations in the Botanic Gardens.

I spent Friday morning in work meetings, which were really productive; I'm getting to work on a very exciting project and head up a few pieces of it, so that's exciting.

In the evening I got together with my good friends Ashley and Brant who were in town for a concert. Both architects in Brisbane, I got to know Ashley (who has a PhD and works in academia) through conferences over the last few years—we even co-authored a paper together in 2015. They had met up with me in 2016 in New Orleans, and then later that year spent a few days in Atlanta and we even got to do a little road trip.

We had a great time catching up, including a rooftop drink overlooking the Opera House and Circular Quay, as well as a lot of exploring around Redfern, near my place. We even caught up with Candice for dinner.

The Opera House and Circular Quay from a rooftop in the Rocks.

On Saturday morning, we got together again and checked out the Eveleigh Markets (which are just down the street from my old place) and a Biennale installation at Carriageworks.

Between Carriageworks and the Eveleigh Markets.

In the afternoon, we struck out across the city to check out some of the NSW architecture award finalists for the year, including a daycare center that I have run by more than once but didn't know anything about and an architecture studio in Surry Hills.

The Beehive by Raffaello Rosselli Architect with Luigi Rosselli Architects; the weather was not conducive to nice pictures.

Saturday night, I had quite the evening at a dinner party with a bunch of academics—four Sydney Uni post-docs (two in architecture/planning, two in geography) and a PhD candidate in architecture. Illustrative of just how small the world is, I had met one of the post-docs at conference a few years back where we both spoke. And two of the others shared an office with Alex (my friend in Melbourne who I stayed with last week) during her stint at Sydney Uni.

Three of the six of us are from the United States, and it turns out that many of our academic acquaintances overlap. Much like last weekend in Melbourne, it was really nice to be able to chat with people who have recently been through, or are currently going through the process of a PhD. And even cooler to hear about what they are all doing with their doctorates. I look forward to hanging out with them again soon.

Sunday,  the weather finally cleared up a bit and I spent a few hours out and about in the city enjoying the (brief) respite from the rain. In the afternoon I decided to take advantage of the first sun in days to hop a ferry to Watsons Bay, at the eastern edge of Sydney. The small suburb, located on a peninusla, forms the southern headlands of the entry to Sydney Harbour from the Pacific Ocean. The view from the cliffs was spectacular, as giant wind-driven swells crashed into the rocks below.

The Pacific coastline.

The view toward Sydney from the Harbour side.

Hornby Lighthouse, completed 1858, on south head. North head is seen across the inlet to Sydney Harbour.

Sailboats at Watsons Bay.

After returning to the city, I met up with Ashley and Brant for their final night in the city. We had dinner in the Rocks and finished the evening atop Australia Square—one of Sydney's tallest buildings, designed by arguably Australia's most famous architect, Harry Seidler. The 50-story cylindrical tower, completed in the 1960s, is just a few blocks from Circular Quay, and the 47th floor houses a John Portman-esque revolving restaurant, which provided us with sweeping views of the city, lit up for Vivid.

Once Monday hit, it was back to reality, and today I got through an entire book I had been wanting to read for my research, so that was productive. In the late afternoon I took a quick break to give a 45-minute architectural tour of my neighbourhood to someone who I went to architecture school with who is passing though Sydney on a nine-month trip around Australia.

And, finally, Candice and I ventured out this evening to catch a comedy show at a nearby theatre in Redern. Our friend Bridie—the one who wrote the book—performed as part of a story telling night. It made for a great start to the week!

Now, bed time, even as everyone in Atlanta starts their Monday morning!