Archive for February, 2010

My travels continue

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Today Robina, on the Gold Coast for a flying visit.

My flight at 7.30 was cancelled – Jetstar couldn’t get one of the engines working! A two hour wait in the lounge left me with the tightest schedule when I arrived.  I’m booked on the 2.25 return; miss that and I have to wait till 8.30pm to fly back to Melbourne around midnight.  Clock’s ticking.

First cab off the rank I have to present our scheme for Robina Food Court to the professor Warren Julian who is judging the International IES lighting design awards (the project is entered, along with the MTC, as a result of receiving the Award of Excellence in the state lighting design awards).

Then, I’m meeting the builders and client to check out the new light sculpture that we designed which has been fired up for the first time today.  The sculpture seeks to provide illumination to the mall through a combination of continuous fluorescent fittings at the jauntiest angles.  Each of the ‘pick up sticks’ is about 10m long.  Light is cast onto the ceiling as well as the floors.  We will probably tweak the arrangement a little but you get a feel for what it’s going to be from the photos below.

rob-myer-1rob-myer-2

Finally, I’m back in a cab talking to a driver who was trying to convince me that Kevin Rudd is from Tasmania.  All very strange.  At airport with 10 minutes to spare for the 2.25.  Mission accomplished.

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Chicago

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

I’ve just been to Chicago attending a meeting with the IALD.

It’s cold in Chicago.  And I mean really cold.  Literally freezing.  As soon as I land I start regretting not bringing gloves.

The first 24 hours are spent in the hotel with the IALD staff, executive director, lawyer and fellow committee members.  Being new to the committee I have a lot to learn, but I soon get the hang of the procedural and bureaucratic imperatives that my committee is bound by.

Evening comes and we’re out to dinner, just a few blocks away.  Wow, it’s cold.  Lamenting the gloves omission more than ever.  Round a corner and then there it is in front of my very eyes: Millennium Park.  Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture, affectionately known as ‘the bean’ by locals.  And the Crown Fountain - one of Electrolight’s favourite reference images.  Both really cool – always so pleasing when something in real life is as good as the images.

Thankfully we reach the restaurant where I ordered the elk (as you do).  Surprisingly, it didn’t taste like chicken (more like liver, actually, which was unfortunate),

After completing our committee work the next we were free.  I attended the architectural walking tour which was fascinating.  Despite the onset of frostbite in my fingers (I swear they were turning black at the tips), we were guided around the best post-war buildings, the stand-out for me being the Mies federal plaza comprising two governmental high-rise buildings and a single-storey post office.

Mies apparently said that god’s in the detail and this was evident looking at the plaza.  The perfect composition of buildings, the volumes (the post office would fit perfectly in the lobby of the taller buildings), the arrangement of the windows, their frames lining up with floor tiles, other columns, seating, details on adjacent structures.  Nothing there that’s not needed, everything arranged perfectly.  Simplicity personified and beautiful beyond words.

Back to ‘the bean’ for a daytime look and now there’s a crowd of people around it.  It’s so shiny, literally like a mirror.  Children getting really excited being near it, everyone interacting with it like you wouldn’t believe.

It sits in Millennium Park which is such a good space.  Aside from the bean and Crown Fountain there’s also a very cool signature Frank Gehry building (an outdoor performance stage) just for good measure.  Oh, and an ice rink as well.  And  bridge to Renzo Piano’s Chicago Museum of Modern Art.

I reckon you can always tell a successful park by the clientele.  It was really busy but seemingly not with just tourists but plenty of locals who just seem to love it.  And what’s not to love?

I have been lucky enough to work alongside BLL and TCL on the early design work for Melbourne’s Harbour Esplanade project.  It’s easy to make comparisons to Millennium Park and to see first hand what’s possible when a government makes a serious investment in art, architecture and design.

Millennium Park - Crown Fountain

Millennium Park - Crown Fountain

All about Mies

All about Mies

By far the coolest thing I've ever seen

By far the coolest thing I've ever seen

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First lights switched on at Perth theatre

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

It’s not all glamour being a lighting designer you know.

Last week, Jess and I left Melbourne and took the early flight to Perth to visit the site of the New Performing Arts Centre.  With the time difference we arrived at lunchtime Melbourne time which was of course the start of the day in Perth.  Our hosts (the wonderful Kerry Hill Architects) had put together a schedule of meetings, inspections and visits to keep us busy.  After the first 2 or 3 meetings out stomachs were rumbling.  There was talk of a visit to the Shangai restaurant.  Our mouths were watering but instead we were off to an aluminium pipe factory on the outskirts of Perth to look at a prototype of the ‘bronze box’ chandelier for the main entrance (see below).

perth-21

By now we were weak with hunger.  It was by now almost 6pm Melbourne time, we’d been on the go all day and all we’d eaten was an Uncle Toby muesli bar.  At one stage Jess thought he was on a set from Survivor.  We think the chandelier was OK, hard to tell, eye watering by now.  Eventually we made it to the Shanghai and was restored sufficiently to tackle the afternoon’s schedule.

The timing of our trip was opportune.  There was quite some excitement amongst the sparkies - the first lights had been wired and were awaiting switch-on.  We were honoured to witness the event - some humble fluoro downlights illuminating the studio theatre rehearsal space but nonetheless an important milestone.  And did they look OK?  We think so; see below.  Plenty of light, nice and even, no unsightly scallops - we’ll settle for that.

perth-11

More inspections, another meeting and then we’re done, just in time to check out the eateries of Northbridge.  By now it’s past midnight Melbourne time.  Its late when we get back to the hotel and then we’re up again at 4.30 to catch the red-eye back to Melbourne with mission accomplished.

Don’t get me wrong, we love it really!

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In the media…

Monday, February 8th, 2010

As regular readers of this blog know, I’m not known for fancy writing or clever prose.  Which makes it surprising that I have recently been invited to write a number of articles for the media and do a radio interview.

First up there was my summary of the Professional Lighting Design Conference in Berlin for the IES Newswire.  Then there was a write up on our new lighting scheme for Watergardens that appeared in the Lighting magazine.  This is followed by my take on how one should light a restaurant which will appear in the February Artichoke magazine,  In amongst that was an interview about Midsumma festival on Joy FM.

But my favourite has to be the mention in the Northcote Leader - see picture below.

paul-and-fred

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