This is one of my favorite installations in Sydney. Called “Memory is Creation Without End” by Kimio Tsuchiya, the work consists of a spiral of discarded sandstone architectural elements, salvaged from old buildings long since demolished.
Located where The Rocks meet Circular Quay, the Sydney Museum of Contemporary art is an incredible institutional looking Art Deco building with this brilliant sculpture standing guard at its entrance.
Black Star Pastry faces the pretty courthouse building.
If it wasn’t made clear by some of the previous pictures, Melbourne is full of public art and inspired architecture. I have many, many more photos of the sculptures on every corner, but this is one of my favorites.
Australia has some fascinating architecture. The older homes have a distinct New Orleans French Quarter quality about them, curious for a country with a distinctly English heritage. We saw homes like this in all three cities we visited.
The domed reading room at the back of the Victoria State Library is utterly breathtaking.
The tables in the reading room radiate out from the center of the room.
The dome is amazing, since the whole thing is essentially a skylight… nothing better for reading indoors.
This is a shot from the 6th floor of the dome. The outside perimeter of the dome (which you can see through the open archways along the wall) is used as an exhibition space. We saw two exhibits, the Changing Face of Victoria and Mirror of the World: Books & Ideas, both of which were extremely carefully curated and totally riveting.
The Experimedia section of the library; yes, you are seeing correctly, those are big ol’ flatscreen teevees offering up the latest in videogame technology. There are bean bags, a kids’ section, a huge bank of Macs and plenty of places to plug and play. I tried my hand at Transformers for PS2 (blecch) and Dirt for 360 (superfun!). What I REALLY wanted to try was Little Big Planet, but those two dudes on the far right with the fancy haircuts hogged it the whole time.
