What I really don’t like is Ashton Raggart McDougall being allowed to desecrate iconic modernist 80s architecture with their disrespectful, faddish refits. Melbourne was (I use the past tense) lucky to have one of the largest works of the eminent Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa – Melbourne Central. Melbourne Central now has giant multicolored spots spray painted on the side. And some kind of “playful” hoarding with the word “FLIP” on it in huge red letters. It’s B-grade postmodernism grafiitied onto a classic.

And now I see they’ve been awarded the commission for the refit of Roy Grounds’ masterpiece, the Melbourne Concert Hall (Hamer Hall). I think you would struggle to find a finer example of early 80s architecture in Australia than the Arts Centre precinct. The NGV refit (by Mario Bellini) was pretty sensitive, but sensitive is not really a word in ARM’s architectural vocabulary. Already the entire river facing promenade has been ripped from the building. The graphics on the hoardings show some twisted, curvy confection in its place. The site for the refit is here. If Melbourne Central is anything to go by, don’t expect any respect for Sir Roy Grounds’ vision.

If the Arts Centre was a Victorian terrace, there would be a rabid blue rinse set up in arms and interfering. But because we’re still negative about the 80s, there is barely a whisper in defense of our finest buildings from this period. Unfortunately, when we do come to appreciate them in years to come, they’ll have been defaced beyond recognition. Let’s hope the future likes ARM.

What we need now:

• a meta-list: i.e. a site which ranks the rankings. How do I know that Urbanspoon is the best ranking? (I suppose this could always be Google.)
• more open APIs. Open APIs may seem like a strategic no-no but actually they’re a big yes: they’re a signal about the value and quality of your data. More importantly, they amplify your signal too. Everytime someone creates a Twitter app, there’s the Twitter brand in play again. (I want Urbanspoon to have an open API so someone can write a trending application for it. Their implementation on this isn’t enough for me!)

You can go for an in-city holiday in Footscray. It’s a world away from where I live in Melbourne’s inner east.

You can view the full camera roll on Picasa

I love the Nicholas Building. It is dilapidated in the best possible way. I wish I were a jeweller or artist so I could have a studio there. Complete camera roll here.

On Nicholson St in Carlton.
I love the heritage of some of these signs. They have an earnest artlessness that imparts a real sense of place and time. Artlessness isn’t something that goes much with marketing, where the awareness and associations tend to be managed to the nth degree. Even seeming artlessness is often highly staged, such as RACV’s Jason call centre ads or iinet’s BOB. I reckon there’s a case for preserving as much true, authentic artlessness as you can find in a heritage brand. Where people have become wary of agency schmick and having their psychology over-understood, artlessness is a refreshing reminder of a different meaning for consumer orientation.

Private public transport is a joke in Melbourne: everyone blaming everyone else. Unless Kosky wants to get Japan Rail to run our trains (get them to bring their brilliant PASMO cards with them too and dump MYKI) then I think the Government should bring our public transport back under public management, if only to quench the blame cycle. For a nuanced analysis of who might really be to blame, this is interesting.

Kosky says that private operators bring “innovation and international experience.” I really can’t see how Connex’s innovation (what innovation?) and experience are worth the $589 million that Connex pocketed in 2007 for running the network. The real reason is probably more like that Kosky doesn’t want to run a public transport system. Bring the transport back into public hands and invest the $589m in upgrading and extending the infrastructure. Trains to Chadstone, Doncaster, Monash and Melbourne Unis would be a good start.