Canberra a designed capital
Canberra a designed capital
Started out the day in a leisurely way. A little
toast and tea. Some email-ing. A phone call into the
past to the USA to my daughter. A phone call to
Aussie friends in Snowy mountains and others to
professional speakers in Sydney.
Then off to explore Canberra.
Where my hosts beautiful townhouse is located is in a
very well landscaped neighborhood near one of the
government areas. I walked towards the new Parliament
Building, a very dramatic building, designed by an
American architectural firm chosen through a
competition in the 1980s as was the master planner for
the creation of Canberra back in 1913, a young
architect who was a lead designer with Frank Lloyd
Wright in Chicago at the time, Walter Burley Griffin.
The drawings for his submittal were beautifully drawn
by his wife Marion Mahoney, another architectural
designer who worked for FLLW.
I came across the circular major road, crossed it and
began to head towards one of the main roads into the
Civic, the town center. It is the size of a major
highway and crosses Lake Burley Griffin as it goes
towards the Civic. After walking about 2 1/2 miles I
finally found a bus stop and met a very friendly 40ish
woman who helped me with ideas about the use of
Canberra busses and directions to the interstate bus
terminal I was seeking. As we talked on the bus we
found a few things in common: she had been to Toledo,
I lived within 60 miles of Toledo for 22+ years. She
has a friend who lives in Duluth, Georgia I live 45
miles from Duluth. No they are not exactly in common
but we're talking people sitting next to each other on
a bus who live 13 or 14,000 miles apart on the Earth.
Into the bus terminal, bus offices, airplane offices,
back to train offices....all to arrange travel for
other parts of my journey around Australia.
Then to the Off and On Red open top double decker bus
to tour the city to get a lay of the land and choose
which of the many sights to see.
For me it was the brand new Australian Museum of
social issues, just completed in 2001, March and the
Canberra Museum to learn more about the design of this
truly beautifully designed city. The city is filled
with trees, specific local neighborhoods with
commercial areas to lessen the need for large numbers
of people to work in the city center. Rush hours here
are missing two traffic signals.
Saw parrots in numbers like we usually see pigeons in
major cities: white, pink, green, mixed colors;
combined with many other native birds flying around in
the trees.
Canberra is a giant park with houses and buildings
carefully placed in it.
The open bus tour passed by 14 separate sights to
choose from whether you wanted to jump off and get on
again later. Because of my time I chose only a couple
things other than riding around most of the way twice.
The most interesting aspects of the bus tour was
experiencing the planning of this city and the
dramatic architecture: old and new. One portion was a
drive by all the foreign embasseys: each distinctly
designed from very classic English to the very, very
modern Finnish to very well landscape and soft South
African.
A day filled with exploring.
It ended with about 90 minutes of wandering through
the commerical area in the Civic seeing the various
bars and night clubs that Bill Bryson missed when he
visited here a few years ago. His only complaint
about Canberra was its dull night life. Apparently he
missed the Civic area after dark. Lots of people and
lots of little night spots: bars, pubs, dancing places
and a complete 3 level modern shopping center right
off the main commerical walking streets complete with
a food court that would rival any I have seen in the
U.S. in recent years.
Then off by bus back to the quiet area I am staying in
to rest and email my wanderings.
Good night friends.
Off to the Snowy Mountains for the weekend. May not
right until I complete the weekend and Day One of
Melbourne.
Cheerio Mates
Alan
Started out the day in a leisurely way. A little
toast and tea. Some email-ing. A phone call into the
past to the USA to my daughter. A phone call to
Aussie friends in Snowy mountains and others to
professional speakers in Sydney.
Then off to explore Canberra.
Where my hosts beautiful townhouse is located is in a
very well landscaped neighborhood near one of the
government areas. I walked towards the new Parliament
Building, a very dramatic building, designed by an
American architectural firm chosen through a
competition in the 1980s as was the master planner for
the creation of Canberra back in 1913, a young
architect who was a lead designer with Frank Lloyd
Wright in Chicago at the time, Walter Burley Griffin.
The drawings for his submittal were beautifully drawn
by his wife Marion Mahoney, another architectural
designer who worked for FLLW.
I came across the circular major road, crossed it and
began to head towards one of the main roads into the
Civic, the town center. It is the size of a major
highway and crosses Lake Burley Griffin as it goes
towards the Civic. After walking about 2 1/2 miles I
finally found a bus stop and met a very friendly 40ish
woman who helped me with ideas about the use of
Canberra busses and directions to the interstate bus
terminal I was seeking. As we talked on the bus we
found a few things in common: she had been to Toledo,
I lived within 60 miles of Toledo for 22+ years. She
has a friend who lives in Duluth, Georgia I live 45
miles from Duluth. No they are not exactly in common
but we're talking people sitting next to each other on
a bus who live 13 or 14,000 miles apart on the Earth.
Into the bus terminal, bus offices, airplane offices,
back to train offices....all to arrange travel for
other parts of my journey around Australia.
Then to the Off and On Red open top double decker bus
to tour the city to get a lay of the land and choose
which of the many sights to see.
For me it was the brand new Australian Museum of
social issues, just completed in 2001, March and the
Canberra Museum to learn more about the design of this
truly beautifully designed city. The city is filled
with trees, specific local neighborhoods with
commercial areas to lessen the need for large numbers
of people to work in the city center. Rush hours here
are missing two traffic signals.
Saw parrots in numbers like we usually see pigeons in
major cities: white, pink, green, mixed colors;
combined with many other native birds flying around in
the trees.
Canberra is a giant park with houses and buildings
carefully placed in it.
The open bus tour passed by 14 separate sights to
choose from whether you wanted to jump off and get on
again later. Because of my time I chose only a couple
things other than riding around most of the way twice.
The most interesting aspects of the bus tour was
experiencing the planning of this city and the
dramatic architecture: old and new. One portion was a
drive by all the foreign embasseys: each distinctly
designed from very classic English to the very, very
modern Finnish to very well landscape and soft South
African.
A day filled with exploring.
It ended with about 90 minutes of wandering through
the commerical area in the Civic seeing the various
bars and night clubs that Bill Bryson missed when he
visited here a few years ago. His only complaint
about Canberra was its dull night life. Apparently he
missed the Civic area after dark. Lots of people and
lots of little night spots: bars, pubs, dancing places
and a complete 3 level modern shopping center right
off the main commerical walking streets complete with
a food court that would rival any I have seen in the
U.S. in recent years.
Then off by bus back to the quiet area I am staying in
to rest and email my wanderings.
Good night friends.
Off to the Snowy Mountains for the weekend. May not
right until I complete the weekend and Day One of
Melbourne.
Cheerio Mates
Alan
Comments
Post a Comment