Brisbane's Ugliest New Building a Rant by pluta (jane curtis) Brisbane has had its fair share of ugly buildings over the past few years... better than a hole in the ground? "i think it will weather in an interesting way" Amber (submitted by pluta.) The Stefan Sky Penis, the Brisbane Transit Centre (one huge reflective black lego) and the Performing Arts Complex (beige lego blocks on their side) - no wonder that in the late 80s when Premier Joh Bjelke Peterson proposed to build the world's tallest building here, people just didn't care: The city's skyline was beyond repair. Thank god that plan was abandoned and all that remained was a big hole in the ground.... Gentrification (the middle-class resettlement of older inner-city neighbourhoods formerly occupied by lower income people) is creeping up in most Australian cities. While the inner city gets a fresh coat of paint (love that salmon pink) and buildings get demolished (anything under ninety years old is fair game) or renovated (gee that bottle shop looks good in that Art Deco theatre), low income housing disappears and the urban poor - pensioners, the unemployed, low income earners, students, residents of hostels and refuges - are forced to move on. My experience of gentrification is seeing the changes that have happened in West End in Brisbane over the last two years. A multiculturally-rich inner city suburb, West End is fast becoming the next "cafe society" and so the convenience stores, fancy bakeries, boutiques, fast food franchises and shopping complexes are springing up where the boarding houses, takeaways and family owned fruit and veg shops used to be. And why do shops for yuppies have to be so UGLY??? Maybe shops for yuppies have to be UGLY and BRASH and DOMINATING so there's no way you can miss them - after all, shopping centres are the future of community according to our Lord Mayor, Jim Soorley. Besides saying 'hello' to your neighbour in the next supermarket isle, I find it hard to believe how any sort of substantial bonding, networking and community development can happen in a shopping environment. What the City Council and developers alike seem to be ignoring is that community has long existed in inner city areas before gentrification began. West End is an area where the community has had longstanding imput into its environment through public art, community organisations, local media, markets and street festivals. It's not hard to understand the community outrage at developers who do not seek community opinion on development and who employ architects who respond to community criticism with such arrogance: "to all of you who wish to expurge and control the rightful expression of others, stick it up your tasteful grey arses". Russell Hall, Architect of shopping complex, cnr Boundary and Vulture Sts, West End. Related Web Site Created on Sun, 21 Sep 1997 and last modified on Mon, 27 Oct 1997.

LOUDonline - http://www.loud.net.au - Fri, 10 Apr 1998