Monday 19 December 2011

Don't build crap. It can't be that hard.

Standing on the corner of George & Liverpool Streets, in front of the Sir John Young Hotel, I continued shooting as the monorail creaked above my head and out into the distance. It really is a blight upon the landscape, the monorail. Serves minimal purpose in the grand transport design of the city, and stuffs up some otherwise decent photographs of late 19th C building facades. Love the geometry out into the distance that I have captured here.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Patrick White was right.

Rae Walter said...

Love the geometry too Julie. I have been lamenting some of our architecture and planning decisions in Perth, so understand your frustrations! Still, even with the monorail is a great capture.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

I have to say Julie, I have no problems with this particular view of the monorail it sort of leads your eye in towards those amazing facades. In fact it's altogether a brilliant B&W image.

Jim said...

It is a blight on so many facades especially near the QVB.

Ann said...

Couldn't agree more. Serves no useful purpose whatsoever. Love the geometry in this shot.

Kay L. Davies said...

Well, of course a monorail that serves no useful purpose has no reason to be in the way of anyone's photo. I wonder why they built it.
It is still a beautiful shot, though, Julie.
Nobody is ever completely or even somewhat happy with their city planners. In Vancouver, BC, my home city where I worked for many years, they tore down some wonderful old buildings and put up ugly new things. Broke so many hearts. Some of the new buildings were more than ugly, they also leaked. And in coastal British Columbia that is no joke.
K

Julie said...

Why did they build it? It was a gift to the city for the Bicentennial in 1988. Digging deeper though, it was a means of getting the tourists from the fun parks of Darling Harbour and the casino into the retail precinct.

At $40mil it was a smidge of a waste ...

Mark said...

Agree Julie, the monorail is crap. It is a theme park ride not a real piece of public transport infrastructure!

Joan Elizabeth said...

When we lived in Ultimo we used the monorail as public transport frequently. It was really effective at least to that part of the city. I'm quite fond of riding it ... and like the way it zips past the windows of city buildings.

brattcat said...

sorry, i like the sinuous curve of it. makes me think of disneyland, these monorails, which dredges up lovely childhood feelings of wonder.