Monday, December 22, 2008

Terrible buildings of Hobart: #1: The Federation Concert Hall

Most cities these days try to present their best face to welcome visitors when they come in on the major road from that city's airport. Not Hobart.

As you drive along the first section of Davey Street, just after the Tasman Highway ends, this is the view with which you're faced:



Zero Davey, a residential development that somehow turned out to be a bit larger than what was originally approved, the Grand Chancellor Hotel (aka "Gray's Edifice"), which is simply a carbon copy of a hotel in Malaysia that the developers also own, and the crowning glory, the Federation Concert Hall, a building resembling a massive colorbond clad water tank, complete with dented panels and insulation hanging out of the joins. Apparently it's a "tribute" to an old gasometer that used to be on the site.


The Federation and its neighbours successfully block what could be a fantastic vista of Hobart's beautiful waterfront and Sullivans Cove district. I wanted to demonstrate to a friend what a shocking building it was, and lo and behold, I really couldn't find any proper pictures on google images, only ones put up by the Grand Chancellor and other tourist type sites that manage to shoot it from an angle that belies its inate hideousness.


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