Mary Krugman wrote:

>There was much of England in Australia as I knew it -- in many places a
>somber and not-so-
>sunburned country in its architecture (before the Sydney Opera House). What is
>happening with regards to historic preservation/architectural design there
>now?

Historic preservation went through a big phase in the 1980s when it was
definitely the cutting edge of fashion. Everybody wanted traditional
colours on the outside of their houses and loved to talk about their
building problems when people came to dinner. While the dedicated followers
of fashion have now gone elsewhere this period resulted in 'Heritage' being
hot-wired into governmental brains throughout the land. We now have lots
and lots of Federal, State and Local government interest in
preservation/conservation/restoration. This interest has also been backed
up by a number of pretty good State authorities such as Heritage New South
Wales, Heritage Victoria and the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.
There are also many more architects experienced in conservation work. The
result is that you're almost as likely to get a reasonably competent
conservation job done on an old building out in the backblocks as you are
in the cities. We still get good buildings being ruined by people who
appear not to realize that they're old and kind of 'different' and we still
lose a few along the way but it's nowhere near as bad as it was in the 70s.

Contemporary architecture, as always, is both good and bad. There is some
interesting new work around which uses traditional materials such as
corrugated galvanised steel, together with industrial ventilators, bracing
etc, but this is definitely in the minority. The good stuff is interesting.
Better come back and take another look!

--
Ian Evans
The World of Old Houses | http://www.oldhouses.com.au/
Phone/fax: 02 6684 7677 (Int. 612 6684 7677) Mobile/voicemail 015 014 569
PO Box 591, Mullumbimby, New South Wales, Australia 2482