More internationalising of worsts. Another from Bartender’s Skills with a Manhatten. For those still wondering, the whole world is regarded as the outer environs of Perth.
BSWAM says…
We’re off to Goshen, NY, land of horse races and gin-soaked sadness, where this last October I visited two massive buildings. It is generally accepted that one is a masterpiece of American architecture, the other an overbearing concrete monstrosity. Which is which is a local point of contention.
The first stop is the Orange County Government Center, designed and built 1963-76 by Paul Rudolph, the then Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture. Based on an interpretation of Italian hill village architecture, the Center is in fact located on an ancient flood plain as flat as a billiards table. 
Having seen the place I have come to the conclusion that it is indeed a masterpiece, with an awesome sculptural presence that my crappy pictures do little to nothing to convey – on the other hand, it has 87 roofs and they all leak. 
I don’t think the bench is original.
The locals would probably prefer it if the Center had been designed to be more in harmony with the town’s legal offices and village hall, both directly across the street (originally private houses from the 1790s -1810 period). 
Two great old buildings – the beautiful Anthny Dobbin’s Inn, now closed, which dates to 1747, and a charming Victorian house, currently empty, that sit side by side next to the Village Hall and the legal offices. The inn is for sale, the last owner of the family that built it having passed away in 2012, and the house appears to be in the tentative stages of restoration.
This is the view – the Orange County Government Center Parking Lot.
The second enormous building is Glenmere, a house designed in the 1910s by the firm of Carrere & Hastings, whose other work in the area, Arden, is even larger and grander. Best known for the New York Public Library, (the one with the lions out in front) they are celebrated for their public buildings. Their domestic output, not so much. 
The place was restored from ruinous conditions and is now a 5-star hotel with limited access for non-guests. I was too nervous to take any pictures of the off-limits interior spaces, but a peek into the white-on-white-on-white-on-white Art Deco salon convinced me that it would be a pretty good place to be suddenly shot dead by Barbara Stanwyck.
Someone was looking at me from one of the upper windows as I took this picture. No idea who, but they spent $2,000 a night to do so.
Not really loving the color scheme, although it is evidently original.
The view is wonderful, however.
It seems that if these two buildings could trade places everything would be perfect. Glenmere is much more a pretentious public building and the County Government Center, sited on an actual hill, would make a great luxury hotel. As it is, the Center is seen as a carbuncle-class eyesore and Glenmere feels as if someone dragged a train station up a mountain and then ran away giggling.
Nothing will help that fucking wasteland of a parking lot, though.
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The Worst of Perth 
I love the Victoria House. Looks like the kind of place you could lock DFOC in the tower when guests come around.
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Americans appear to plonk benches in the same way we plonk ‘public art’.
I love the Government Center. Looks like the sort of place you could send DFOC from counter to counter for eternity, in a fruitless search to get details on a setback variation.
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It looks a little like Curtin. I should try and find out who the Curtin architects were.
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Not sure about Curtin. I think Cowan was done by Highline, or maybe West Coast Sheds?
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Vin Davies, apparently. And more recently, Brand, Deykin & Hay, among others.
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early buildings public works department. vin davies did the architecture building.
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That stuff has held up pretty well. Most of it has been cleaned and restored. With the grounds, Curtin looks pretty good these days.
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i think it looks great.
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Yeah LA , demolish a bit of Bentley ( no loss) , get a couple of thousand cubic metres of concrete , a few 4 by 2 s, and hey presto some Brutalist building for student accommodation. Those poor suckers (students) are being , to put it politely, ripped off.
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What rubbish.
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Rubbish, I think not. A quick perusal of rooms to rent , proximal to Curtin is between $150 and $200 per week,
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There’s a boom on, you know.
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The average cost for rooms around Curtin is $170 per week without any expenses included.
On campus ranges from $140 per week with all utilities included, to $180 per week with water gas, electricity included for standard rooms. On campus is similar in cost to off campus, but includes utilities, activities and pastoral care. It is run on a cost recovery/not for profit basis.
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Sir, questions will be asked in the Parliament.
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They look after your sheep?
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And your pastor. (as in pastor duchie from the left hand side).
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Dig the Orange County Government Center, (except for the bench), and the Victorian house tower. The rest, meh. That carpark would be perfect Perth if the lawn were more registered.
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Meanwhile, in local news …
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I heard her on the radio. Would you believe she had only seconds earlier walked out of the lounge room? Uncanny.
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Time for some electric cars to crash into houses. Or “silent lounge room killers” as they will. Be known.
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Normally I’d be standing listening to 6pr right there, but basil Zempilas had gone to the dunny.
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The evidence clearly points to these drivers actively targeting room-leavers. If I heard squealing tyres, I think the safest thing to do would be to stay right in the room you’re in, so they’d have to find someone else to narrowly miss.
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Sharks at the beach vs cars in the loungeroom.
Which is the bigger threat in Western Australia, really?
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Tag and release those Commodores?
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“… on the other hand, it has 87 roofs and they all leak.”
A tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright?
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Yes – to his famous Pennsylvania retreat, Risingdamp.
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Frank would have struggled in Perth. When you live on a sand hill and it doesn’t rain for six months, no-one even knows what damp is.
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I think Iwan Iwanoff did a fair shake by a dry climate, Wright-wise. I know he’s more classified as a Brutalist, but I think his designs share Wright’s concern for the site.
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I was going to mention Iwanoff. There’s an Iwanoff sculpture right outside my office . Wright never did a lit disco floor either I’m guessing.
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Iwanoff did a lit disco floor? If so, more power to him.
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He did. Let me see if I can find it.
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Marsala House Dianella
http://stateheritage.wa.gov.au/state-heritage-office/marsala-house
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WOW. An amazing house and I love the details.
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There are pictures of the interior somewhere. Beautiful. The sculpture outside is in the style of this house.
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BTW kudos to the current owners.
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Quite a few Iwanoffs in Coolbinia Menora Dianella. He also operated at quite small scale residential commissions.
One I’m thinking of in Patula Place does not have the Iwanoff style that appears in the link. The renovators claimed it was Iwanoff based on the cabinet fitout and flatroof. Skeptical
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link http://www.6000times.com/2009/04/iwan-iwanoff-ten-of-perths-best-houses.html
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Goshen…it’s a strange place. Glorious houses, a handsome and well-preserved downtown and one of the few towns in the HRV to have a classic New England-style green, yet there is an air of indescribable malice about everything, a kind of brooding, hateful undercurrent of resentment. A bastion of Republican values in a primarily Democrat-leaning county, it exemplifies the self-pity and persecution complex that currently characterizes America’s right-wing rich. The progressive culture that built the Orange County Govenrment Center – and, indeed, Anthony Dobbin’s Inn – is long gone. What’s left gardens a bit, golfs a bit and pays $2000 grand a night to stare icily at intruders from an upstairs window.
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Found a YouTube video that shows Arden, the other massive Carrere & Hastings house in the area. It sits in the center of Harriman-Wayne State Park and is the inspiration for Wayne Manor in the Batman comics. Not sure what the “original” music was for this video. I assume the opening theme to “Dynasty.”
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What’s the waterway?
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I believe it is Lake Forest (also called Lake Harriman) but it’s difficult to tell. The Hudson is visible from the property – indeed, borders it – but may not be visible from the house. Bonus points! Arden and Its forests have just been purchased by a sham Chinese non-profit with a “focus on conservation.” Clear-cutting of the whole place soon to come!
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Ai Ya!
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