So I’m back from vacation and ready to head into work tomorrow. I’m
almost over jet lag, but Patrick still thinks his bedtime is his
afternoon nap. I slept thru the Tri Nations match yesterday morning,
where the New Zealand All Blacks, my
new-favorite rugby team, got beat bad by the South Africa Springboks.
After losing to the Australia Wallabies while we were in Sydney, the All
Blacks are out of the running for the Tri-Nations Cup. Winner of next
weeks’ match between South Africa and Australia takes it. (note –
apparently,
severalreaderspointedout
that I got my cups mixed up. Bledisloe Cup is between New Zealand and
Australia only, and since NZ and Aus drew in their home and home series,
NZ keeps that cup.)
I didn’t blog any of my vacation as it was happening, but I want to
revisit two items that I think will be interesting to my blog readers –
the Buildings of Sydney and the Sydney Opera House.
I went to Australia (and New Zealand) to present
Metropolis.
Delivering this talk (as well as the follow-up talk on Buildings and
Applications) has changed the way I look at buildings and cities. I’ve
lived in three different cities – Washington DC, Los Angeles and
Seattle. DC is filled with old buildings, but there are no skyscrapers.
No building in DC is allowed to be taller than the Washington Monument.
Seattle is relatively young, and there was a big fire in 1889 that
destroyed a great deal of the city. Los Angeles is…well…I’ve blogged my
opinion
of Los Angeles before. LA is like a movie set – it only looks good on
TV. Drive around LA and you’ll find miles and miles of mini malls, but
no history.
Sydney is very different. Many of the older buildings are under “heritage
protection” meaning that their facade’s are protected and can’t be
changed. This leads to a fascinating mix of older buildings side by side
with modern skyscrapers. Paddy’s
Markets, which has
been there since at least 1834, is housed in a building originally built
in 1909 (according to the building’s facade). However, if you check out the
picture,
you’ll notice that the building’s second floor is notably more modern
than the first floor. That’s Sydney to a “T”, new sitting right next to,
or on top of, the old. I imagine that some of the older eastern seaboard
cities of America have the same combination of historical and current,
but none that I’ve spent a significant amount of time in.
Of course, you can’t go to Sydney and not visit the world famous Sydney
Opera House. You can read the history
online, so I wont bore you with those details. But here’s something you
probably don’t know about the opera house – it’s a pretty dinky opera
house as opera houses go. My mother works for the Washington National
Opera and I grew up hanging around the
Kennedy Center so I’ve been around
opera all my life. (Betcha didn’t know that about me, did ya?) The
Opera
Theatre
of the Sydney Opera House only holds 1547 people, only about two-thirds
of the Kennedy Center Opera
House. It
also has limited fly, wing and back stage space – the unique sail roof
structure severely limits off stage space. (This isn’t an issue in the
Concert Hall,
which is housed under the larger sail roof and has less need for off
stage space.) I found it very interesting that, as opera houses go, the
Sydney Opera House looks great from the outside, but isn’t that well
thought out on the inside. This comes back to Metropolis metaphor as
well – what’s on the outside (in this case, the roof) severely limits
what you can build on the inside (i.e. the theatre). In the case of the
Sydney Opera House, it’s no problem as people come from all over the
world to see shows there, even if the house creates unique logistical
challenges for the company putting on the show. For enterprise apps, you
probably won’t be so lucky, so design your roof with great care.
I’m back at work tomorrow, so watch this space.
