FED:Sydney to have "wrinkly, crinkly" landmark

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-2010
FED:Sydney to have "wrinkly, crinkly" landmark

SYDNEY, Dec 16 AAP - Renowned architect Frank Gehry has unveiled his extraordinary
"crinkly, wrinkly" design for the $150 million University of Technology Sydney (UTS) business
school, admitting it will probably cause a stir.

"I think that anything new seems to generate some questions," the 81-year-old Canadian-born
architect told AAP.

"I think, confidently, once these things are built they are absorbed in a nice way
by the community.

"A lot of junk is built in cities around the world and nobody really complains ...

I don't think it's going to destroy your town, honest."

Senator Chris Evans, the federal Tertiary Education Minister, said the building would
be controversial.

"As with all contributions to Sydney, there will be controversy and debate," he told reporters.

"That's a good thing. It's important that the university continues to stimulate debate
and engage in it."

The 11-storey building is due for completion for the 2014 academic year, subject to
planning approval.

It will be Mr Gehry's only Australian design.

The architect described the structure as being like a "tree house", generating a sense
of "creative play".

"It's crinkly like that because the hardest thing to do in modern architecture is to
make it humane and give it a character, give it a feeling," he said.

Later in his speech at the building's unveiling, he referred to the building as "wrinkly".

It will be named the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building, after the Australian-Chinese business
leader who has donated $25 million for the project.

That equals the biggest single donation by any individual to an Australian university, UTS says.

The building will be located on the corner of Omnibus Lane and Ultimo Road, in the
inner city suburb of Ultimo, on a relatively small area of land currently used as a car
park.

The building is part of a wider, 10-year, $1 billion development of the UTS site, which
the university says will involve other new buildings, upgrading work and improved pedestrian
connection.

UTS vice-chancellor Ross Milbourne described Mr Gehry as a "creative genius".

"This building stands as an example, right in the centre, of what we are trying to
create," he told reporters.

On Sydney's architecture as a whole, Mr Gehry said: "I think it's like every other
city in the world, there's some good buildings, a lot of mostly mediocrity".

He singled out Chicago as one of the cities that currently have the best modern architecture.

AAP mdg/wjf/cdh

KEYWORD: GEHRY UPDATE (WITH FACTBOX, PIX AND VIDEO)

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