Page 44 - Prnt21 magazine Jan-Feb 2023

| At Large | Building Wraps
We print thisTcity
proliferate on city streets, the number of temporary print hoardings covering up construction sites in the CBD is exploding. Archival black and white photos of historic scenes are a time-channel for pedestrians, while
newly commissioned artworks enliven the scaffolding around buildings. Patrick Howard goes walkabout in the centre of Sydney.
watching other people work. Even
for Sydney, a city in perpetual reinvention, the past few years have been supercharged. Walking through the city, sometimes it seems that every corner is under the hammer. Circular Quay is being remade, the AMP building turned into fancy apartments, while the new tramline along George Street has barely settled down after years of disruption.
As the joker said...It will be a great city if they ever finish it.
Amid the dust and noise I’ve come to enjoy one aspect of this creative destruction. Creative print hoardings are mandated by the City Council for all developments. At a time when there’s pushback against the proliferation of electronic media on city streets – on bus
stops and stand alone advertising screens – the role of archival historic photos and commissioned artwork in beautifying the city has
hey’re tearing down
and building up whole and neon advertisements city blocks in Sydney
As the numbers of digital
to make way for the
new underground railway, the Sydney Metro, billed as Australia’s biggest public transport
project. For months the city has reverberated to digging, boring and hammering, as pedestrians are forced to navigate temporary
walkways. From Barangaroo through to Martin Place and
on Park Street, massive demolition has changed
the landscape in an extraordinary way. As an inveterate
building site ‘gawker’, I’ve followed the progress of
the huge holes dug, the enormous concrete pours, and have felt the vibrations
of the borers far underground. I can stand for a long time
44 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023