Day 28: Unitech

Today we spent much of the morning having a group meeting with members of the Architecture and Construction Management programs at Unitech, another technical university in New Zealand. The professors seemed to have a great passion for teaching others about the built environment, one American professor in particular. He had been a part of building a low impact residency in Arizona that at the time was the highest rated LEED building every built. It attained a nearly perfect score.
However, this professor had several negative things to say about both the LEED and Green Star rating systems, citing that these systems do not rate the performance efficiency of buildings. They are only concerned with the efficient design.

That afternoon we had off, so Jason, Will, Andrew and I all head out to find something to eat. We found a small cafe in an alley downtown Auckland that served some delicious looking brunch. I got a chorizo omelette (it reminded me of Oscar's Taco Shop in Franklin). It was huge and ridiculously good, as most of the food here has been.

Omelette from the cafe

Jason sitting by some flowers

Day 27: The University of Auckland (the other AU)

Today we were invited in to another university to learn about their construction management and sustainability programs. The University of Auckland is the largest college in the country, and also happens to contain the most prestigious program in Construction Management as well as Land Development.

We met with the dean of this college, Suzanne Wilkinson, as well as three of her doctoral students, to learn about their programs. The doctoral students led us around on a campus tour for about an hour after we split up in to groups. It was interesting to talk to someone else performing research in a similar field, albeit at a much higher level, to compare some of our methods and experiences. Our student tour leader, Riza, was just putting the finishing touches on his dissertation after three years of studying cost management of retrofit projects in the Auckland area. Riza, originally from Iran, found our southern American mannerisms and accents pretty entertaining. He also explained he was just happy to see some other faces besides the other doctoral students locked away behind cubicles with him in the doctoral computer lab.

Clock Tower at University of Auckland

After a morning with AU, we took a short break to change in to hiking clothes. Anoop had us headed on what was sure to be another treacherous hike up some giant mountain that was probably featured in Lord of the Rings. After 30 minutes on a bus out of town, we wound up at the foot of One Tree Hill. There is a road that winds up the steep slope that cars and people can walk on for a fairly easy trek to the summit. Of course we wouldn’t take the easy way out under Anoop’s direction.

Instead we found a small gate to prevent sheep from leaving the pastures around the hill, walked in, and climbed on hands and feet up to the top through hefty, fresh piles of sheep excrement. The view at the top was definitely worth it though (at least after washing my hands off).

One Tree Hill

So original

The night had a trip to the top of Sky Tower in downtown Auckland in store. We met around 8:30 to get a view of the sun setting over the Waitkere Mountain range as well as a great glimpse of the city from above by night. The tower is definitely similar to the Space Needle in Seattle, but definitely with more viewing decks. It also features a deck that you can jump off of. I did not participate in this activity.

Sky Tower

Leaning against the glass in Sky Tower...as close as I'll come to bungy jumping

Glass floor at the top of Sky Tower

Day 26: Maori Museum

We headed back in the late morning for a tour of the Maori museum near the war memorial. The museum tour included a fascinating display from local performers of some of the native songs and dances from the island culture. Our favorite was the “Haka” that is performed as a dance to provide energy and intimidation before a conflict took place. The Haka is still used in modern day New Zealand sports, including New Zealand All Blacks rugby games. The entire team, which includes many Maori players, performs the ritual before every game to intimidate the other team as well as energize the audience.

It is very surprising, coming from America, how much the native culture influences the feel of the city here. From my understanding, there was a great deal of opposition to assimilation efforts by Europeans during colonization, leading to a very prominent Maori culture still here today. Many signs and brochures around the city are written in both English and traditional Maori languages. It is very different from the way the westerners simply forced Native Americans to become “civilized” and join our society.

Maori Mask

The rest of the day was taken off to get some work done, as well as catch up on a little sleep we have been dearly missing. Four weeks of travel around Australasia has finally started to take its toll on our group, evidenced by lots of yawning and dozing off on our frequent 3-4 minute bus rides.

Day 25: Travel day to Auckland

Today we left Melbourne to embark on a three and a half hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland is located on the northern island of New Zealand and is the largest city in the country, although it is not the capital (Wellington, also in the north island is the capital). Auckland is two time zones ahead of Melbourne and Sydney, putting me at a grand total of nineteen hours ahead of Central Time back in America. I’m nearly a full day ahead of you guys reading this blog! (This is assuming you live in the beautiful areas of middle Tennessee, western Kentucky, or eastern Alabama, 99.9% of my readership.)

Upon our arrival it was already nearly 5 o’clock in Auckland which did not leave a wealth of time to get any real exploration done. We checked in to our new hotel, the Waldorf Hotel (not quite the Waldorf-Astoria) located in northern Auckland. The hotel is even a step up from our past three, providing a tasty free breakfast of Muesli and fresh peaches every morning, as well as a balcony and two bedrooms.

After checking in we headed to the War Memorial site a few blocks from our hotel. There is a museum of New Zealand culture at this site, including many exhibits from the native Maori culture that we will see tomorrow.

Giant Tree

Maori Museum

After a brief exploration around the park the memorial is in, we headed to a strip of restaurants on Karangahape street (any thoughts on that pronunciation?) and settled on a kebab dinner from a local Turkish restaurant.

Day 24: Last day in Melbourne

For our last day in Melbourne we had a few different structural sites to visit. The first was the Southern Cross train station in Melbourne. The station is known for its radical roof design and massive roof structure. The use of beams that curve in both directions make this design unique. It supports a massive membrane roof through the use of digitally modeled roof members.

The second visit was to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This is a structure in Melbourne that has been a focal point for many years. It has held numerous different types of sporting events, including Olympic Games as well as Cricket, American Football, Soccer, and even an air show in the early 1900's.

Southern Cross Station

Melbourne Cricket Ground

Our tour was provided by an elderly member of the volunteer tour leaders, and his long time experience in the Cricket Ground was highly interesting to all of us. He explained the different levels of expansion in the stadium's history as well as an overview of the entire stadium layout.

Lastly, we went to the Melbourne Theater for a viewing of the Australian play "The Summer of the 17th Doll." The show was very interesting, giving us a glimpse in to life in Melbourne in the 1930's. The play had several hilarious characters and lines, but ultimately ended in tragedy.

Day 23: Art Gallery and St. Kilda

Today we spent the first half of the afternoon exploring the State Gallery of Victoria. The gallery had an impressive display of art from 15th and 16th century Europe as well as many exhibits of pacific island art. Some of the art from the South Pacific in Islands around Australia were my favorites. It is amazing to see what great craftsmen the islanders were to carve such intricate pieces out of wood.

Some of the Pacific Island art

The roof of the Gallery of Victoria

In the later afternoon we took a tram to St. Kilda Beach, one of the popular vacation spots in Melbourne. The beach was incredibly windy and a little too cool to stay out on all day. We grabbed some light lunch and took a tram back to get some more work done later that day.

Day 22: RMIT site

Today was definitely the most progress I have made as far as ground level research is concerned on my thesis. First we met with the head of the school of Construction Management at RMIT, who was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful to each of our research topics. He was able to point me to the RMIT training school where construction tradesman are educated and certified. I will be in touch with this school for the rest of our time in Melbourne.

After a brief Q&A session, he took us to the newest RMIT campus building under construction. This building, as with every other one at RMIT was an incredibly avant garde design and sometimes excessively complex. The contractor, Brookfield Multiplex must have nightmares about the construction of the building. However, the project manager took us around the job, which is nearing completion, and was very excited about all of the challenges the design had caused and was eager to show us all of the unique aspects of the building.

10 month lead time on these panels that were shipped in from Germany

On the roof

The drywall nightmares begin...

See what I mean?

It took 4 weeks just to hang, finish and paint this ceiling.

One of the prefabricated ceiling structures

The wildly eccentric facade of the building

Words really cannot do much justice to the building so I'll post a few extra pictures in this post. To sum it up, I would have hated to be hanging drywall in this building, as it seemed that there was not one right angle in the entire project. However, the project manager explained that extensive use of prefabricated panels (with lead times of up to 10 months) and building segments had been used to save both time and labor costs on the project. I really cannot imagine how the project was ahead of schedule like it was, and on budget as well. I have a healthy respect for Brookfield Multiplex as a company and congratulate them on the timely production of such a difficult design.

Day 21: Melbourne Convention Exhibition Center

Today we took a visit to the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Center with another RMIT professor. The MCEC is one of the most innovative designs I have seen in person, including an incredibly complex building systems control programs that are capable of controlling seemingly every aspect of the building from a single tablet. The business developer for MCEC provided us with a very in depth and fascinating tour in to the buildings design, systems and construction, and he was very good at his job. By the end of the tour I was wishing  I had a conference to book here.

To say the building is "versatile" would be a laughable understatement. I am honestly not quite sure what event couldn't be held in the MCEC. From rock concerts to dinner parties to some of the world's largest professional conferences, the building is capable of handling all of them with ease. We toured around the large plenary auditorium with seating for 5,600 people (but of course it can be divided in to three independent rooms, each with its own stairs to separate break-out discussion rooms) and the large ballrooms, as well as an extensive look in to the back of house areas. The loading areas and kitchen might have been some of my favorite parts. Every room has great A/V capability and it is all tied in to a small lectern that can be moved around and control every thing in the room. Chairs in the auditorium can be raised and lowered on hydraulic jacks from stadium type tiers to below floor level with the touch of a tablet. It is truly amazing how so many aspects of buildings can be controlled by such small devices.

After being awed by the MCEC, we then headed over to another construction site from L.U. Simon. The Guilfoyle is another condominium development in Melbourne for student and single bedroom apartment renters. This was an interesting project to see as it was in much earlier stages than the Lacrosse development. We got to see many of the structural aspects of this building, including rebar tying and layout as well as form work for the concrete deck that was to be poured in the next few days.

Plenary Auditorium

Massive Elevator back of house in MCEC

MCEC business developer selling us his building

Pretty good view for a conference

Kitchen

Cool bridge outside MCEC

RMIT professor's awesome ponytail. We called him Fabio

Lots of concrete to be poured. Reminds me of this summer

Post-tension cables for the slab

Again the project manager on this site was very knowledgeable about his project and was able to answer all of the questions that we had, many of which having nothing to do with his job in particular. The people in the industry here seem very willing to help out and teach us things that they have learned through their experience in construction. I look forward to meeting with more people like this as I continue my thesis research.

Day 20: RMIT and L.U. Simon

Today was the first day of our site visits in Melbourne. We started the day off by visiting the RMIT campus several blocks from out dormitories. RMIT is a very large and well respected university and has a very highly regarded school of property and construction management. The professors and administrators from the college will be accompanying us on our site visits over the next two days.

The site that we visited today was in a gentrified area of Melbourne known as "The Docklands." We were on the Lacrosse condominium and retail development by L.U. Simon Builders. The project is 21 floors with several floors of parking as well. I was impressed with the project managers knowledge of his project and several others in the area. He seemed to keep a very well run site. Safety regulations here seem less stringent, despite Australia having a considerably better reputation for accident prevention that the United States. I think this can be credited to a more aware safety culture and general attitude towards performing construction activities.

After our site visit, we came back to the RMIT Village where we are staying for a bite to eat and to change for the night activity: The Australian Open. While I have never been much of a tennis fan, I was particularly excited about this event just because of the fame of the tournament. It didn't hurt that we saw Roger Federer play, as well as Caroline Wozniacki. We had a good time strolling around outside Rod Laver Arena and shopping around the store before the match took place. Once we the match began, Federer dominated in typical fashion.

Andrew looking awesome

See, Dad? I promise I am being somewhat productive.

After the Federer match

Me by an Australian Open sign

The Lacrosse Docklands development

Tomorrow is another site visit to and L.U. Simon project probably followed by some thesis work in the afternoon.

Day 18: The Twelve Apostles

Today we took a van trip down along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria to see The Twelve Apostles rock formation, as well as several other sites. This was absolutely some of the most stunning nature scenes I have ever visited. The Twelve Apostles are a group of limestone stacks (there have only ever actually been nine of them) that stand away from the cliffs on the southern edge of Australia. They were formed by constant erosion of the salty wind and ocean waves. They definitely bring images to mind of pirates and old wooden ships sailing around in weird caves and whatnot hundreds of years ago.

The Twelve Apostles

My personal favorite formations were actually a few miles from The Apostles, two stacks named Gog and Magog. We were able to leave the van and go all the way down on to the beach, via The Gibson Steps. The steps descended very steeply down the cliff face where we were deposited maybe 400 yards down the beach from the two giant stone structures. If I had been in proper swimming attire, and the water didn't feel like ice, I could have even swam out on to them.

Me in front of Gog and Magog

The trip was a lot of fun because of the amazing natural beauty, but it was also good to get away from the city for a day, as it was when we went to the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. We spent most of the day in the van, which was very reminiscent of the cramped old press vans like in the movie Blood Diamond, driving out to the site several hours from Melbourne. We drove there along The Great Ocean Road which follows the edge of land for many miles along Australia's southern coast. The views from the road were stunning as well, including massive valleys and hills of farmland and livestock. We saw where all of the Merino wool exports from Australia are being held. Sheep were everywhere.

Our sketchy van that we toured around Victoria in

Loch Ard Gorge

Tomorrow will be a welcome day off to catch up on work and relax.

Day 17: Arriving in Melbourne

Today was a travel day out of Brisbane and in to Melbourne. We left "The Gabba" around 7am and caught our flight (with considerably less difficulty this time) to Melbourne at 9:30. Immediately upon arrival here it became obvious that this is the artistic and cultural capital of the country.
It is reminiscent of a San Francisco or Los Angeles in America, with a very eclectic group of people ranging widely in their dress, culture and interests. We encountered several musicians, skateboarders, as well as some peculiarly dressed people with no real discernible  talent or skill hanging out on the street.

Federation Square in downtown Melbourne

After getting settled in to our new dorm, which are even nicer than our last ones, we went out to see some of the city as a group. We took their New Orleansesque street car system downtown and explored the sprawling Royal Botanical Gardens here. While certainly larger than what we saw of Sydney's, these gardens did not quite have the view that the garden on Sydney Harbor did. There was definitely an array of massive ancient trees and amazing plants spread throughout the park, however.

Massive tree I tried to climb

We had a fantastic dinner in an alley of restaurants where several of us ordered the chicken parmigiana (one of the lower priced items) and a round of drinks. After dinner we went and explored the alley and found a really lively area with lots of dining options and people out having fun.

Days 12-16

The last half of our stay in Brisbane has been much more eventful than the first half. For two days after we returned from the Gold Coast, we spent most of the time working at the library and in our rooms on our thesis research. This included a meeting with my thesis instructor, Anoop Sattininni. He was able to help me focus my research more and find ways to go about performing my research more effectively. His assistance in these matters will really come in useful as I really get in to the research I am doing here.

After the two work days, we spent a day going to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This was definitely one of the most interesting trips we have taken. The sanctuary has a lot more than just Koalas, including Kangaroos, Dingoes, Wallabees and Echidnas. It was especially fun because, unlike the Taronga Zoo, we were allowed to go in to the habitats and interact with the animals, particularly the Kangaroo and Emu habitat. Feed was sold at a store in the park and we all went around and fed different Kangaroos, from babies to the larger males of the group. Some of it got a little weird, for example, Jason kissing one as he fed it.

Me hanging out with a Kangaroo buddy

The next day was also spent researching, with a bridge tour of the Brisbane river following in the afternoon. We walked across several of the 17 crossings of the river while our structures professor Michael Hein gave us some insight on the design and construction processes of the bridge. They were all interesting and had a lot of interesting history behind each design. My favorite bridge is a pedestrian bridge completed in 2010. It is considered a "tensegrity" structure, in which columns and cables, in compression and tension respectively, act as a unit to support the bridge deck. It appears as though the bridge is a tangled mess of wires and sticks, but miraculously they combine to carry the heavy load of the bridge across a great span.

Kind of looks like Spaghetti

Sunset over another bridge

Brisbane by night from the Story Bridge