| Treasury of youth a state heritage
In the early 1850s talented Liverpudlian schoolboy John James Clark drew an exquisite map of his home town for a school project. When John’s parents later emigrated to Australia he brought the drawing with him. Within months of arriving in Melbourne the boy’s canny father took the drawing to the fledgling Public Works Department, which employed the youngster on the spot. At just 14 years of age JJ Clark had begun his remarkable architectural career. By the age of 19, with little formal training he had designed the Treasury Building in Spring St – the first of many achievements. The life and works of the prolific, nomadic and "incredibly fastidious" JJ Clark emerge in a University of Melbourne PhD by Melbourne journalist and architectural history scholar Andrew Dodd, whose interest was first piqued by the beauty of the Treasury Building.
Women in the wars
"At the time, I had one main thing on the brain, and that was sex, like any ordinary teenager," she laughs, "but the war changed everything. I learned that sex could be used as a weapon in warfare, and that rape was one of the worst brutalities that could happen to a human being. Like everyone else in Sarajevo, I was horrified. The world had turned into a place of horror and unspeakable evil." That memory is one of the things that propelled Zbanic to become a filmmaker. After making short films and documentaries on the aftermath of the Balkan War, Zbanic got the funds together to create "Grbavica" — (released in Japan as "Sarajevo no Hana"), a quiet heartache of a film that deals with one of Bosnia's most lingering traumas: the systematic rape and humiliation of thousands of women, both Serb and Muslim.
Brown feels pressure but no fear ahead of biggest test of his career
SCOTT Brown has assured the nation that he is fighting fit and relishing the prospect of helping secure a place at the European Championship, which he believes could propel Scotland to a new level. Just as the 22-year-old Celtic midfielder shrugs off the high reputations of the opponents he now regularly faces at the highest level of the game, so he was able to emerge unscathed from what appeared a potentially career-threatening foul by Benfica player Augustin Binya last week. .
Plan A ... with help
DRAFT day is stressful for young players, but it is hell for recruiters. The Western Bulldogs spent weeks preparing for Saturday's draft and found even when things go to plan, it's not always the way you imagine. 8am Cafe Zest, Port Melbourne THE Spirit of Tasmania is docked across the road, but Western Bulldogs recruiting manager Scott Clayton is gazing at the glassy water beyond."It was very clear a while ago that Matthew Kreuzer, Trent Cotchin and Cale Morton were going to be three players gone before our pick (at No. 5)," Clayton says. "If Jarrad Grant's not the next best player after them, then I'll swim to Williamstown from here." Clayton, flanked by his recruiting deputy Domenic Ambrogio, is running through the pre-draft plans over a latte and fruit toast.
Seachangers earn their keep
MELBOURNE couple Steph Powell and Annie Glasson do a different sort of chasing these days. Gone are their old lives chasing time, cocktails and cafes. Now they listen out for the cars chasing each other down Bells Beach Boulevard in the early hours of the morning, which tell them the surf's good. "We had just done this great renovation in Hampton and had only been in the house for six months, when Steph said 'right, that's it let's go'," says Glasson. So in 1996, Powell packed up his landscape design and construction company and Annie left her high-pressure tourism and marketing role and the Queens Street city commute. The couple bought a 2.4ha property in Torquay, south of Geelong, for their family of two young boys, Sam and Jamie.
Architectural community sees merit in concrete
Professor Ken Taylor gives his opinion very decidedly on architecture in the article "Facing the brutal truth about the Modernist urban utopia" (November 8, p19).
One may have expected that Taylor as a landscape architect might instead have addressed the cultural significance of the organisation of the Cameron Offices in Belconnen, designed by John Andrews International, 1968-76, into separate wings connected by open landscaped courtyards that was instrumental to creating the conditions for the symbolic introduction of nature into the city.
The landscaping, designed by one of North America's foremost landscape design practitioners, Richard Strong, had each court depicting a different landscape region of Australia through the use of native Australian plants and water features; a setting based on an emerging Australian school of landscape design, using native plants and bush themes in a naturalistic and informal way.
Dempsey does Disney, for daughter
Everybody's a critic. A few weeks ago, Patrick Dempsey's 5-year-old daughter, Talula, offered her opinion of Dad's work in "Enchanted," the PG-rated fantasy about a cartoon princess (Amy Adams) who springs to life and finds her way into the arms of a single-dad divorce lawyer (Dempsey.) .
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