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New City Architect has a ‘strong passion’ for the Gold Coast

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:42:57 GMT

The Gold Coast has a new City Architect. Respected Gold Coast-based architect Christopher Gee took up the Gold Coast City Council position yesterday (2/2).

Announcing his appointment, Mayor Ron Clarke said Mr Gee’s wealth of national and international experience would serve the city well as it faced challenges such as continuing growth and climate change.

“The Gold Coast is working to position itself as a city with a built environment that delivers quality lifestyles in a sustainable manner, and Mr Gee’s expertise will help us in that endeavour,” Cr Clarke said.

“In his 27-year professional life, he has had a distinguished design and management career in a series of large and small private architectural and planning practices on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and he has also received numerous architectural and urban design awards through the firms with which he has been associated.

“He has made a significant contribution to design in south east Queensland through a range of projects, including the Federal Airport Corporation’s Commercial Master Plan for Brisbane International Airport (1992-1996) through NRA and Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall redevelopment (1998-2000) with Brisbane City Council’s City Design.

“Importantly, he is keen to foster ecologically sustainable development on the Gold Coast in his role as an advocate for better urban design in the community.”

Cr Clarke said Gold Coast City was believed to be the first Australian city to establish an Office of City Architect and Heritage, to advocate and guide urban design improvements.

Mr Gee will be the second architect appointed to this key design position, vacated late last year when Philip Follent became the new State Government Architect.

“It is an important role, encouraging industry to deliver more ecologically, economically and socially sustainable developments for the Gold Coast,” Cr Clarke said.

“One of his first tasks will be to take a lead role in co-ordinating the 2009 Gold Coast Urban Design Awards and International Urban Design Conference.”

The son of a regional vet, Mr Gee grew up in an innovative house in the Macleay Valley on the New South Wales, mid north coast. It was this house, designed in 1957 by Sydney architects Bill and Ruth Lucas, that sparked his passion for quality sustainable design and the importance of the human relationship with the natural environment.

A Gold Coast resident for the past 19 years, Mr Gee readily admits to a passion for the city.

“Raising a family here helped me appreciate the area’s qualities,” he said.

“I have a very strong passion for the Gold Coast area and its surrounding environs, with a desire to see that ongoing development and change embodies and enhances the lifestyle and values that attract us to coastal living.

“Quality design is a key tool to utilise in the planning and development of the Gold Coast community and we must all become familiar with the principles of good design.”

Encouraged to apply for the position by leading members of his profession, he felt he could contribute to the city’s design awareness and planning processes, including the Bold Future project, mapping directions for the Gold Coast of tomorrow.

“With the help of my team members and fellow design professionals, I hope to help continue the rise in design standards on the Gold Coast.”

He sees the city’s climate, lifestyle, safe and clean environment, its natural beauty and sense of community as among the Gold Coast’s greatest assets.

“The city also has an opportunity and desire to plan for future growth, to manage this without continually extending the urban footprint.”

He is excited by the opportunity to contribute to the city’s future.

“The city I would like to see in 50 or 100 years, and one which I believe we can deliver, will be relaxed and safe, clean and welcoming.

“It will have been developed on ecologically sustainable design principles, be energy and water efficient, will acknowledge and record the city’s heritage, with excellent public spaces, and it will embrace world’s best practice in architecture, planning and landscape design at all levels of the socio-economic scale.”

Gold

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:50:10 GMT

Gold has been recognized and highly-valued since prehistoric times. It might have been the first metal used by humans and was valued for both ornamentation and rituals. Gold is the most malleable and ductile metal; a single gram could be beaten into a sheet of one square meter, or an ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be flattened thin enough to become translucent. The transmitted light appears greenish blue, as gold strongly reflects yellow and red. It readily forms alloys with many other metals. Gold is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, and is not affected by air and most reagents. Heat, oxygen, moisture, and most corrosive agents have very little chemical effect on gold, making it very well-suited for use in coins and jewelry. Pure gold is so soft for ordinary use and is hardened by alloying with copper or other base metals. The gold content of gold alloys is measured in carats (k), pure gold being designated as 24k.

Butterfly

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:47:31 GMT

Butterflies are adult flying stage of certain insects belonging to an order or group called Lepidoptera. Moths also belong to this group. The word "Lepidoptera" means "scaly wings" in Greek. This name completely suits the insects in this group because their wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales overlapping in rows. The scales, which are arranged in colorful designs unique to every species, are what give the butterfly its beauty. Like all other insects, butterflies also have six legs and three main body parts: head, thorax (chest or mid section) and abdomen (tail end). They also have two antennae and an exoskeleton.

Katrina

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:21:11 GMT

Hurricane Katrina was the one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane that was ever recorded and the third-strongest hurricane on record that made landfall in the United States. Katrina formed on August 23 during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and caused devastation along the north-central Gulf Coast. The most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, which flooded as the levee system catastrophically failed; in many cases hours after the storm had moved inland. In the 2005 Atlantic season, Katrina was the eleventh tropical storm, fifth hurricane, third major hurricane, and second Category 5 hurricane.

Earthquakes

Wed, 14 May 2008 02:42:55 GMT

An earthquake is caused by sudden, violent shifting of massive rocks called plates lying under the earth's surface. This movement of the plates releases stress that accumulates along geologic faults. A fault is a deep crack that marks the boundary between two of the plates. Earthquake belts occur along faults all around the world. Many run along coastal areas. The San Andreas Fault in central California is well-known for causing most severe earthquakes. The epicenter is the point on the surface where the earthquake is strongest. The Richter scale is used to measure the amount of energy that is released by the earthquake.

Tea Cup

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:16:02 GMT

A teacup is a small cup with a handle, generally a small one that may be grasped with the thumb and one or two fingers. It is normally made of porcelain. It is usually part of a set, composed of a cup and a matching bowl. These in turn may be part of a tea set in combination with a teapot, cream jug, covered sugar bowl and slop bowl en suite.

Some collectors attain numerous one-of-a-kind cups with matching saucers. Better teacups normally are of fine white lucid porcelain and often decorated with floral patterns. They may also observe a location, person, or event. Such collectors may also accumulate silver teaspoons. These usually have a decorated terracotta insert in the handle with similar themes.

The first small cups specifically made for drinking the new potion tea seen in Europe were exported from the Japanese port of Imari. Tea bowls in the Far East did not have handles, and the first European imitations, made at Meissen, were without handles, too.

Birds

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:14:30 GMT

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most abundant tetrapod vertebrates. They populate ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) Bee Hummingbird to the 2.7 m (9 ft) Ostrich. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, around 150�200 Ma (million years ago), and the earliest known bird is the Late Jurassic Archaeopteryx, c 155�150 Ma.

Modern birds are characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a trivial but strong skeleton. All birds have forelimbs modified as wings and most can fly, with some exceptions including ratites, penguins, and a number of diverse endemic island species. Birds also have unique digestive and respiratory systems that are highly adapted for flight. Some birds, especially corvids and parrots, are among the most intellectual animal species; a number of bird species have been observed manufacturing and using tools, and many social species exhibit cultural program of knowledge across generations.

Many species undertake long distance annual migrations, and many more perform shorter asymmetrical movements. Birds are social; they communicate using visual signals and through calls and songs, and participate in social behaviours including cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of bird species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, but rarely for life. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous ("many females") or, rarely, polyandrous ("many males"). Eggs are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching.

Many species are of economic importance, mostly as sources of food acquired through hunting or farming. Some species, particularly songbirds and parrots, are popular as pets. Other uses include the harvesting of guano (droppings) for use as a fertiliser. Birds figure prominently in all aspects of human culture from religion to poetry to popular music. About 120�130 species have become destroyed as a result of human activity since the 17th century, and hundreds more before then. Currently about 1,200 species of birds are threatened with extinction by human activities, though efforts are underway to protect them.

Leopard

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:28:30 GMT

Large wild cat found in Africa and Asia. The background colour of the fur is golden, and the black spots form rosettes that differ according to the mixture; black panthers are simply a colour distinction and retain the patterning as a �watered-silk� effect. The leopard is 1.5�2.5 m/5�8 ft long, including the tail, which may measure 1 m/3 ft. (Species Panthera pardus, family Felidae.)

The snow leopard or ounce (Panthera uncia), which has irregular rosettes of much larger black spots on a light cream or grey background, is a native of mountains in central Asia. The clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is rather smaller, about 1.75 m/5.8 ft overall, with large blotchy markings rather than rosettes, and is found in Southeast Asia. There are seven species, of which six are in danger of extinction, including the Amur leopard and the South Arabian leopard. One subspecies, the Zanzibar leopard, may already be extinct. The last Judean desert leopard died May 1995, although a small population survives in the Negev Desert.

Coconut

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:31:54 GMT

The coconut palm is grown throughout the tropical world, for decoration as well as for its many cooking and non-culinary uses, virtually every part of the coconut palm has some human use.The flowers of the coconut palm are polygamomonoecious, with both male and female flowers in the similar inflorescence. Flowering occurs continuously, with female plants producing seeds. Coconut palms are believed to be largely cross-pollinated, although some dwarf varieties are self-pollinating. Coconut water can be used as an intravenous fluid.

Nearly all parts of the coconut palm are useful, and the palms have a comparatively high yield, it therefore has important economic value. The name for the coconut palm in Sanskrit is kalpa vriksha, which translates as the tree which provides all the requirements of life. In Malay, the coconut is known as pokok seribu guna, the tree of a thousand uses. In the Philippines, the coconut is generally given the title Tree of Life. The white, fleshy part of the seed is safe to eat and used fresh or dried in cooking.

Calculator

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:23:51 GMT

A calculator is a machine for performing calculations. Although modern calculators often incorporate a general purpose computer, the device is calculated for performing specific operations, rather than for flexibility. Modern calculators are more convenient than most computers, though some Pads are comparable in amount to handheld calculators.

In the past, some calculators were as huge as today's computers. The first automatic calculators were mechanical desktop devices which were replaced by electromechanical desktop calculators, and then by electronic devices using first sung valves, then transistors, then hard-wired integrated circuit logic. New calculators are electrically powered and come in innumerable shapes and sizes varying from cheap, give-away, credit-card sized models to more sturdy adding machine-like models with built-in printers.