31 January 2019 (update it’s changed a bit) :

I can’t say I like the foyer of the 1990 #101collins, but I admire it, for its huge scale and luxury finishes…and of course the bombast of the ginormous #travertine #DoricColumns, a bit of #postmodernirony since they don’t hold anything up, except our expectations. So there’s acres of Zimbabwean black granite, Italian cream and red marble floors, travertine, huge exedra in #goldleaf, and large areas of reflecting pools in very black granite (the front ones have little rope fences because people kept walking in). And there’s gardens almost hidden behind the columns. The whole thing feels like an attempt to fill up space, which in fact it is, a vast 1980s #corporatefoyer. The tower architects, #DentonCorkerMarshall, designed the main outlines, like the cubic lightwells, but the developers wanted something that oozed luxury, so they got #JohnBurgee, who was in partnership with uber #postmodernist Phillip Johnson, but apparently did this on his own. One thing of DCM that survived, just, was the #liftcar interiors, all gridded, but in bronze, stainless steel and marble, last pic.

Update : the bullseye and chequerboard floors are now just cream marble, and the swans have been replaced with installations that sound nice, but the phases of the moon art is still there.

24 January 2019 : Yep it’s a #sculpture of #bums, a pointy pile up of them, and there’s two ! Flanking the vestibule of #101Collins; I think I used to know what / why on earth, but forgotten and google isn’t helping.

Update : they’re by Victoria Nelson, meaning obscure, poss bit naughty. Also possibly inspire by the 1940s pieces in Oslo by Tower by Gustav Vigeland (pic 3).

Further update 2024: after 30 years they were replaced late last year by new abstract sculptures by Seung Yul Oh. He says they’re a response to the space, so no particular meaning. It’s surprising the bum towers were chosen, and that they lasted so long! The building is by #DentonCorkerMarshall, but the lobby is by #JohnBurgee, completed 1992.

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