(This may belong in IMHO, but I think it will have factual consensus answers, so I started it in GQ. Mods., feel free to move if you disagree.)
For most cities, there is some architectural or staturay public symbol that means “here” to people worldwide – that is the iconic representation of that city. For New York, for example, it’s the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. For San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge. For Los Angeles, the HOLLYWOOD sign; for St. Louis, the Gateway Arch. For London, the Houses of Parliament with Big Ben; for Paris, the Eiffel Tower and/or Notre Dame; for Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate; for Athens, the Parthenon.
So I was reading some references to Australia, and it got me to thinking: for Sydney, it’s the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. But that’s all that says “this Australian city” to a typical well-educated non-Aussie, as far as I can tell. What says “Melbourne” or “Brisbane” or “Perth” the way the stuff listed above immediately triggers a connection with that city, and is what most people would recognize as symbolizing the city. For that matter, what about Auckland and Wellington, across the Tsman? I’ll be darned if i can think of a single structure in New Zealand I’d recognize (other than the sites for the LOTAR movies, of course).
So my questions are: IS there an iconic structure or sculpture that ‘defines’ any of the other Australian cities? If so, what is it/what are they?
On an international level, i think you’re right. Other Australian capital cities just don’t have recognizable landmarks on the scale and distinctiveness of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
For Melbourne, at least for Australians, something like the Melbourne Cricket Ground, or perhaps Flinders Street Station would probably qualify. Quite a few of Melbourne’s larger, more distinctive buildings are relatively recent. I’m thinking about things like Federation Square (love it or hate it), and the Crown Casino. But none of these would likely be familiar to many people who are not Australian, or who had not actually visited Melbourne.
I agree with mhendo. Other than the Opera House/Harbour Bridge combination for Sydney, I don’t think there are obvious iconic symbols for other Australasian cities that overseas people would instantly recognise.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any tourist crap for sale depicting the MCG, which AFAIK looks just like any other sports ground in the world (I certainly wouldn’t recognise it if I tripped over it, and I live here!) so I think it would have to be Flinders St Station. Possibly the Exhibition Buildings as runner up.
I’m trying to think of any buildings from other Australian capitals I’d recognise. Government House, for Canberra. That’s about it really.
For Melbourne, I frequently see the Victorian Arts Centre used as an icon. The Melbourne tram (there’s one in the photo I linked to) is also used as an icon.
Canberra has Parliament House and the Telstra Tower.
Auckland has a harbour bridge as well, but it’s not quite the icon that Sydney’s is.
I should add, by the way, that this lack of iconic, internationally-recognized architecture is not unique to Australia and New Zealand, especially among “New World” countries. While plenty of people overseas might recognize the Empire State Building, or the Golden Gate Bridge, or Sears Tower, there are plenty of American cities for which hardly any foreigners could name a landmark.
I couldn’t have told you about the Gateway Arch until i came to live in the US. Or the Memphis pyramid. Or Faneuil Hall and the Boston Common. Even now, i’d be hard pressed to name an iconic, internationally-recognized landmark for Atlanta, Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas—some of America’s biggest cities. And when i think of Miami, it’s generally “tall buildings and beaches,” not any particular structure.
Of the lot, I’d heard of Flinders Street Station and Christ Church Cathedral before to the extent I could see them as iconic. But they didn’t jump to mind. Thanks for all reasponses so far.
And a bit of whimsy: it’s par for the course in the friendly rivalry between Australia and New Zealand that if Australia is famous for the Bush, New Zealand would have Gore!
This is a favourite of mine. It is fun to draw in a few lines the well knwon iconic buildings - you can do most of them is a few few lines - and almost everyone recognises the structure and the city. In Oz, outside of the Opera House a and the Harbour Bridge, Canberra’s Parliament House is about it. Most Australians can recognise a very broad four legged tower with a huge flagpole as the structure atop the building. The building itself is a bit harder - especially as it is half buried in the hill.
Smaller towns in Oz do rather better - with our national obsession with “The big XXX”.
Kingston - the big lobster
Tamworth - the big guitar
Gumeracca - the big rocking horse
Coffs Harbour - the big bananna
I’m from Melbourne and apart from Parliament House for Canberra, don’t readily recognise any of the suggested landmarks for other cities, so I doubt an international would.
No one has come up with anything from Tasmania. The Port Arthur penal colony springs to mind though you’d be hard pressed to call that a major city. I think the trams, especially the old W class are the best symbol of Melbourne.
I suspect it’s actually slightly more true of the old world. But the fact is that almost no cities anywhere have world recognised landmarks.
I can’t agree at all with the OP’s premise that for most cities, there is some architectural or statuary public symbol that means “here” to people worldwide. Look at the list of the world’s largest cities. Out of that list of 61 cities, I could recognise landmarks for 7:
Moscow (Kremlin)
Beijing (Forbidden Palace)
New York (Liberty)
London (Houses of Parliament)
Rio (Christ Statue)
LA (Hollywood Sign)
Berlin (Brandenburg Gate)
And I think that’s probably typical of most people in the world. Which suggests that that there are only a handful of cities that do have a globally recognisable landmark.
The US is probably slightly overrepresented here because of the influence of Hollywoood, but even there I think the OP gretaly overstates things. I doubt very much if 99% of people outside the US would recognise the St. Louis Gateway Arch or be able to identify which city it was in. It’s one of about a thousand almost identical sculptures in cities worldwide. Most non-US residents could probably recognise NY, San Francisco and LA from their landmarks, but I’m having a hard time thinking of any other US cities with world famous landmarks. Even Las Vegas doesn’t really have a true landmark, just a unique “look”.
The rest of the world fares even less well. Some national capitals have icons, but very few even of those. While we all know Paris, Athens and Berlin, what is the iconic landmark of Brussels, Sofia or Vienna right next door? There are a few other cities that happen to be home to famous landmarks, such as Giza or Agra, but I suspect that most people couldn’t actually tell you what cities the Taj Mahal or the Pyramids are in, so they probably don’t count.
What I find surprising, given the small number of cities, the tiny size of those cities and its short and isolated history, is that Australia even manages to get one city with an international landmark. That’s more than the vast majority of countries manage, and even countries that have larger populations such as China or England only seem to manage one city with an iconic landmark. I guess that’s due to the fact that it’s an entire continent, so film makers needed some shorthand way to show that the disaster is worldwide.
Iconic architecture is interesting. We are typically looking at massively costly things that were built either as vanity (palaces) or major public works (bridges.) There were not all that many privately funded iconic structures. Most privately funded structures have had less slack for vanity. Older buildings also convey the architectual styles of the state and time.
Like I wrote above, most iconic structures can be conveyed with a few penstrokes. I think that that is a good touchstone as to their status.
Then there are the monuments with no use - but recognised form.
St Louis’s Gateway Arch,
Washinton DC - Lincon monument
But there are a few more modern buildings.
Burj al Arab, and Burj Kahlifa - Dubai.
Petronas Towers - Kuala Lumpur
30 St Mary Axe aka The Gherkin - London.
Clearly the presense of the city in modern media and especially entertainment is a big aspect. It is fun to note how Sydney featured as one of the cities devastated in Independance Day for all to recognise its iconic structures, but unless you were a local you would never have picked that it was the host city for The Matrix. Ozzies however were treated to some very well known locally iconic images that were clearly deliberatly in there for their benefit.
I am very fond of the Royal Exhibition Building. I used to work for Museum Victoria, the building’s caretakers, and we had our Christmas parties in there. Nice inside, too.
I had always wanted to get a look inside the Royal Exhibition Building. Melbourne friends of mine couldn’t understand what I was going on about. They had all been in there countless times for their uni exams. Anyway, I finally managed it when I was last in Melbourne, going on one of the tours organised by the Melbourne Museum. It was certainly well worth the wait. The building is very impressive, and beautifully restored.
