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Day 365 — The Pyramids III

Photo: Selfie atop Menkaure (Cheops behind), 1984

Day 228 — The Pyramids II Day 1 — The Pyramids

Day 364 — Flinders St Station V

Photo: 2022

Day 274 - Flinders St Station IV Day 136 — Flinders St Station III Day 71 — Flinders St Station II Day 14 — Flinders St Station I

Day 363 — Skyline XV

Photo: San Francisco, 2016

Day 359 — Skyline XIV Day 307 — Skyline XIII Day 295 — Skyline XII Day 268 — Skyline XI Day 257 — Skyline X Day 245 — Skyline IX Day 211 — Skyline VIII Day 195 — Skyline VII Day 184 — Skyline VI Day 176 — Skyline V Day 170 — Skyline IV Day 149 — Skyline III Day 144 — Skyline II Day 127 — Skyline I

Day 362 — Giant Koala

Victoria's Giant Koala at Dadswells Bridge is a classic piece of Australian roadside kitsch, planted on the Western Highway to catch the eye of drivers moving between Horsham and Ararat. Looming at roughly 14 metres tall, it is impossible to miss and deliberately so. Its purpose is not mystery or artistry but interruption; slow down, pull over, spend money.

Built in 1989, the koala follows the long Australian tradition of “big things” — outsized animals or objects designed to turn otherwise forgettable stretches of road into destinations. Inside the koala is a souvenir shop selling predictable Australiana, reinforcing the point that this is commerce first, culture second.

There is little subtlety or romance to the Giant Koala, and that is the point. It trades irony-free in nostalgia, novelty, and the simple pleasure of absurd scale. People stop because it’s ridiculous, photograph it because it’s ridiculous, and remember the place because of it. By that measure, it works exactly as intended.

Photo: 2021

Day 361 — Arden Station

Arden Station in North Melbourne is a new underground railway station that opened on 30 November 2025 as part of Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel project.

The design reflects the area’s industrial heritage, with a striking brick-arched entrance and skylights that bring natural light down into the station. Accessibility features include lifts, escalators, wide concourses, accessible toilets, bike parking, drop-off zones and taxi bays. Artwork 'Come Together' by Abdul Abdullah adorns the facade, tying the station to the local community and culture.

Arden Station is intended to be the anchor of a major urban renewal precinct. The surrounding Arden area is planned to evolve into a high-density innovation and employment hub, with tens of thousands of jobs and new homes projected by around 2050, transforming what was once industrial land into a mixed-use neighbourhood with strong active transport links.

Photo: 2025

Day 360 — El Morro

Castillo San Felipe del Morro, commonly known as El Morro, stands at the entrance to San Juan Bay as one of the most formidable coastal fortifications built by the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Construction began in 1539, when Puerto Rico was a strategic outpost on Spain’s Caribbean sea lanes, vulnerable to pirates and rival European powers. Over the next two and a half centuries, the fortress evolved from a modest gun platform into a vast, multi-level defensive complex designed to dominate the sea approaches to San Juan.

The structure reflects the development of military engineering from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Thick masonry walls, angled bastions, and layered gun batteries were engineered to absorb cannon fire and deliver overlapping fields of defense. El Morro’s commanding position allowed Spanish forces to repel repeated attacks, most notably those by Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and the British in 1797, reinforcing its reputation as an impregnable stronghold.

Photo: 2010

Day 359 — Skyline XIV

Photo: Melbourne Skyline from Williamstown, 2020

Day 307 — Skyline XIII Day 295 — Skyline XII Day 268 — Skyline XI Day 257 — Skyline X Day 245 — Skyline IX Day 211 — Skyline VIII Day 195 — Skyline VII Day 184 — Skyline VI Day 176 — Skyline V Day 170 — Skyline IV Day 149 — Skyline III Day 144 — Skyline II Day 127 — Skyline I

Day 358 — Dunach State School

The historic Dunach School building (1874) near Talbot, Victoria, has a rich history, serving as a school, community hall, part of a knitting mill (1970s), and a museum display before undergoing significant restoration and now as part of the Talbot Museum, celebrating its varied life from education to industry and heritage preservation.

The Dunach school building opened in May 1874 after the Education Act of 1872 made Victoria one of the first states in the world to provide a free, secular and compulsory education to all children.

In common with other rural schools, the building served the community in many ways beyond its main purpose as a schoolroom, including as a venue for dances, presentation ceremonies, church services and wartime fundraising.

Photo: Pre-restoration, 2022

Day 357 — Oculus II

Photo: SFMOMA Oculus with Calder mobile, 2016

Day 282 — Oculus I

Day 356 — Arts Centre Spire V

Photo: 2025

Day 314 — Arts Centre Spire IV Day 242 — Arts Centre Spire III Day 168 — Arts Centre Spire II Day 141 — Arts Centre Spire I

Day 355 — Parkville Station II

A central architectural feature is the 54-meter-long, 6.5-meter-wide glass and steel canopy at the main Grattan Street entrance. Along with several skylights, this canopy helps channel natural light 25 meters down to the platform level, connecting passengers to the outside environment.

Photo: 2025

Day 344 — Parkville Station I

Day 354 — Hirshhorn Museum

The Hirshhorn Museum, designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and opened in 1974, stands as a landmark of Brutalist architecture on the National Mall. Conceived by Bunshaft as "a large piece of functional sculpture," the building is a massive, hollow-centered cylinder often affectionately called the 'Brutalist Donut'. It is elevated 14 feet off the ground on four massive sculptural piers, a design choice that makes the heavy concrete structure appear to hover and creates a shaded public plaza below.

Urbanistically, the Hirshhorn is intentionally aloof. It sits between the Capitol and the Washington Monument but refuses their symbolic language, asserting modern art’s autonomy through form alone. Love it or loathe it, the Hirshhorn is uncompromising; a museum that looks like an argument cast in concrete.

Photo: 2011

Day 353 — Town Hall Station III

Photo: 2025

Day 338 — Town Hall Station II Day 337 — Town Hall Station I

Day 352 — Timeball Tower II

The Williamstown Timeball Tower, standing on Point Gellibrand, is one of Melbourne’s oldest and most distinctive maritime landmarks. Originally built in 1849 of local bluestone to replace an earlier timber lighthouse, the 17-metre square tower with its castellated parapet was designed by Henry Ginn. It played a vital role for early shipping in Hobsons Bay, offering both a lighthouse signal and, from 1861, a precise timeball mechanism. Each day at 1 pm the ball was dropped, triggered by telegraph from the Melbourne Observatory, so that shipmasters could calibrate their chronometers—an essential tool for accurate navigation at sea.

The tower operated as a timeball until 1926, when advances in wireless communication made the system obsolete, and later served as a lighthouse after a brick extension raised its height in the 1930s. In the late 1980s the brick addition was removed to restore the tower’s original form, and a replica timeball was reinstalled. Officially reopened in 1990, the timeball still drops at 1 pm as a ceremonial nod to its past.

Photo: 2022

Day 239 — Timeball Tower

Day 351 — Peristyle

The Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco is a stunning example of French neoclassical (Beaux-Arts) architecture. It serves as a three-quarter-scale replica of the 18th-century Palais de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris.

Architect George Applegarth designed it in 1924, commissioned by philanthropist Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. The building opened as a memorial to California soldiers lost in World War I and now houses ancient and European art.

The central courtyard, known as the Court of Honor, forms a grand, U-shaped peristyle (colonnaded enclosure) with towering classical columns surrounding an open space.

Photo: Legion of Honor Courtyard, 2007

Day 350 — Clunes Town Hall

The Clunes Town Hall and Court House, located in the historic gold rush town of Clunes, Victoria, stands as a fine example of Victorian Free Classical architecture with eclectic influences, constructed between 1872 and 1873. Designed by prominent architect Percy Oakden and built by William Cowland, the building embodies the civic pride and prosperity of Clunes during its gold mining peak, when it ranked among Victoria's wealthiest regional centres.

Its symmetrical facade features a prominent two-storey central block with a steeply pitched roof adorned by ornamental iron cresting leading to a widow's walk, flanked by single-storey arcaded wings that originally housed borough offices and the police court. The design blends classical massing with Gothic elements, including heavily moulded arches, pairs of pointed Venetian Gothic-inspired windows, pierced parapets, bold mouldings, and richly textured vermiculated voussoirs and keystones, creating striking surface details on the rendered masonry.

Photo: 2022

Day 349 — Staircase XII

Photo: Cast iron staircase, State Library of Victoria, 2023

Day 332 — Staircase XI Day 291 — Staircase X Day 261 — Staircase IX Day 232 — Staircase VIII Day 205 — Staircase VII Day 190 — Staircase VI Day 167 — Staircase V Day 165 — Staircase IV Day 155 — Staircase III Day 100 — Staircase II Day 96 —Staircase I

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