Latest news with #Symes
The Age
26-05-2025
- General
- The Age
The cake-shaped home that reimagines what a beach house can be
A 60-year-old beach house shaped like a slice of cake without icing has been a Mollymook landmark for generations, particularly for surfers looking for a break on that stretch of the NSW South Coast. Shortlisted in two categories in the 2025 NSW Architecture awards, the redesign of Cake House could become an exemplar for how to turn a draughty beach house that was expensive to heat and cool into a solar-powered home habitable year-round. Architect Alexander Symes said the home's distinctive roofline had made it a beacon. 'Because it is a cake-shaped piece, it became affectionately known as the break in front of Cakey. Surfers would say 'the surf is breaking really well in front of Cakey', or '100 metres to the north of Cakey'.' The design of the 175 square metre holiday home by Alexander Symes Architect that sleeps 17 people makes sustainable architecture fun. Sliding double-glazed doors open in living areas to turn a semicircular dining table into a full circle that seats more than a dozen. Nets for children to climb on hang high above the bunk beds. Gold leaf paint on the peak of the roof makes the local icon sparkle in the morning sun. Wide steps lead to a fire pit and the beach. A spread of surfboards lean against the Australian hardwood. Shortlisted in the alterations/additions and the sustainable categories of the NSW awards, Cakey was once clad in aluminium – 'like living in a tent', Symes said. 'Now it is super-insulated, with high-performance glazing, and airtight with a heat recovery ventilation system for constant fresh air so it is healthy and warm.'
Sydney Morning Herald
26-05-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
The cake-shaped home that reimagines what a beach house can be
A 60-year-old beach house shaped like a slice of cake without icing has been a Mollymook landmark for generations, particularly for surfers looking for a break on that stretch of the NSW South Coast. Shortlisted in two categories in the 2025 NSW Architecture awards, the redesign of Cake House could become an exemplar for how to turn a draughty beach house that was expensive to heat and cool into a solar-powered home habitable year-round. Architect Alexander Symes said the home's distinctive roofline had made it a beacon. 'Because it is a cake-shaped piece, it became affectionately known as the break in front of Cakey. Surfers would say 'the surf is breaking really well in front of Cakey', or '100 metres to the north of Cakey'.' The design of the 175 square metre holiday home by Alexander Symes Architect that sleeps 17 people makes sustainable architecture fun. Sliding double-glazed doors open in living areas to turn a semicircular dining table into a full circle that seats more than a dozen. Nets for children to climb on hang high above the bunk beds. Gold leaf paint on the peak of the roof makes the local icon sparkle in the morning sun. Wide steps lead to a fire pit and the beach. A spread of surfboards lean against the Australian hardwood. Shortlisted in the alterations/additions and the sustainable categories of the NSW awards, Cakey was once clad in aluminium – 'like living in a tent', Symes said. 'Now it is super-insulated, with high-performance glazing, and airtight with a heat recovery ventilation system for constant fresh air so it is healthy and warm.'
Shafaq News
23-05-2025
- Shafaq News
Stolen artifacts head home: Met repatriates Iraqi art
Shafaq News/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently announced that it will return three ancient sculptures to Iraq, dating from 3rd to 2nd millennium BCE. They are estimated to be collectively worth $500,000. The items are a Sumerian vessel made of gypsum alabaster (ca. 2600–2500 BCE) and two Babylonian terracotta sculptures (ca. 2000-1600 BCE) depicting a male head and a female head, respectively. The museum said it was making the return in 'cooperation with the Manhattan DA's office,' and that the return had come after the Met had 'received new information' amid the investigation into Robin Symes, a dealer accused of being a member of a network that traded in looted artifacts. A press release from the DA's Office said that the Symes investigation has resulted in the seizure of 135 antiquities valued at more than $58 million. The release also noted that two of the items were seized by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) earlier this year. The two Babylonian ceramic sculptures are thought to be from Isin, an archaeological site in Iraq, and were looted in the late 1960s. The Manhattan DA's office noted that Head of a male was then smuggled out of Iraq and was in Symes's possession in London by 1971. The next year, Symes sold the sculpture to the Met; it remained in the institution's collection until it was seized by the ATU. Vessel supported by two rams was first offered to the Met in 1956 by Switzerland-based antiquities dealer-trafficker Nicolas Koutoulakis, 'who informed the museum that the Vessel had been found at a site near the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur. The Vessel then passed through multiple private collectors and dealers, including Symes, before permanently entering The Met's collection in 1989,' according to the Manhattan DA's office. The museum's press release said the vessel was gifted to the museum in 1989 by the Norbert Schimmel Trust, named after a longtime trustee who died in 1990. The museum noted that 'it appeared on the Baghdad art market, was purchased by Swiss dealer Nicolas Koutoulakis by 1956 and later acquired by Cecile de Rothschild.' 'The Met is committed to the responsible collecting of art and the shared stewardship of the world's cultural heritage and has made significant investments in accelerating the proactive research of our collection,' Max Hollein, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's director and CEO, said in a press statement. 'The Museum is grateful for our ongoing conversations with Iraq regarding future collaborative endeavors, and we look forward to working together to advance our shared dedication to fostering knowledge and appreciation of Iraqi art and culture.' 'We continue to recover and return antiquities that were trafficked by Robin Symes,' District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. said in a press statement. 'That is a testament to the hard work of attorneys, analysts and investigators who are committed to undoing the significant damage traffickers have caused to our worldwide cultural heritage.' H. E. Nazar Al Khirullah, Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq to the US, described the leadership of the ATU as 'instrumental' in the recovery of his country's looted heritage. 'We also appreciate our strong and ongoing partnership with The Met, whose commitment to cultural preservation complements our shared mission to safeguard the world's antiquities,' he said in a press statement. Symes's legacy of trafficking antiquities includes 351 antiquities returned to Greece after a 17-year legal battle, two antiquities worth $1.26 million returned to Libya, 750 artifacts recovered by Italy, a limestone elephant returned to Iraq, and an alabaster female figure returned to Yemen, all in 2023. Symes was convicted of contempt of court for lying about antiquities he held in storage locations around the world in 2005. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but only served seven months. He died in 2023.
Sydney Morning Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Victoria has a whopping debt. Jacinta Allan is betting that nobody cares
Symes freely admitted she could have banked some of the windfall gains Victoria received from larger than expected Commonwealth grants but instead decided to spend it. In post-fiscal Victoria, where red is the new black, a treasurer's preference to spend rather than save is claimed as a virtue. Independent economist Saul Eslake likens this to Symes flipping the bird to anyone concerned about Victoria's financial situation. He also points out that Victoria posting an operating surplus is a meaningless milestone on what appears to be a very distant path to fiscal repair. Before it can start paying down debt, the Victorian government must return the budget to cash surplus. This means, it must generate more revenue than the money it spends on both recurrent expenditure and capital investments. This is the measure the federal government uses when it declares a budget in surplus or deficit. According to this measure, the Victorian Labor government has not delivered a proper surplus since its first budget handed down 11 years ago and there is no prospect it will deliver one in the forseeable future. Tuesday's budget forecasts that the government will finish the current financial year $19 billion short and the four years of the budget period will chalk up a further $38.5 billion in losses. This is why the debt is forecast to rise from $155.5 billion this year to $194 billion in 2028-29. Before it can start paying down debt, the Victorian government must also be convinced this is something it actually needs to do. Why would they think this? They have run up debt to previously unimagined levels and won three elections along the way. Like a recovering alcoholic in denial, the government has set out a five-step strategy for recovery but has no plans to stop drinking. The government reckons it can stay on the sauce and keep functioning as a reliable provider of public services. Now for the caveats. The cost of Victoria's debt is starting to bite. We can see this in delayed government commitments to delivering important services, like full funding of public schools under the Gonski reforms, and promised capital works. We can see it in the weight of inefficient, state-based taxes layered onto business and property owners who pay more to operate in Victoria than they would in another state. We can see it in the fast rising cost of interest. When the state's annual interest bill reaches $10.6 billion in 2028-29, the government will be paying more to service debt than next year's total $8.2 billion appropriations for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. In other words, more public money will go to servicing debt than providing social services. The flip side of this is Victoria will next year pay its interest bill and provide $18.9 billion to education and $17 billion for health and parents will no longer have to use their own money to top up their kids' myki cards. On these measures, the joint hardly feels broke. The clear message from this budget is that stonking great debt is now a permanent feature of Victoria's finances and voters shouldn't be at all bothered by this. The anodyne choice of title for the budget papers – 'Focused on What Matters Most' – also gives license to look away from things that don't. Loading The challenge for the Victorian opposition, and particularly shadow treasurer James Newbury, is to convince enough people that debt matters too. He will begin this argument next week when he delivers his budget reply speech and to win it, will require cogency not readily associated with the Victorian Liberal Party. Newbury's first task is to reconnect in voters' minds the causal relationship between rising debt and taxes and the squeeze this ultimately places on government services. There is little to be gained from promising to fix something that people don't think is a problem.
The Age
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Victoria has a whopping debt. Jacinta Allan is betting that nobody cares
Symes freely admitted she could have banked some of the windfall gains Victoria received from larger than expected Commonwealth grants but instead decided to spend it. In post-fiscal Victoria, where red is the new black, a treasurer's preference to spend rather than save is claimed as a virtue. Independent economist Saul Eslake likens this to Symes flipping the bird to anyone concerned about Victoria's financial situation. He also points out that Victoria posting an operating surplus is a meaningless milestone on what appears to be a very distant path to fiscal repair. Before it can start paying down debt, the Victorian government must return the budget to cash surplus. This means, it must generate more revenue than the money it spends on both recurrent expenditure and capital investments. This is the measure the federal government uses when it declares a budget in surplus or deficit. According to this measure, the Victorian Labor government has not delivered a proper surplus since its first budget handed down 11 years ago and there is no prospect it will deliver one in the forseeable future. Tuesday's budget forecasts that the government will finish the current financial year $19 billion short and the four years of the budget period will chalk up a further $38.5 billion in losses. This is why the debt is forecast to rise from $155.5 billion this year to $194 billion in 2028-29. Before it can start paying down debt, the Victorian government must also be convinced this is something it actually needs to do. Why would they think this? They have run up debt to previously unimagined levels and won three elections along the way. Like a recovering alcoholic in denial, the government has set out a five-step strategy for recovery but has no plans to stop drinking. The government reckons it can stay on the sauce and keep functioning as a reliable provider of public services. Now for the caveats. The cost of Victoria's debt is starting to bite. We can see this in delayed government commitments to delivering important services, like full funding of public schools under the Gonski reforms, and promised capital works. We can see it in the weight of inefficient, state-based taxes layered onto business and property owners who pay more to operate in Victoria than they would in another state. We can see it in the fast rising cost of interest. When the state's annual interest bill reaches $10.6 billion in 2028-29, the government will be paying more to service debt than next year's total $8.2 billion appropriations for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. In other words, more public money will go to servicing debt than providing social services. The flip side of this is Victoria will next year pay its interest bill and provide $18.9 billion to education and $17 billion for health and parents will no longer have to use their own money to top up their kids' myki cards. On these measures, the joint hardly feels broke. The clear message from this budget is that stonking great debt is now a permanent feature of Victoria's finances and voters shouldn't be at all bothered by this. The anodyne choice of title for the budget papers – 'Focused on What Matters Most' – also gives license to look away from things that don't. Loading The challenge for the Victorian opposition, and particularly shadow treasurer James Newbury, is to convince enough people that debt matters too. He will begin this argument next week when he delivers his budget reply speech and to win it, will require cogency not readily associated with the Victorian Liberal Party. Newbury's first task is to reconnect in voters' minds the causal relationship between rising debt and taxes and the squeeze this ultimately places on government services. There is little to be gained from promising to fix something that people don't think is a problem.
