Autumn scene in Civic Centre, City, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

View of the Sydney Building in Northbourne Avenue looking north from London Circuit. Hotel Civic (demolished 1985) can be seen on the far side of the Sydney Building.The scene includes a street planting of deciduous trees (probably ulmus americana) and conifers (probably calocedrus decurrens). The number two on the front of the bus parked on the right indicates that this bus ran the second of the two bus routes operating in Canberra at that time.The Sydney Building, completed in 1927 and its twin, the Melbourne Building, were designed by John Sulman and John Kirkpatrick to be the focal point of Civic Centre. Sulman's idea of the arcaded loggias is derived from Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital and the cloisters of the Church of San Lorenzo in fifteenth century Florence. The Mediterranean influence was maintained by Kirkpatrick with Roman roof tiles and cast embellishments such as roundels. Civic Centre was opened by the Prime Minister, Mr S. M. Bruce on 3 December 1927. This photograph is from an album that was held at the London office of the Australian National University over the period 1949 to 1952. The album was used to inform prospective staff about Canberra. These images are part of the series produced by the Department of Information and kept at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. National Archives holdings in this series have gaps and some images may be held only at the ANU Archives