There's a plan to demolish these towers which have been home to a community since the 1950s. That's really brought out the locals pride in the neighbourhood.
Daniel Solander is one of the Waterloo houso towers in the "Suicide Towers" complex built in the post war decades between Philip and Raglan St. There are plans to rip the places down and replace them with more towers(huh?) in the last stage of the Green Square/Waterloo redevelopment blueprint(or whatever its called)
The places have an infamous reputation in Sydney folklore, but many people have made this their home, been born, lived and died here, it's a community. The towers themselves are solid, unlike a lot of the selfcertified private sector crap built recently over old industrial swamps.
One old Latvian lady, who wouldn't have been more than 150cm tall, pointed to one of the glorious Port Jackson figs and said they were smaller than her when she arrived and moved in as one of the first tenants, a refugee after WW2. She's seen them grow as she's lived here
This is finished now, or close enough to sign, which I did yesterday after painting up the trees some more. If I have time I might go back to the spot once more. Thanks to all the Waterloo locals who stopped on their walk by to have a look and a chat, an amazing response
I've been playing around with this painting of flats and fig trees in Waterloo for a few months now, and got back to it today. The people around there have been very supportive, it's a great place for audience participation, they take an interest.
Early versions of this are here
Beautiful painting and obviously iconic, great story!!
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