A contentious redevelopment on an historic north shore office block is back on the cards after state heritage listing on the site was successfully overturned.
The Land and Environment Court has ordered the NSW Heritage Council to remove the heritage status of the 1950s MLC office building in North Sydney, permitting developer Investa Property Group to proceed with its bid to demolish the building and replace it with a 27-storey skyscraper designed by Bates Smart.
The $509 million redevelopment was lodged by the developer in 2020 before the NSW arts minister Don Harwin directed the item be listed on the state’s heritage register on the recommendation of the Heritage Council in 2021, then quashing any plans for demolition.
The developer challenged the decision in the Land and Environment Court on eight grounds, including the minister’s “failure to consider a mandatory consideration” under the Heritage Act, namely, “whether the listing would render the item incapable of reasonable or economic use [and] whether the listing would cause undue financial hardship to the owner, mortgagee or lessee of the item or the land on which the item is situated.” The court ultimately found the minister “failed to consider the mandatory relevant considerations” due to fact that in his reasons for directing the listing, none referred to those mandatory considerations.
The decision to overturn the heritage status has much of the architectural community up in arms, with opposers to the ruling describing the North Sydney MLC Building as a living example of the evolution of high-rise office design in Sydney.
The North Sydney MLC Building was the largest office building in Australia when construction was completed in 1957, when it was officially opened by then-prime minister Robert Menzies. Designed by Walter Osborn McCutcheon of Bates Smart and McCutcheon (now Bates Smart), it was the first building in Australia to incorporate modular units and a curtain wall design, and the first high-rise building in Australia to have a public plaza.
In January 2022, the Land and Environment Court granted the developer leave to push ahead with its plans to redevelop the site by resubmitting its development application to the council.
Mayor of North Sydney Zoe Baker said she was disappointed by the court’s decision, describing the findings of the minister’s failure as “an administrative procedural error,” she told the North Shore Times.
“The building still remains an item of local heritage significance and we’d certainly encourage the minister to take steps to fix the errors made.”
Source: Architecture - architectureau
