Architecture

The Victorian government has unveiled updated designs for Ardern Station in North Melbourne, part of the Metro Tunnel station project, collaboratively designed by Hassell, Weston Williamson and Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners. Updates to the design included in the new Development Plan contain the provision of a series of public grassed areas interspersed with tree […] More

A $172 million mixed-use precinct has been proposed for Castle Hill in Sydney’s north west. The four-tower development designed by Turner will be situated across the road from the recently completed Hill Showgrounds Metro Station. The development will include four residential towers of up to 20 storeys containing 431 units, including 22 affordable units. The […] More

In Sydney’s prosperous post-war years, the city’s head architect, Albert Smillie, and its first head landscape architect, Ilmar Berzins, oversaw a plethora of transformative public projects, including libraries, welfare centres, pools, gardens and parks.
Many of these projects remain a pivotal part of public Sydney, while some, including the Sulman Medal winning Florence Bartley Library in Kings Cross, are no longer.
Now, the City of Sydney’s resident architect councillor Philip Thalis is calling for a renewed recognition of the contribution of these little-known designers, and, at his behest, the council has committed to a heritage study of their projects.
Albert Smillie joined the Sydney Municipal Council as an architectural draftsman in 1924, becoming chief architect in 1949 and principal architect from 1953 to 1969.
Thalis, the author of the recently published work Public Sydney, told council that while the period under Smillie might not have been as distinguished or prolific as those of early twentieth century government architects Robert Brodrick or George McRae, there are nonetheless many works from this period that deserve recognition.
“There are many buildings that we take for granted from this period… it would be worth us understanding their value when we modify or demolish them, or in fact refurbish them,” he said.

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The Arthur McElhone Reserve by Ilmar Berzins, 1964. Image:

City of Sydney archives

Projects completed under Smillie include sports facilities such as Victoria Park Pool, welfare centres, kindergartens, baby health centres, council housing in Pyrmont and Glebe and libraries including Anthony Doherty in Surry Hills and Catherine Sloss in Woolloomooloo. The Florence Bartley Library, demolished in 1997, was the best of the buildings according to Thalis, who described it as a “very beautiful, very calm civic building.” He says there is a risk that other significant public works by Smillie and the landscape architect Ilmar Berzins could be lost if they are not identified.
Berzins was employed the first qualified landscape architect to be employed in local government in Australia and is often credited as the first landscape architect to work in the Sydney, having received his qualification in Germany.
He was employed by the city in 1951 and became director of parks and gardens in 1984. His projects include the Arthur McElhone Reserve in Elizabeth Bay, Sandringham Gardens in Hyde Park, Chessboard Garden in Hyde Park and others which have been demolished, such as Fragrance Garden in Cook and Phillip Park.
At an extraordinary council meeting on 9 August, councillors unanimously passed Thalis’s motion noting the importance of Smillie and Berzins, and requested the city CEO to investigate the commissioning of a heritage study of projects completed under their purview.
Thalis noted that public design from the mid-century period is often maligned and could be at risk of demolition.
“We need to have an understanding of our own repository of good modern design from the post-war period,” he said. “Our aspirations have changed, and perhaps enlarged, since the more municipal works of that time but nonetheless we should stand on the shoulders of our forebears rather than kicking them out of the way.” More

London firm David Chipperfield Architects has won the commission to design a tower on the last piece of developable land in Barangaroo, together with Durbach Block Jaggers, Smart Design Studio and John Wardle Architects.
The Central Barangaroo development on Hickson Road will sit to the north of Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners’ three International Towers and Wilkinson Eyre’s controversial Crown Barangaroo tower.
The Australian Financial Review reports that David Chipperfield Architects and the three Australian firms will each design their own building as part of the development.
Developer Aqualand says the project will link the “natural beauty of Barangaroo Reserve” with “the bustling commercial district of Barangaroo South.”
“More than 50 percent of Central Barangaroo will be public space and parkland – most of it adjoining Sydney Harbour,” the developer says. “Central Barangaroo will feature diverse, mixed-use cultural and civic spaces, restaurants, a retail centre, apartments and office space.”
David Chipperfield told AFR that, while it was still early on in the design process, “clearly, we want to make an architectural project which belongs there, enjoys its site and climate, and we’ll endeavour to make a building that seems to be right for the site.”
“To one side of us is the more robust commercial development, and on the other side is the slightly lower density and more cultural and social part of the site, and we’ve been seen as a bridge between those two things.”
The project will be Chipperfield’s first in Australia, after his firm previously missed out on the commission to design Circular Quay Tower, which went to Foster and Partners. It also lost out in the Adelaide Contemporary International Design Competition, won by Woods Bagot and Diller Scofidio and Renfro.
SOM completed the Central Barangaroo masterplan in 2012. The precinct is expected to be finished by 2027. More

The Western Australian government is calling for expressions of interest from built environment professionals to join the state’s Design Review Panel. The panel’s role is to assess and provide advice on significant projects across the state against the principles of the Design WA guidelines. Since it was established in 2019, the panel has reviewed more […] More

Blight Rayner has designed a 29-storey campus style office tower that will sit high above a “gorge-like” open ground plane on Brisbane CBD’s northern edge. The 200 Turbot Street proposal, submitted to Brisbane council for planning assessment, will sit between Wickham and King Edward parks, across from a four-storey 1940s Neo Georgian heritage building, the […] More

The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) has released the design of its new forecourt, which will create a civic gathering place with two reflection pools outside the entrance to the existing historic building. Designed by American landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson and her Seattle-based practice GGN together with Australian practice McGregor Coxall, the forecourt […] More