Imagine a City: 200 years of public architecture in NSW
Imagine a City: 200 years of public architecture in NSW
The British government had earlier rejected the request of NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie to appoint a government architect, and insisted that Greenway’s job be temporary. Yet Greenway became the first of 23 NSW government architects whose collective tenure spans two centuries. While their titles and job descriptions have varied, their role has remained essentially the one pioneered by Francis Greenway.
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Imagine a City: 200 years of public architecture in NSW
The British government had earlier rejected the request of NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie to appoint a government architect, and insisted that Greenway’s job be temporary. Yet Greenway became the first of 23 NSW government architects whose collective tenure spans two centuries. While their titles and job descriptions have varied, their role has remained essentially the one pioneered by Francis Greenway. Lachlan Macquarie’s ambition was to make a handsome town of Sydney, a goal at odds with London’s insistence that the new colony be managed as a deterrent address offering only the most basic subsistence.
For 200 years, the Government Architect’s office has followed Greenway’s ambition to design for the future and set the architectural standard for Sydney and NSW.
An audio described version of the video is available.
Architects' drafting office during construction of the Sydney Opera House, 1963
11 June 1963
Black ink on paper.
One of a collection of sketch designs for Free Public Library, 1883; Public Library Sydney, 1890
"Barnet's 1883 proposed National Library design, reminiscent of the British Museum, was to be located on the site of the Hyde Park Barracks."
-- Reference: A source of inspiration & delight : the buildings of the State Library of New South Wales since 1826 / David J. Jones. Sydney : Library Council of New South Wales, c1988.
`Braeside', Ross Street, Forest Lodge was the residence of the Barnet family.
Albumen photoprint ; 15.7 x 20.7 cm
Presented January 1987
Photographer's stamp at lower left
"160" at lower left
"In the late 1830s the Government Architect, Mortimer Lewis, designed the Supreme Court House (still standing on Oxford Street in Darlinghurst). Its severely classical form was much admired: Louisa Anne Meridith thought it the only `architectural' building in Sydney, while James Maclehose considered it representative of the `cottages, villas, and even mansions, partaking of a grandeur of character which could not have been contemplated in the early history of the colony [but which] are now to be seen in almost every direction...' "
Reference: George Edwards Peacock exhibition catalogue. State Library of New South Wales, 2002
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