Latest news with #DavidBurdon
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Heavier and dark': Powerhouse Museum rebuild accused of trashing heritage significance
The National Trust has slammed last-minute changes to the $300 million Powerhouse redevelopment at Ultimo, saying they would effectively void a key part of the museum's heritage significance. The City of Sydney also objected to the planned 'total destruction and rebuilding' of the 1988-built Wran Building and bricking up of the museum's light-filled galleria. It warned the new museum would open with far less exhibition space – a loss of 1000sqm, about the equivalent of an Olympic sized swimming pool – and result in a 'heavier and darker' experience inside. 'The resulting building must now be considered – especially for the cost that will be outlaid – a compromised work of architecture, based as it is on recreating a series of shapes, rather than being based on museum functionality and display,' the National Trust's conservation director David Burdon said. 'It is not a good heritage outcome.' The state government appointed construction giant Richard Crookes in July to revamp the museum, which has been closed since February 2024. Loading Staircases, internal walls and mezzanines will be stripped out within the heritage-listed Boiler House, Engine House, Power House and Turbine Hall, new commercial creative studios built along Harris Street next to a 'cloister garden' on the bare forecourt, and a new entrance oriented to the Haymarket-facing Goods Line. On late advice from builders, and contrary to commitments Town Hall said it received, Infrastructure NSW now wants to replace the steel-ribbed structure forming the museum's specially built galleria that has long served as its entrance and display hall for the Locomotive No.1 and Boulton & Watt steam engine, priceless relics of the industrial age.
The Age
5 days ago
- Business
- The Age
‘Heavier and dark': Powerhouse Museum rebuild accused of trashing heritage significance
The National Trust has slammed last-minute changes to the $300 million Powerhouse redevelopment at Ultimo, saying they would effectively void a key part of the museum's heritage significance. The City of Sydney also objected to the planned 'total destruction and rebuilding' of the 1988-built Wran Building and bricking up of the museum's light-filled galleria. It warned the new museum would open with far less exhibition space – a loss of 1000sqm, about the equivalent of an Olympic sized swimming pool – and result in a 'heavier and darker' experience inside. 'The resulting building must now be considered – especially for the cost that will be outlaid – a compromised work of architecture, based as it is on recreating a series of shapes, rather than being based on museum functionality and display,' the National Trust's conservation director David Burdon said. 'It is not a good heritage outcome.' The state government appointed construction giant Richard Crookes in July to revamp the museum, which has been closed since February 2024. Loading Staircases, internal walls and mezzanines will be stripped out within the heritage-listed Boiler House, Engine House, Power House and Turbine Hall, new commercial creative studios built along Harris Street next to a 'cloister garden' on the bare forecourt, and a new entrance oriented to the Haymarket-facing Goods Line. On late advice from builders, and contrary to commitments Town Hall said it received, Infrastructure NSW now wants to replace the steel-ribbed structure forming the museum's specially built galleria that has long served as its entrance and display hall for the Locomotive No.1 and Boulton & Watt steam engine, priceless relics of the industrial age.
