Andrew Clennell State Political Editor July 27, 2015
THE Heritage Council is mounting a bid to save a boxy concrete apartment building in The Rocks which the government wants to sell to pay for more public housing.
The Sirius building is causing a rift between Family and Community Services and the Office of Environment and Heritage, which argues the 79-apartment block is of historical significance because of its design and the fact that it was associated with union green bans of the 1970s.
SHOULD THE SIRIUS BUILDING BE SOLD OR SAVED? Comment below
Heritage Council delegate and senior Office of Environment and Heritage bureaucrat Tracey Avery has written to residents calling for submissions on the proposed heritage listing.
Ms Avery said the Tao Gofers-designed building beside the Sydney Harbour Bridge was “a rare, representative and fine example of an apartment building in the Brutalist architectural style, especially in its use of off-form concrete and the stacking of cubic components to create a harmonious whole”.
Ms Avery said Gofers “pioneered a new modular building style in concrete with specific application to social housing in Australia”.
“It is also significant as an early example of rooftop landscape gardening,” she said.
“The Sirius apartment building is likely to have state heritage significance for its historical values as a major outcome of the green bans, a protest movement against the development of
The Rocks and Millers Point area in the 1970s.” The Sirius was built in the late 1970s as affordable public housing for about 200 people displaced by development in the area.
Family and Community Services opposes a heritage listing, with a spokeswoman saying that it would deprive the state of sale proceeds which would “deliver hundreds of new social housing dwellings”.
FACS wants to sell the building to raise money for more social housing, just as it has with several other Millers Point public housing properties, and said it was preparing its own submission to the Heritage Council.
An Office of Environment and Heritage spokeswoman said: “Listing on the State Heritage Register does not prevent the sale or transfer of a property.
“The Heritage Council is also working with Land and Housing Corporation and Government Property NSW to develop site-specific exemptions for the future management of the site should the property be recommended for listing.”
RESOURCED: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/plan-to-save-sirius-building-in-the-rocks-causing-rift-between-government-departments/story-fni0cx12-1227458091501
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The Sirius building in The Rocks is at the centre of a rift between Family and Community Services and the Office of Environment and Heritage. Source: DailyTelegraph
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The Sirius building is causing a rift between Family and Community Services and the Office of Environment and Heritage, which argues the 79-apartment block is of historical significance because of its design and the fact that it was associated with union green bans of the 1970s.
SHOULD THE SIRIUS BUILDING BE SOLD OR SAVED? Comment below
Ms Avery said the Tao Gofers-designed building beside the Sydney Harbour Bridge was “a rare, representative and fine example of an apartment building in the Brutalist architectural style, especially in its use of off-form concrete and the stacking of cubic components to create a harmonious whole”.
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| The view of the Sirius building from the Harbour Bridge. Source: News Corp Australia |
“It is also significant as an early example of rooftop landscape gardening,” she said.
“The Sirius apartment building is likely to have state heritage significance for its historical values as a major outcome of the green bans, a protest movement against the development of
The Rocks and Millers Point area in the 1970s.” The Sirius was built in the late 1970s as affordable public housing for about 200 people displaced by development in the area.
Family and Community Services opposes a heritage listing, with a spokeswoman saying that it would deprive the state of sale proceeds which would “deliver hundreds of new social housing dwellings”.
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Sirius Building next to the Harbour Bridge. Source: News Corp Australia
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“The Heritage Council is also working with Land and Housing Corporation and Government Property NSW to develop site-specific exemptions for the future management of the site should the property be recommended for listing.”
RESOURCED: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/plan-to-save-sirius-building-in-the-rocks-causing-rift-between-government-departments/story-fni0cx12-1227458091501
