<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/25/revealed-the-buried-powerhouse-museum-report-that-could-have-stopped-500m-redevelopment>
"A heritage architect hired by the previous New South Wales government to
consult on major redevelopments at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum is alleging that
his research was buried. He alleges this was because it would have scuppered
controversial plans to demolish much of the beloved Sydney institution.
Alan Croker, who has previously consulted on architectural landmarks such as
the Sydney Opera House, told
Guardian Australia his company, Design 5, had
drafted a conservation management plan (CMP) on the heritage significance of
the Ultimo site in October 2021.
His recommendation that the entire site be heritage listed threatened $500m
plans to turn the Powerhouse into a commercially oriented fashion and design
hub.
The final report from a second company was published under the then premier,
Dominic Perrottet, in mid-2022. It meant the government could demolish most or
all of what was constructed at the Powerhouse in the 1980s, when the former
power station was converted into Australia’s largest science and technology
museum.
The state government announced in 2015 that the museum would be relocated to a
new $915m facility in Parramatta and the Ultimo site redeveloped. Two years
later, after considerable public outcry, the plan was dropped. But a year later
it was readopted by the Berejiklian government. In February this year the
beloved institution dropped “museum” from its name altogether.
Proposed development plans and artists’ impressions of the Ultimo redevelopment
show that a third of the existing museum buildings could be demolished and the
remaining interiors gutted, despite a warning from the National Trust that the
plans are “intrusive and destructive” to the precinct’s heritage.
Croker believes his CMP, a draft of which was handed to the government in April
2022, ended up “buried somewhere” because its findings were “not what the
powers that be wanted to know”.
His findings would have laid the groundwork to expand the heritage listing to
the Ultimo site in its entirety, as per the recommendation of the National
Trust."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
