| Historical notes: | The "Eora people" was the name given to the coastal Aborigines around Sydney. Central Sydney is therefore often referred to as "Eora Country". Within the City of Sydney local government area, the traditional owners are the Cadigal and Wangal bands of the Eora. There is no written record of the name of the language spoken and currently there are debates as whether the coastal peoples spoke a separate language "Eora" or whether this was actually a dialect of the Dharug language. Remnant bushland in places like Blackwattle Bay retain elements of traditional plant, bird and animal life, including fish and rock oysters.
With the invasion of the Sydney region, the Cadigal and Wangal people were decimated but there are descendants still living in Sydney today. All cities include many immigrants in their population. Aboriginal people from across the state have been attracted to suburbs such as Pyrmont, Balmain, Rozelle, Glebe and Redfern since the 1930s. Changes in government legislation in the 1960s provided freedom of movement enabling more Aboriginal people to choose to live in Sydney.
(Information sourced from Anita Heiss, "Aboriginal People and Place", Barani: Indigenous History of Sydney City http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/barani )
"The Board's first office, occupied in April, 1888, was at Circular Quay, close to the present Overseas Shipping Terminal. The building was considered to be in an inconvenient locality, and in January 1890, the Board moved to premises on the west side of Pitt Street (No.289) near Park Street. In March 1891, a block on the corner of Pitt and Wilmott Streets, with a frontage to Pitt Street of 72-ft. and a depth of about 83-ft., was resumed and offices erected on it. These were occupied by the Board in May, 1893. In 1911 an adjoining 87-ft. frontage in Pitt Street was bought and extensions completed in 1918. Additional land and buildings at the rear of the office were acquired in 1929 and 1936, and that part of Stewart Lane separating the Board's property was resumed, thus providing a block approximately 160-ft. square. This, together with shop premises fronting Bathurst Street, provided for comprehensive planning for present needs and future development. In 1936 it was decided to clear the site and erect a new building consisting of a basement, ground floor, mezzanine and six upper floors. This was completed on December 24 1939, and was occupied on January 2 1940. The building was designed by the renowned architectural practice of Budden and Mackey who also designed both Transport houses in Macquarie Street and in York Street, Sydney. Howie Moffat & Co. were the builders, and sculptor Stanley Hammond was responsible for the prominent bas relief over the Pitt Street entrance. " (from Sydney Water Heritage Assets inventory sheet 2006).
The 1939 Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board Building was designed as the new head office on the site of its former structure. The architects were Budden & Mackey and the builders Howie & Moffat. The building was completed at the end of 1939 and was notable for its external use of cream coloured tiles above the base floor of red granite and colonnade of curved black granite piers. Internally the public spaces were particularly noteworthy for their design, scale and finish, using combinations of structural glass, metals, marble and fine timbers.The building is also noteworthy for its uncommon use of architectural sculpture by Stanley Hammond. It represents the benefits of water and is used to "educate" the passers by. The upper floors were used by the various departments of the board including the major administration rooms which were on the first floor. A library, lecture hall and lunch room were located on the sixth floor.
The 1939 building was always intended to be extended, however the 1965 addition was not as originally anticipated. A tall tower designed by McConnell Smith and Johnson was constructed to the north and was integrated with the existing; this work caused considerable change to the earlier building but also set a precedent for building design and construction at the time.
The office floors have been designed to suit the Board's special needs and to provide good north and south natural lighting - a particular requirement when many of the floors were to be occupied by large drawing offices. To achieve flexibility and maximum use of office space the building has been designed without any interior columns in office areas.
Main services cores are at the eastern and western end to the building where the main passenger lifts are at the eastern end and the mains goods lifts at the western end of the building along with lavatories and kitchen facilities.
While the perimeter construction, floor construction, the main lift core and lavatory areas are considerably intact, many of the office interior fitouts have changed over time. The original Board Room, and office and facility spaces to the north and west of the Board Room still remain substantially intact.
The building is particularly prominent from Bathurst Street west of George Street and from the intersection of Pitt and Bathurst Streets. The southern elevation is largely obscured from George and Pitt Street by other buildings although one can clearly see the building presently from the western side of George Street.
The exterior of the building was to be a direct expression of its plan elements, which are defined by the structure, and the sun-control and cladding systems adopted. It was considered important to control sun penetration into the building in order to reduce heat gain, thus reducing initial and running costs of the air-conditioning system and to control sky glare.
Sun control panels placed at a distance of 3-ft. 6-in. from the windows of the building act in conjunction with horizontal louvered metal screens which they support. The screens have been designed to allow light to reflect onto the inside face of the vertical panels. At the second floor level (where there will be a staff cafeteria) the panels project beyond those above in order to give protection to the deeper windows of the ground floor, to form a series of cafeteria balconies, and a rainwater catchment.
The principal material used on the exterior of the building is precast concrete panels with an acid-etched surface layer of ground granite chips and white cement, probably the earliest such use of a significant nature in Sydney, if not Australia. The metal sun-control screens, also serving as window-cleaning platforms were predominantly off-site construction, resulting in a considerable time-saving in building. The structure is a steel frame with the general office area supported by three rigid frames, spaced at 23-ft. centres and spanning a width of over 70-ft, which broke new ground for BHP for high tensile steel.
The floors were constructed in precast pretensioned twin tee units 4-ft. wide and 22-ft. long, and covering the whole of the general office area. On top of those are a 2 1/2-in. concrete screed.
In 1994 the (then) Australian Heritage Commission published a report prepared by Associate Professor of Architecture Jennifer Taylor titled "Post World War II Multistoried Office Buildings in Australia (1945-1967). This report discusses the period covered in relation to the architectural history of the development of multistoried office buildings in Australia's city centres. The report identifies "Milestone" and "Notable" buildings in relation to particular aspects of construction. In this regard, the 1965 MWS& DB building was identified in the report as a "Milestone" in relation to Urban Issues:Streetscape as the "1st tall building in central Sydney, and for creation of a new urban plaza"; as a "Notable Building" in relation to "Urban Issues: Landscaping"; and as a "Milestone" building in relation to "External Skin: Sun Control" for its "unique use of precast concrete in combination with horizontal metal louvres."
The successor of the MWS&DB, Sydney Water, sold the both the 1939 and 1965 buildings to Multiplex Bathurst Street Pty Ltd in 2008. |
