Sydney’s cluster of Seidler buildings at risk of being demolished

Buildings designed by internationally acclaimed architect Harry Seidler are at risk of being bulldozed under Sydney’s planning rules that do not recognise the 1960s apartment blocks as having heritage value.

The City of Sydney council classifies Seidler’s unit blocks as detracting from the heritage precincts around Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay in Sydney’s inner east because they’re only 50 to 60 years old.

“At the moment, heritage is the only means we have of recognising qualities of buildings,” said architect Philip Thalis, who is also a City of Sydney councillor.

“And heritage tends to favour older things. The thing with modern buildings is that they’re most at risk right now.”

Among the buildings classified as “detracting” or “intrusive” under the council’s planning rules is Elizabeth Bay’s Ithaca Gardens, built in 1960, where Seidler and his wife Penelope lived before building their home at Killara, and the twin towers Gemini complex, built in Potts Point in 1969.

The lack of protection afforded to Seidler-designed blocks has intensified a city-wide debate about what constitutes heritage and whether more should be done to preserve Sydney’s modern buildings.

“The recognition of the work of Australian architects as important as Harry Seidler is widespread, but the protection of their legacy is not,” said Kathlyn Loseby, a former NSW chapter president of the Australian Institute of Architects.

Penelope Seidler, an architect and director of Seidler & Associates, was concerned the apartment buildings designed by her late husband were vulnerable to demolition or irreversible renovations.

“I do think local government planning rules and heritage protections need to change to better value and protect Modernist buildings in Sydney,” she said.

Like many parts of Sydney, areas of the inner east are council-nominated heritage conservation areas (HCAs), which are often used by councils to ring-fence areas from redevelopment by imposing extra heritage protections.

In Kings Cross, Potts Point, Rushcutters Bay and Elizabeth Bay, HCAs intend to protect 19th-century villas, terrace homes, 20th-century apartments, and grand houses such as Tusculum in Potts Point.

But many buildings erected in the past six decades are deemed as “detracting”, such as 1960s apartments, or “neutral”, in that they do not contribute or detract from a suburb’s character.

This is typically because of their scale, bulk, setbacks, design, setting, or materials.

According to the council’s development control plan, these buildings “do not represent a key period of significance and detract from the character of a heritage conservation area”.

Architect Harry Seidler with a diagram of his Australia Square building on 15 August 1964.Credit: Stuart MacGladrie

Other Seidler buildings not recognised for their heritage value include the Aquarius block built overlooking Rushcutters Bay and the Ercildoune building in Elizabeth Bay, both built in 1966, and the International Lodge, also in Elizabeth Bay.

Architectural critic Laura Harding said having increasingly large swathes of the inner city as heritage conservation areas distorted the public’s understanding of what constituted heritage.

“Instead of carefully and methodically assessing the significance of buildings or groups of buildings, heritage conservation areas rule a line under a specific date and tell us bluntly that what is old is contributory, and often what is more recent is detracting, as if time stood still on quality,” Ms Harding said.

“The consequence of this is that buildings from the modern period, and contemporary buildings, are increasingly seen as a threat to heritage, rather than being understood as our potential future heritage.”

Ms Harding said Seidler’s apartment blocks were highly significant and his “interest in split-level apartments, bridges, roof terraces, and efficient spaces with generous windows revolutionised apartment building, for a time”. She said they showed changing trends in residential architecture.

Cr Thalis suggested the council conduct a heritage review for residential blocks that was similar to a recent evaluation, which led to eight Modern Movement buildings in the CBD being heritage listed, including the MLC Building, the Sydney Masonic Centre and the Seidler-designed Horwitz House.

A City of Sydney spokeswoman said the council recognised buildings of architectural significance regardless of their age and had measures to ensure they were properly assessed and evaluated.

“Buildings that are older than 50 years need a heritage impact statement as part of any development application so the City can fully consider a building’s significance and the impact of any proposed development,” the spokeswoman said.

Buildings outside Sydney’s central business district would be reviewed as the council updated its development control plans and local environment plans (LEPs), the spokeswoman added.

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