Visions on the future

For over 200 years, the NSW government architects office has played a unique role in shaping the character and form of Sydney and the state of NSW. It is Australia’s longest-running architectural practice and one of few in the world to have designed most of the government buildings within its jurisdiction. 

The role of government architect officially began in 1816, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie appointed convict Francis Greenway as acting civil architect and assistant engineer on a wage of three shillings a day.¹ Macquarie, six years into his term as governor of the fledgling colony of NSW, was already on a collision course with his London superiors for his determination to make a ‘handsome town’ of Sydney. Greenway shared Macquarie’s ambition, claiming it ‘false economy to build only for the present day, and to erect [buildings] which, in a few years, would become perfectly useless’.² It was an ambition that proved prescient, with many of the buildings Greenway designed during his six-year tenure as civil architect surviving and ‘useful’ to this day: the Hyde Park Barracks and St James’ Church on Macquarie Street, the stables for Government House (now part of the Conservatorium of Music), the Parramatta Female Factory, and the courthouse and St Matthew’s church at Windsor among them.

[It is] false economy to build only for the present day, and to erect [buildings] which, in a few years, would become perfectly useless …

Francis Greenway, 1835³

‘A monument in nearly every town’

Since Greenway’s term as NSW’s first civil architect, the office and role of government architect, under various names, have continued, creating an extraordinary legacy of public infrastructure and buildings across NSW. From schools and hospitals to post offices and lighthouses, museums and libraries, courthouses, police stations and prisons, there is barely a town – or even a citizen – in NSW unaffected by the government architect’s work. As explained by historian Charles Pickett, government buildings in most western nations were, and are, usually the work of private architectural practices selected though tender, competition or patronage. But in early NSW, the lack of a developed design and building industry compelled the governors to directly employ architects and builders. Most other Australian colonies also appointed government architects but discontinued the approach in the 20th century. ‘NSW would have followed the same course from 1890 had not the Minister for Public Works awarded the second such [competitive] commission to a mate’; the resulting scandal secured the government architect’s position into the 20th century.⁴ 

Through the boom decades from the mid 1800s, the office of the NSW government architect produced an astonishing number of buildings. At the time, these buildings were often instrumental in defining the architectural character of main streets across NSW, and still today are often their most recognised features. Mortimer Lewis, stepping into the role in 1835, with a staff of only himself and three others, delivered among other projects Government House in Sydney’s Domain, the Treasury building on King Street, old Customs House at Circular Quay, courthouses at Darlinghurst, Berrima and Hartley, jails at Maitland, Darlinghurst and Berrima, the King’s School, a wing of the Australian Museum (originally called Sydney Museum) and Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum (later Gladesville Hospital). Under James Barnet, who served as colonial architect from 1862 to 1890, the office swelled to a staff of near 70, producing, by Barnet’s count, 169 post and telegraph offices (including Sydney’s GPO), 130 courthouses, 155 police stations, 20 lighthouses and a swathe of key public buildings in Sydney, including the Chief Secretary’s and Lands Department buildings, Callan Park Asylum, Mortuary Station at Central, the Anderson Building at Sydney University and the spectacular Garden Palace, opened in 1789 for the Sydney International Exhibition (and destroyed by fire in 1882).⁵ His successor, Walter Liberty Vernon, on his retirement, was credited with leaving ‘a monument in nearly every town’.

W.L. Vernon, the retiring Government Architect of NSW … leaves a monument in nearly every town

Evening News, 25 May 1911, p10

Public buildings, private lives

The impact and significance of the government architect, however, extends far beyond the number and physical presence of buildings and infrastructure produced. In the words of NSW’s 23rd government architect Peter Poulet, ‘Architecture is powerful. Our public buildings frame our public life, shaping the character and form of our [towns and] cities and contributing to our collective psyche’.⁶ But equally, public architecture also impacts our private lives and identities, our ways of working and learning, of socialising, of being. From the early colonial emphasis on law, order and control to the democratising and reforming ideals of the mid 20th-century and more recent focus on sustainability and climate change, the designs and actions of NSW’s government architects are woven into the social fabric of our communities and daily lives. Says our current (24th) government architect Abbie Galvin, ‘Our places and buildings provide the frameworks for our public and private lives. They are for the long term and their impacts are far-ranging. Our joint responsibility to make a positive contribution to these places is more significant than ever before’.

Our places and buildings provide the frameworks for our public and private lives. They are for the long term and their impacts are far-ranging

Abbie Galvin, government architect, 2023

As a government agency, the office works at the intersection of government priorities and aspirations and broader architectural, technological, social and environmental issues and developments, uniquely placed to both champion and challenge policies, practices, needs and trends. It has been a magnet for many of Australia’s greatest architectural talents, and a training ground for generations of young architects. Today, as Government Architect NSW (GANSW), the office provides strategic design leadership in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture. Its core role is to work across government, private sector and community to improve social, environmental and economic outcomes for NSW through:

• championing: promote, educate and advocate for design awareness and excellence on behalf of government, its agencies and partners
• connecting: foster public and private sector partnerships and design collaborations across built environment initiatives
• advising: provide strategic and independent advice and quality review to support best practice outcomes for design projects.

It is truly an architectural practice like no other.