From colonial masterpieces like Newcastle Railway Station to the reinterpretation of the Civic Roundhouse building, the Lower Hunter boasts a rich and diverse array of architectural styles spanning close to 200 years.
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But buildings, like people, can inspire praise and loathing often in equal measure.
The Newcastle Herald asked four people with strong views about Hunter architecture to share their thoughts on what buildings they love and which ones they would like to tear down.
Prominent Newcastle architect BARNEY COLLINS nominates his four favorite and least favorite buildings.
Demolish - Queens Wharf Buildings
Now let's be controversial and creative. This group of buildings sit at the northern extension of surveyor Henry Dangar's Town Centre Axis from Christ Church Cathedral to the Harbour. The poor aesthetic nature of these buildings together with an under-performing functionality are the reasons to consider demolition. This site, and any buildings on it, need to contribute at the highest level culturally, visually and socially. They currently do not achieve this high order.
The function of this site needs to be one of celebration and reconciliation with our First Nations people and must be of equal aesthetic and social quality to Christ Church Cathedral, but in a contemporary context.
Muloobinba (Place of the Sea Fern) should be the inspiration for the creative redevelopment of this important site. Queens Wharf, the centre piece of Newcastle's physical celebration of Australia's Bicentenary, must be re-thought from an indigenous perspective to inspire future generations of Awabakal, Worimi and Novocastrian people.
Retain & Treasure - Christ Church Anglican Cathedral
The largest brick Cathedral in Australia. Aesthetically, Christ Church Cathedral is an extraordinary piece of architecture in a dramatic setting. The building testifies to the innovative skill and ability of architect John Horbury Hunt, and the detailed design talent of architect F.G. Castleden. The building's stock of stain glass, craftwork and artwork heightens the aesthetic value. Stylistically, the building expresses the significant changes from the Victorian period of architecture with its reliance on academic correctness, to the freer realisations of the Federation period and its influence by the Arts and Crafts movement in Australian architecture.
After the 1989 Newcastle Earthquake there was a proposal to demolish and rebuild. This proposed demolition was circumvented by the innovative use of over three kilometres of stainless-steel reinforcing to strengthen the building, allowing it to be retained as one of Newcastle's iconic landmarks.
Demolish - Newcastle City Council Mall Carpark
This building has outlived its usefulness and should have been demolished decades ago. Its location and functionalist aesthetic have divided the city for more that 50 years.
It is the remaining barrier to linking our beautiful working harbour to the iconic Christ Church Cathedral. The space provided by the Carpark's removal will reinforce Surveyor Henry Dangar's central north-south city axis, joining Newcastle Harbour, its renewed market place and landmark church.
The proposal to create Newcastle's most significant Urban Space in the past 30 years in this location with the building's demolition should be welcomed by all Novocastrians.
Bring on The Stairway to Heaven
Retain & Treasure - University of Newcastle NuSpace
This recent construction establishing a City Campus for Newcastle University has changed the perception of our City, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Designed in the Urban Panoramic Style, the building is the most publicly accessible building in the City over all eight of its levels. The views through, around, into and out of are breathtaking.
NuSpace acts as one of the most significant gathering spaces in the City. Centrally located it reinforces Newcastle's Civic Precinct and successfully compliments the formal gathering spaces of the Town Hall and Civic Theatre.
Demolish - Several Buildings on the North Side of Hunter Street between the Former Civic Station and Worth Place
The University of Newcastle (UoN) owns number 468 Hunter Street (a three storey walk-up opposite NuSpace and the intersection with Auckland Street). It would be great to run a bulldozer through numbers 464, 468 and 470 Hunter Street (though I would spare 462, The Press Book House for its iconic nature as one of Newcastle's great Coffee Shops).
The demolition of the bland buildings in the Civic Precinct's streetscape will facilitate the reinforcement of connectivity with the Honeysuckle and Lee Wharf Precincts making our city more permeable and pedestrian friendly. An added benefit to this will be joining of the UoN Honeysuckle and City Campuses. The repopulation of Newcastle as a people city is paramount to Newcastle becoming the most liveable city in Australia.
Retain & Treasure - The Roundhouse (the soon to be opened Kingsley Hotel by Crystalbrook Collection)
Affectionately known as "The Roundhouse", the former Newcastle City Council administration building has been much maligned during its previous life. Nicknames such as "The Champagne Cork", "The Shuttlecock" and "The Trash Can" have been prevalent from both locals and visitors alike.
However, on closer inspection and scrutiny this bold brutalist building by talented Newcastle and Melbourne architects (Brian Suters, Stephen Busteed (Site Architect for its original construction) and Fred Romberg) is a gem. The design cleverly addresses all its street and public space frontages and the circular form offers a very soft edge and visual contrast to the magnificent Newcastle City Hall.
The test of great design is a building's ability to be adapted and reused which allows buildings to have long lives into the future of our ever-changing city. As the architects for the adaptive reuse of the building to a luxury hotel, EJE architecture have found the building responding magnificently to the change. The building's clever original structural solutions and the attention to detail in design allow relatively simple reconfiguring of outdated services in the new works; these are things the public eye never sees. It is this forethought of the original designers that allows buildings to remain relevant to future generations and underpins true environmental sustainability principles.
Demolish - The Newcastle Tax Office (Corner of King and Darby Streets)
This bland masonry and glass edifice contributes nothing from an aesthetic perspective to the City of Newcastle. The building squatting absentmindedly on one of the city's most prominent corners is a real pity. An opportunity sadly missed. It is probably adequate as an inner-city office block, but that is not enough for the Civic Precinct of our city.
There has been little effort to create anything of design interest in this building. It's blank walls and the monotonous rhythm of its punched windows together with its ugly exposed roof-top plant and poor excuse for a crowning flagpole is a great disappointment.
This monster requires the bulldozer too, creating a significant new opportunity for the future architects of Newcastle to contribute design quality to the existing magnificent stock of generational buildings surrounding Civic Park.
Retain & Treasure - The Former Newcastle Railway Station and Signal Box
What a wonderful pile of Victorian, Federation era bricks, sandstone and cast iron this group of buildings are. Together with Customs House, the Great Northern Hotel and the faade of the Terminus Hotel, they are defining elements of Newcastle's European history. Their contribution to the character of the East End of Newcastle must never be underestimated.
Their siting on Awabakal Land locates the region's first contact with a convict lead European invasion. For this reason, this area is significant to both indigenous people and generations of European settlers and it must be treated with a profound respect. The history of the aboriginal pathway that has become Watt Street reminds us of this pivotal conjunction which has made Australia what it is.
Barney Collins is a director of EJE Architecture, Newcastle
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