Customs House
Alfred, Loftus and Young Streets, Sydney
1887 James Barnet (CA) (major rebuilding and upper floors)
1903 Walter Liberty Vernon (NSWGA) (top floor)
1995-97 Tonkin Zulaikha and Jackson, Teece, Chesterman & Willis
The present Customs House represents a complete redesign and enlargement of an earlier 1844 building by Mortimer Lewis (1796-1879) by James Barnet (1827-1904). The earlier building had become too small and overcrowded for the expanding customs work in Sydney, and it took six years before the problem was addressed.
The original client department occupied the building until 1990, after which the Federal Government made a gift of it to Sydney City Council together with funds for its refurbishment. There was, however, a proviso that the building be put to majority public use.
Tonkin Zulaikha and Jackson, Teece, Chesterman & Willis were commissioned to convert the building into a culture and information centre with restaurants and a large central atrium space. The future of the building had been hotly contested by various interests including music organisations that wished to convert it to a recital hall.
Information appearing in this section is reproduced from Sydney Architecture, with the kind permission of the author, Graham Jahn, a well known Sydney architect and former City of Sydney Councillor. Sydney Architecture, rrp $35.00, is available from all good book stores or from the publisher, Watermark Press, Telephone: 02 9818 5677.
Last Updated: Wednesday 12 December, 2007
