Powerhouse Ultimo Renewal

Hi Renah

Thanks for reading. I’m objecting to the project as you missing the opportunity to create this “creative industries precinct” ground up somewhere else, you’d be able to make something fit for purpose rather than shoving something in that doesn’t work and requires another wasted investment a few years down the track. Why not spend half as much on Carriageworks.

Losing the pieces and the history of the current / old Powerhouse Museum can only be done once. My kids love the old exhibits, stories from my time with my grandfathers from the age of steam for one, as they enjoy learning about this now with static displays from their own grandfathers time.

Just wondering who needs more curated dining just here? It’s a few steps away from Darling Harbour and Chinatown, a few more steps away from King st Wharf and Barangaroo. Fish market coming too in the other direction.

Opportunity exists to fix an before too late and move on. I’ve fixed my own leaking roof, they can fix theirs. Nothing else seems to be broken that needs fixing.

Thank you,
James.

I wish to object in the strongest possible terms to the revised plans for the Powerhouse Museum. When the government announced that the museum, at its Ultimo site, had been “saved”, I along with many thousands of Sydneysiders believed that it would continue in its current form - as a much-loved institution for locals, families, kids and international visitors alike. Now we learn that the government was duplicitous in its dealings with the public. Please let us continue to have a world-class applied-arts museum in the centre of the city, as promised, along with a second site in the west. A global city needs culture to be vibrant and accessible. Work for the people, not developers.
Dig deep for decency.

I, Sandra McEwen, am writing to OBJECT to the EIS in respect of the redevelopment of the Ultimo Powerhouse Museum site for the following reasons: -

1. The replacement of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences with a fashion and design centre is an appalling denial of the needs of the people of NSW. We don’t need fashion to meet the challenges of this century. We’ll need science, technology and an educated Public. It seems that only our politicians have missed this point. Realistically, how many ‘creative arts’ centres can one city support? Sydney is already dripping in them and doesn’t need another one!
2. The 19th Century power station was built strongly to support heavy machinery. As such it is purpose built to house a museum of applied arts and sciences. Fortuitously it is easily capable of displaying steam engines, trains and aeroplanes. If the NSW Government destroys the building it will simultaneously waste the enormous amount of energy embodied in the building and deny people the opportunity to see those large, heavy objects. No new building will be capable of displaying them. It’s likely that current management will just get rid of these items that are of enormous heritage significance.
3. There is no publicly accepted business case. How can the NSW Government possibly justify the +$500 million involved? The architect of the 1988 Museum renovation, Mr Lionel Glendenning has estimated that the PHM Ultimo can be extensively updated for $250 million.
4. The EIS outlines a potential project that bears no resemblance to what Mr Perrottet announced on 4 July 2020.

It will be a travesty if this project goes ahead.
Yours faithfully

Sandra McEwen

Firstly I thank the government for keeping the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo but unfortunately I do not support the use of State Significant Development Application Laws as this can override heritage protections. As Museums should be all about Heritage Protection values. I'm concerned we could see the degradation and in some case removal of great exhibitions - example The Steam Gallery Exhibition
which is connected to the extremely rare working Boulton Steam engine. I'm also concern about the future of the Transport Exhibition as well as the beautiful unique art deco entrance to the Kings Cinema. Hoping all of these exhibitions can be retained as it brings much joy to children & families. In addition the possible moving key museum assets of national importance like the Boulton & Watt Engine locomotive no.1 & the Catalina Flying Boat could put them at risk of major damage. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my concerns. TIMOTHY BIDDER

Pyrmont History Group Submission on Renovating the Powerhouse building in Ultimo.

The Pyrmont History Group is the successor to the Pyrmont Ultimo Historical Society, an affiliated body of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. Most of our members live in buildings created to replace Pyrmont’s and Ultimo’s industrial and mercantile past, so we are acutely aware of heritage issues. We are also aware that architects and builders can combine high-density living with respect for heritage and environment. We try to ensure that the social and economic traditions and history of our peninsula are preserved.
It is not surprising therefore, that we deplore the amateurism of the rationale for the rebuilding of the old Powerhouse structure.
First, form should usually follow function, whereas this document is vague about the functions which the new structure is expected to serve. What is implied is a general-purpose entertainment facility on the lower floors of a general-purpose office block.
Second, we see virtually no reference to Science, Engineering, Technology, Railways, Wharves, Eora, Fishing, Industry, Manufacturing, Ultimo House, the Harris dynasty, Quarries, Sugar, Industrial Relations and many ore aspects of society, politics or economy. The Powerhouse Museum was saturated with material illustrating these topics, but by implication they will now be found in a peri-urban storage facility.
In brief, the document shows no awareness of the physical and social environment of the building they foreshadow.
The fate of this building has been a political football for far too long. We urge that the task of designing the refurbishment be referred to professionals.
Yours sincerely,
Donald Denoon F A H A
For the Pyrmont History Group.

ICC Sydney supports a renewed Powerhouse Museum that better connects with the precinct around it and makes better use of the interconnected public domain areas between the Darling Harbour Waterfront through the Powerhouse Precinct and on to UTS, particularly the program’s focus on an interface with Darling Square, which sits to the southern end of the ICC Sydney footprint, a contribution to an active evening and therefore night time economy, a connected creative industries hub and improved public domain.
The collection at the Powerhouse is deserving of a 21st Century venue that better connects and embraces the dynamic precinct within which it is located.
ICC Sydney is currently reviewing partnership opportunities to connect its visitors with the museum and an improved visitor journey between the two venues will only enhance the overall visitor experience of those to ICC Sydney and the surrounding Darling Harbour precinct.
ICC Sydney is happy to continue to share information with the operators of the Powerhouse Museum on its learnings through the design and development of the convention centre.
A better outcome for Powerhouse attendees means a better outcome for Ultimo and Darling Harbour and the broader city around us.
Samantha Glass | Director of Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability | International Convention Centre Sydney
Direct +61 2 9215 7150 | Mobile +61 432 384 696 | [email protected]

I object to the proposed changes to the Powerhouse Museum. It was a wonderful museum housed in an excellent building complex but has been run down through cuts to staffing & is now proposed for reduction and dispersal. This is cultural vandalism, not responsible management of our priceless technological heritage. This plan is not instigated or supported by popular opinion.
The Powerhouse Museum should be restored to its former excellence in its Ultimo site, and a new museum should be built in Parramatta which addresses the wishes & needs of the people of NSW, rather than being imposed on them from above, at great expense to them, with most benefits from it likely to accrue to private and corporate interests.
The proposal is badly conceived and should be abandoned.

The existing Powerhouse Museum is an excellent museum focused on its history. The powerhouse exhibits are excellent, as are the related electrical, transportation and historical exhibits. The occasional exhibits have provided a wide offering and have generally been very enjoyable additions to the the core offerings. The proposed changes do not maintain this focus. I do not support or understand why anyone would support a change to a “Fashion and Design Information and Education Facility”. While a wide range of occasional exhibits is appreciated, this proposed change is not consistent from the purpose and history of the Powerhouse Museum. I don't see the purpose or need for a new 31 metre building or 25 metre building that are not in character with the existing museum, which incorporates the existing powerhouse buildings and retains them in historical context, not overshadowed by new, unrelated structures. Including graceful integration with the Goods Line seems like a good plan, but the original entrance should still be maintained as the main entrance for historical context and practicality. All of the core existing exhibitions should be retained as the main focus of the museum: Transport, Flight and Space, Steam Revolution (working under live steam), Strasbourg clock, Boulton and Watt steam engine and No.1 locomotive, etc. In summary, the proposal seems to have lost the plot. The existing successful and historically significant museum should be retained and improved, not changed to something different and out-of-context. I am weary of explaining this seemingly obvious fact to the multiple changing faces of this inappropriate proposal. The existing Powerhouse museum should be retained in its entirety with its invaluable in-context history and exhibits and this ridiculous 'renewal' should be refocuses to the purpose of improving this existing museum's exhibits and history and context.

The proposal would lead, at huge cost, to unacceptable IMPOVERISHMENT of the Powerhouse Museum’s contribution to NSW education and tourism. The vision is mean and narrow, intent on greatly reducing the range of objects and ideas presented to visitors, replacing a great museum for everyone’s education and enjoyment with a mere bureau for the fickle fashion industry, with a narrow interpretation of ‘design’ tacked on as a weak sop for critics. It is time for a robust vision, one that accords with the MAAS Act, to be formulated and supported by government.

Do Not change the Museum.
Keep the technology museum as a TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM!

KEEP THE WATT ENGINE.
KEEP THE TRAINS AND PROGRESS AND ADVANCEMENT IF STEAM.

Don't turn it into a stupid fashion hub.

Do not sell out our museum into a private college and office building.

SAVE THE POWERHOUSE!

I have often visited the Powerhouse Museum. My children have gone since they were little. We have always enjoyed it and found it very educational. The special exhibitions they have had in the past were wonderful. Since the Liberal Party based state government took an interest in it, the Powerhouse has gone downhill drastically. It looks like they are spoiling it delibertely and then saying that no one goes to it anymore. This is not true! It looks to me like they want to develop the site to make money for themselves or a developer. I find it very suspicious. They say they are moving the museum to Parramatta. This is uneccessary. Parramatta can have its own museum, perhaps based on the area's rich colonial history. The building site chosen for that has been known to be floodprone, as was proved recently, more than once. Please don't put precious objects there.
Wherever people live in Syndey, they can get to the city directly by train or bus. But for most to get to Parramatta, this will require at least two forms of transport. I would have to get two different trains. I am not likely to do this with a stoller or even with walking children, gettting off and on and waiting in between. We had no problem reaching the Powerhouse in its original site. Which, by the way, is in the old building where turbines used to run Sydney trams. That's why it is called the Powerhouse. It is inappropriate to call anywhere else by this name. If you make a museum in Parramatta, call it the Parramatta Museum.
The buildings that were built around the original part are beautiful and special, also award winning. I am proud to take overseas visitors there to see it. It beautifies that part of Sydney which has other historic buildings. Are you going to knock those down too? Overseas visitors don't have time to get out to Parramatta, and why would they want to?
Those buildings belong to the people of Sydney, NSW, Australia. They belong to voters, whether Liberal or Labor. They are not yours to dispose of how you want to. I have not heard any ordinary citizens say that any of this is a good idea. Why are you not listening to what we people are telling you? Over and over people have spoken up - and organisations and architects and museum experts. If you weren't up to no good, you would listen. Instead you are telling us that we need a fashion museum. We don't! How many people would care about that? Maybe students of fashion, so put that in a place where they study. It is all lies and a smoke screen.
I have a grandchild now. I want to take him over and over agin to the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo, just like I took his mother. Please don't make it disappear. Put it back the way it was and it will continue to be a great asset to Sydney and Australia.

Save the Powerhouse Campaign's submission attached below

I am totally against the proposed changes to the Powerhouse Museum. It is a loved and world known museum in the heart of Sydney, easily accessed by residents and tourists.
The proposed changes will be detrimental to all citizens and to the City of Sydney itself. It will no longer be a Museum and OUR history will be diminished.
I truly cannot understand the motives behind these changes, as it will diminish our Museums network, not enhance them.
I do not know anyone who is in favour of the proposal... but I do know many who will be changing their vote at the next election over this.
Again, to "demolish " a renowned museum is government vandalism. Protect our heritage and the Powerhouse.
Barbara

I absolutely reject and oppose this project .

It is too tall and bulky but more so attempts to remove the museums significant pieces - ie train, engines , clocks etc,

The project should enhance the museum and not change the location for an exhibition or venue space.

Got the generations to come they should see a powerhouse and done of the amazing engineering feats

I object to Powerhouse Renewal Project. This amounts to the destruction of the Powerhouse Museum. To destroy our history and technological achievements as a country is deplorable. To break up the Powerhouse collection as it is displayed in an accessible location for local and overseas visitors defies logic. i strongly object to the future plans for the Powerhouse Museum site at Ultimo. I strongly urge toe NSW Government to reconsider its plans for this site. As a long term volunteer for the Museum I am saddened by this redevelopment.

Dear Sir /Madam,
I would like to advise that I'm totally against the SSD Application proposed for modifications to the Powerhouse Museum. It is clear, that if the SSD is approved, it could enable the stripping out of the entire museum, including the award-winning 1988 conversion being demolished and furthermore, override any existing developmental controls including heritage considerations.
Thanking you
Regards
Andrew Gee

This 480-500 million project to convert a working museum into a commercial, educational and entertainment hub under the guise of a Design & Fashion Museum has to be opposed. This is a colossal waste of taxpayer's funds.
Only 34 years ago the museum was opened as an Applied Arts & Science Museum. It gained instant world wide recognition.
Unfortunately it succumbed to management incompetence an government indifference that allowed it to become a political football in 2014.
For a Museum to judged to be great, depends on the objects on display and on how they are presented. The building containing them is of secondary importance.
After the 4th July 2020 decision, again for political reasons it was announced that the Boulton & Watt Steam Engine (B&W),
LOCO 1 and the Catalina will remain in Ultimo. The current plan, I believe, is to temporarily and more likely permanently remove all current objects on display to allow for the envisaged major structural changes.
If these 3 capital objects are retained, then they will be totally out of context and will become a "freak" show. B&W is the most valuable object currently on display. As it can't be safely housed in the New Parramatta Museum, it must be returned to the UK where it would be welcomed with open arms and treated with the respect it truly deserves.
Thank you
Garry

I am strongly against this State Significant Development Application because I do not trust the NSW Government to protect the world class museum of Applied Arts and Science that I believe we have (or had !) in the Powerhouse Museum.
Since the Government began to "develop" our unique and priceless collection and heritage buildings it has deliberately set out to destroy it. Years of irrational argument and bloody minded opposition to every desperate plea to "Save the Museum" from destruction by the Government have lead me to believe that this Application would remove the few remaining checks on this deplorable saga perpetuated by our elected officials and unrepresented bureaucracy. Judging by what has happened so far I have no faith in any plan put forward by the State to "redevelop, improve, repurpose and, particularly, relocate our treasured museum. I submit that granting unrestricted development power to those already hell-bent on destruction is not in the people's best interest.

I strongly disagree with the SSD. The Powerhouse Museum must stay as it is, be well maintained and, over time be improved. Demolishing high standard, award winning infrastructure makes no sense. To demolish, a wonderful building housing many heritage items and hosting wonderful exhibits in its outstanding location and its award winning building, is not a "renewal"; it is destruction of a wonderful facility. We and our family, like so many others, regularly go to the Powerhouse Museum (most recently about 3 weeks ago with our grandchildren). It was an extraordinarily happy educational experience for them. And now you are suggesting putting a bulldozer through that education. John and Hazel Sullivan.

After spending some time perusing the 39 documents associated with the so-called "renewal" project, I am none the wiser as to what the purpose is or what the museum will look like (in terms of what will be on exhibit). What does appear to be clear is that the iconic, purpose built building we know as the Powerhouse Museum will be destroyed to create some glass monolith of questionable aesthetic and purpose.

The museum's own website states that the renewal will bring about a "focus on design and fashion", which appears to suggest that the "science and technology" aspect will be disregarded. Considering the museum was essentially designed around such priceless and irreplaceable items as the Boulton and Watt steam engine, Locomotive No. 1 and the Catalina flying boat, any thought to remove these items or the associated steam section or transport section in the Boiler Hall would be an act of historical vandalism of the highest order. These items were, naturally, expected to go into the museum in perpetuity, and not the come out again some 30 years later at the whim of a government with a penchant for apartment complexes.

Other aspects of the existing museum such as the Kings Cinema replica, Experimentations (vital for kids, and surely we need more of this given the emphasis on STEM at school nowadays) and Strasburg clock model are also part and parcel of what makes the Powerhouse Museum the Powerhouse Museum.

The vandalism that has occurred in Parramatta with the destruction of Willow Grove abjectly demonstrates the NSW State Government's attitude towards heritage and its preservation (or lack thereof), being entirely contrary to what the purpose of any museum should be. The announcement that the new "museum" in Parramatta will not even be a museum at all per se, but more about retail and apartments, once again demonstrates the priorities of our NSW State Government. I have grave fears that the "renewal" project at Ultimo is not at all a renewal, but rather yet another excuse to vandalise our heritage.

There is no argument that the Powerhouse Museum has been in need of some TLC for some time, but what is needs is a freshening up, and not the destruction and apparent change of purpose that this submission appears to entail. I therefore most strongly object to the proposed project.