Powerhouse Ultimo Revitalisation

I strongly object to the proposal and its destruction of a hugely valuable educational and cultural resource for the state. I object to gutting the precious public facility’s ability to effectively act as the museum of applied arts and sciences. How absurd and wasteful to turn 3 of the 4 major spaces into empty temporary exhibition spaces when next door in Darling Harbour are huge volumes of exhibition spaces already. The current director of the museum is trying to turn the museum into an empty shell like the Carriage Works she used to run - proving the old adage when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. Great cities of the world have museums that inspire the next generation of innovators, not empty spaces waiting for the next travelling exhibit to hit town. Where is our Smithsonian? Even Canberra has Questacon.
Please don’t be the ones to destroy this states resource to inspire and nurture young scientists, engineers, designers and craftspeople.

Both the Development Application and Heritage Impact Assessment should be rejected in their
entirety including for (a) not complying with the 2023 NSW Department of Planning and the
Environment ‘Guidelines for Preparing A Statement of Heritage Impact’. There is no physical analysis
including a physical inspection of extant exterior and interior fabric, including interior fabric to be
demolished in the State Heritage listed Ultimo Power Station or across the buildings impacted. The
documents ignore the Powerhouse Museum and the integrated nature of the Powerhouse Museum
Complex and Powerhouse Museum Collection across several buildings. There is no detailed
assessment of whether the works in the Development Application – fabric and spatial arrangements,
setting view and vistas comply with Article 22 of the Burra Charter especially practice note Article 22
pertaining to new work, alterations and additions as required by the Department of Planning and the
Environment. The information available about the heritage item, i.e. the Powerhouse Museum
Complex and the Powerhouse Museum Collection, across several buildings and spaces, interiors
and exteriors, and significant fabric, is not sufficient to undertake a robust heritage impact
assessment. (b) The assessment of significance ignores the Powerhouse Museum and the integrated nature of the Powerhouse Museum Complex across several buildings for the display of the Powerhouse Museum Collection. It omits key evidence including the Sulman Award citation that includes both interiors and exteriors, internal ramps and
mezzanines, movable heritage, the colonnade and the public forecourt proposed for demolition;
the citation for the RAIA ACROD Award for barrier free circulation that yields information on the
significance of the public forecourt, Harris Street entrance, internal ramps and mezzanines to be
demolished; the citation for the RAIA National Awards 1988 for a Recycled Building with all but
the facades to be demolished and citation for the RAIA Belle Award for Interiors where notable
interior colour schemes and carpets by esteemed designer George Freedman are not researched,
investigated or even acknowledged; the commissioned history of the Powerhouse Museum,
Graeme Davison and Kimberley Webber (eds) 'Yesterday’s Tomorrows; The Powerhouse Museum
and Its Precursors 1880-2005' (Powerhouse Publishing and University of NSW Press 2005) is not
researched to inform the assessment of aesthetic and historic significance; the many community
submissions over 9 years are not reviewed to inform social significance. The architect Lionel
Glendenning has not been approached to contribute primary source material or knowledge
despite exercising Moral Rights over his designs. There is an ‘Updated submission on the State
Heritage Significance of the Powerhouse Museum Complex, including the Powerhouse Museum
Collection, (being an extension to Ultimo Power House, State Heritage Register item 020045) by
John Petersen - 24 May 2024 that is attached to research heritage significance (c) The assessment
of significance is cursory and incomplete for the Powerhouse Museum Complex’s component buildings but there is
no assessment in any of the buildings at all of the heritage values of the actual Powerhouse Museum. It ignores the
Powerhouse Museum and the integrated nature of the Powerhouse Museum Complex and the Powerhouse Museum Collection across several buildings (d) the omissions and incompleteness of the Development Application and Heritage
Impact Statement and assessment are based on an incomplete and not endorsed Draft Conservation Management
Plan and Concept Environmental Impact Statement. This does not comply with the due process in Kerr’s 'The Conservation Plan' or the Australia ICOMOS 'Burra Charter'. In terms of the 2023 NSW Department of Planning and
the Environment ‘Guidelines for Preparing A Statement of Heritage Impact’ (e) There are no detailed
plans or service diagrams with clear or specific information about the actual works and the impact
on existing fabric. The Development Application fails to include drawings and plans adequate for
making an informed assessment on the impact on significant fabric including for the State Heritage
listed Ultimo Power Station. (f) There is no Engineers Report evidencing that works including
demolishing ramps and mezzanines, the colonnade and public forecourt can be completed without
damaging fragile and significant heritage fabric. Therefore the Heritage Impact Statement is also ill-
informed. The information available about the heritage item in the Development Application, i.e.
the Powerhouse Museum Complex and the Powerhouse Museum Collection, across several buildings and spaces, interiors and exteriors and significant fabric, is not sufficient to undertake a robust heritage impact assessment in its
current form. (2023 NSW Department of Planning and the Environment ‘Guidelines for Preparing a
Statement of Heritage Impact)

I am old enough to have visited as a child the previous incarnation of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences next to the Sydney Technical College. I remember the excitement of the opening of the bold conversion of the disused Ultimo Power Station into the Powerhouse Museum, and I have visited the museum many times with my family in the succeeding years.
I have always thought that the museum complex is a wonderful example of repurposing, and of course the complex won the Sir John Sulman Medal for architecture.

I have been stunned by the plans outlined in this project to in effect destroy the Powerhouse Museum Complex. The project shows no regard for either the 1988 heritage adaptation, or for the 1988 contemporary design. The changes in this project will render the resulting buildings unable to function as a museum. Exhibition spaces will have been substantially curtailed, there will be large reductions in areas available for education, and ludicrously, the painstakingly preserved exhibits that are at the heart of the function of the museum have been removed.

I support the retention, repair and rejuvenation of the current Powerhouse Complex, but I do not support this project, which will achieve none of these outcomes. I object to the current project in the strongest possible terms.

I object to the proposed, so-called, revitalisation of the Powerhouse Museum.
The planned “Revitalisation” would:
- Ignore the heritage values of the Powerhouse Museum
- Remove all the interior structures of the old Powerhouse leaving only 3 empty halls
- Destroy the people’s Museum and its key exhibitions and evict its collections, diminishing museum experiences for families and school students
- Reduce the Museum’s exhibition space from its existing 21,800m2 to just 6,000m2 - a more than 70% reduction!
- Demolish the southern part of the Wran Building and Galleria extensions - signature elements of the Powerhouse Museum's Sulman Award winning architecture - then hide what's left behind brick walls
The Government has said that they have “saved the Powerhouse” but the reality is that they are destroying the Powerhouse Museum. The Government should listen to the community and cancel the current plans.

The Powehouse is an amazing place for young kids to grow up exploring and visiting . They develop interests in engineering and physics and technology from places like the Powerhouse and the Powerhouse makes it fun with many exhibitions . Both my grown up boys are now studying engineering and technology and that passion and love and interest started in the corridors of the Powerhouse.

The Powerhouse Ultimo Revitalisation Project

I am opposed to the proposed Powerhouse Museum - Ultimo “Revitalisation” Project that has been submitted for public comment as it is destroying a much loved family oriented and educational heritage institution to be replaced by a so called “night-time economy” and entertainment/function centre precinct at a great cost. Surely, “revitalisation” does not necessitate the complete gutting of the complex and movement of its historic heritage collection at great expense when a refurbishment and necessary maintenance can be achieved at a much lower cost without the need to close the Museum and move its valuable heritage collection. Whilst some revitalisation is needed, with more modern and current technology displays and events, this could have been achieved with plenty of suitable space available in the existing complex had the existing CEO and Board of Trustees been not so focussed on what I consider to be a “running down” of the Museum and not providing a reasonable number of new exhibitions in recent years.

I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many visits to the Powerhouse Museum over many years and share its treasures with my children and grandchildren and local and international visiting friends. The Museum provided an interesting and educational view of our technical heritage in an intimate and industrially atmospheric environment. The children were always enthralled by new discoveries around every corner as new levels were visited.

The gutting of the buildings with the removal of the mezzanine levels and opening up the buildings into great cavernous halls will take away the intimacy and industrial atmosphere of the complex and will deprive the visitors of being able to view displays from various perspectives as well as taking away that sense of discovery as one ventures from one area to another. The reduction of the existing exhibition space by over two thirds is also disturbing when the “Revitalisation” Project documentation states that “only 10% of the Museum’s valuable collection has been on display in the last 36 years. How can more be displayed with a far reduced exhibition area? The lack of displaying of the Powerhouse Museum’s vast Collection and International exhibitions has been due to what I consider a politically expedient and caretaker only mode of “running down” of the Museum by the Museum’s management and Board of Trustees and not due to a lack of suitable space. The final “1001 Remarkable Objects “ Exhibition in the final days before the Museum’s inexcusable closure in February shows that the Powerhouse Museum could attract and accomodate a large number of visitors in it’s existing form if the Museum’s management provided new high class exhibitions to complement the existing heritage exhibitions. “If you provide, they will come”.

The lack of any developed plans as to what is to be exhibited in these cavernous halls and input by curatorial experts is also a concern when the existing complex was specifically designed around the planned exhibits and to provide the best experience of those exhibits for the visitor. The existing mezzanine levels and industrial ramps not only enable viewing exhibits from different perspectives but also enhance the museum experience with an industrial atmosphere, a sense of intimacy and exploration and discovery as one ventures from area to area. I doubt that the proposed large cavernous halls with their circular sterile robotic “one visitor circulation system” will provide the same industrial and sense of exploration and discovery atmosphere.

The proposed “Revitalisation” project seems to also be focussing on creating precincts for the social “night-time” economy for social functions and ticketed events at the expense of the proven past family oriented and educational heritage museum focus for which the Museum has been internationally famous. All this, whilst current reports in the media indicate the so called “night-time economy” is currently struggling in other areas of the city with long existing restaurants closing down, Oxford Street boarded up with empty premises and difficulty in finding an eatery in the CBD for a coffee or snack after 4pm (except pubs of course). The Darling Square eateries have been successful due to the proximity of Chinatown and large apartment complexes in Haymarket. I doubt that many of these occupants will go to the trouble of crossing the light-rail tracks to avail of proposed eateries. (Does the omission of the Harwood Building from the “Revitalisation” Plan indicate a possible future sell-off of this heritage and functional curatorial building for high-rise apartments by the Government, as sought by developers for so long, to produce this night-time economy?). Also, with the current redevelopment of the Harbourside complex at Darling Harbour, the new Fish Markets and the Bay Precinct development being likely to offer more attractive locations for the “night-time economy” if it ever recovers, the gutting and destruction of the existing buildings and removing the Museum’s valuable historic collection at enormous public expense appears to be an extravagance to cater for the “In Crowd” and socially well-off party crowd which may not eventuate.

The proposed greening of the complex with new public spaces is commended and would enhance the visitor experience but this could be partly achieved by the greening, refurbishment and opening up of existing external spaces around the Museum, without the need for gutting the Museum buildings. This could also be achieved at a much reduced cost than that shown in the proposed “Revitalistion Project”.

In summary the proposed Powerhouse Ultimo “Revitalisation Project” is strongly opposed as it an unnecessary gutting and vandalism of an existing public heritage and educational Museum and it’s valuable world-renowned and acclaimed collection, when repair, refurbishment and revitalisation of the existing buildings, internal layouts and collections could be achieved at a much lower cost and without the need for the closing of the Museum, and the removal and possible damage to its valuable heritage collection as well as it’s loss to the public for a significant period of time.

Yours sincerely,

Neville Pleffer
Rooty Hill. NSW. 2766

This is a waist, total manipulation by this government closing the museum to use for another purpose ( making money). Please stop lying to the public! Just do the repairs on the building and re open the museum.

Please expand the current exhibition space, rather than commercialising .

I object to the project in its current form. I strongly object to the virtual destruction of a historical museum space and a clear breaking of an election promise by the Minns government to improve and retain the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo - an institution that has been operating for 125 years.

To call this expensive $350m project a "revitalisation" of the museum is a sick Orwellian joke when in fact it proposes a reduction of 75% of the exhibition space to be replaced with venue hire facilities. It robs future families and school children who, like their predecessors over past decades, would benefit from visits to the museum.
The $350m should not be spent on this sham project and instead be used to maintain and enhance the museum in its role as the premier exhibitor of historical technological artefacts.

The economic rationalists in the current government prove again they know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

I object to the vastly reduced exhibition space, the demolition of the Steam Revolution exhibition, and the demolition of the ramps and mezzanine exhibition spaces.

The project vastly decreases the amount of space for the immense library of artefacts held by the Powerhouse museum. Sydney will have no credible science and technology museum. This project should not be allowed to proceed. The money could be better used in renovating and improving existing spaces. This project cannot have been developed in consultation with museum curators and conservationists.

I strenuously oppose this project.
This EIS is a total betrayal of the current government's electoral promise to save the Powerhouse Museum.
The Powerhouse Museum had worldwide recognition as it housed a collection that was designed to fit into a historically significant structure. Nine years of deliberate neglect by management made it convenient to declare that the museum needed urgent renovation, that will involve the immediate closure of the museum and the removal of the entire collection.
Once the doors were closed, it became clear that the museum is to be totally rejuvenated not renovated and this will take a minimum of three years. Hence the need for an EIS.
With respect, no team of reputable architects could allow an existing museum to be emptied out and the interior degutted without knowing what knowing the functionality of the New Museum. Of course, they do know what it is, but this is cabinet in confidence.
On the 4th July 2020 the museum was "saved". Not long after this announcement it became crystal clear that in fact the Powerhouse Museum is to be turned into an educational/commercial/entertainment hub that will include a design and fashion museum. The Liberal government went to the 2023 March elections on that basis whilst the Labor opposition promised to once again "save" the museum. Labor won the election, tinkered on the edges but in reality, it totally back flipped.
The most telling part was that the Arts Minister kept on deck the entire management team that was dedicated to destroying the Powerhouse Museum. This is the same team that located Powerhouse Parramatta on food plane, turned Willow Grove int a pile of junk, and spent millions in building a storage facility in Castle Hill to make the Harwood building redundant. There is no doubt that once the construction phase is completed, the Harwood building will morph into a multimillion-dollar piece of prime real estate.
The Powerhouse Museum needs revitalization nobody is questioning that, but this can be done without decanting the entire collection and at a fraction of the cost.

Please find letter attached from Docomomo Australia in regard to the proposed upgrade of the Powerhouse Museum Ultimo.

Submission attached

This project seems to be very poorly conceived. The proposed cost does not propose to achieve outcomes worth achieving. The existing museum is quite adequate and superior to the proposal to 'revitalise' it. The proposed changes seem to render the museum significantly inferior to its current function as a museum.
The main purpose of this project, under the auspices of a museum renewal seems to be to create 'Creative industry studios', which is an inappropriate use of public funding without specific approval for this entirely separate goal that has no direct link to a museum 'revitalisation'.
Another stated purpose of this project is to 'Deliver an international standard museum that is complementary to Powerhouse Parramatta, Powerhouse Castle Hill and Sydney Observatory on the existing site of Powerhouse Ultimo.' Two of these other facilities don't even exist, and, in any event, it is completely ridiculous and inappropriate to align the Powerhouse with them in any manner other than on a high-level coordination basis. The Ultimo Powerhouse Museum is primarily a museum aligned with its name -- the Ultimo Powerhouse -- with other significant functions primarily associated with its inner-city location and the related cultural alignment of the other exhibits.
This 'revitalisation' seems to be a continually warmed-over incarnation of the many other incarnations that have been proposed over the last several years. It is a completely inappropriate use of public funds to reduce the value, heritage, purpose and usefulness of this wonderful museum and I strenuously object to this project.

The Minns government promised to 'save the Powerhouse' and to keep it open. It is now closed and it is really distressing to find that the government plans to strip this heritage site of meaning, reduce its exhibition space and do 'the current trendy next thing' of turning large tracts of it into a shopfront and spaces for hire for parties and corporate venue hire.
My credentials for making this submission include a professional knowledge of the issue and of Ultimo through 25 years as City Historian for the City of Sydney , in which capacity I have researched and published books about the area and its working community. Further, as one time Chair of the former State Records Authority of NSW, I have more than a passing understanding of the role of technical education in the development of NSW and of Ultimo. Over the last decade you will have received many submissions concerning the fate of the Powerhouse Museum from experts in museology and in the history of the institution, as well as professionals who have worked for the Powerhouse and I wonder what it would take for our government to ever listen to these experts. It seems very clear that it is listening to other imperatives that have little to do with respecting a once wonderful historic and cultural institution.
This submission is made with the understanding that provision of a new museum in Parramatta has great merit, but this is a different proposition, and it does not take into account the importance of 'place'. The Powerhouse not only stands within a strong educational precinct containing University of Technology and Ultimo TAFE, a descendent of the oldest technical college in NSW, on Harris Street across the road from the Powerhouse. The Powerhouse Museum is a direct descendant of the old Technical Museum, now Building C of the TAFE, one of the first purpose built technical museums in the world. Back in 1880 it was quaintly named the 'Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum' and Sydney as proud of it. The whole precinct is historically linked to the emergence of formally recognized technical education as a way for the 19th Century's working class to excel, and its museum was a proud part of that education.
Prior to the recent government insistence on reducing its significance, the Powerhouse Museum housed the best of NSW technological and engineering heritage. And that is saying a lot, because colonial Australia was a born- modern, post- industrial revolution society, and there are many instances where Australia in general, and Sydney in particular, was world -leading in its technical know-how. The Powerhouse Museum is not just any old museum. Its collection holds artifacts of world significance. The current dumbing down of a once proud institution will be a catastrophic loss of excellence to Sydney, NSW and the wider community. Please don't waste $250 million for a demolition job that will trash good exhibition spaces and replace the with what arts critic John MacDonald has called 'large, cavernous spaces suitable for rave parties. Or just go ahead, if you want the Minns Labor government to be remembered for destroying our heritage and impoverishing our understandings of our past.
Yours sincerely
Dr Shirley Fitzgerald
Historian

To begin with, I feel that being asked to make yet another submission to the same project is just a pointless exercise in box-ticking by the NSW Government, as evidenced by the fact that previous submissions overwhelmingly objected to the project, but those objections fell on deaf ears.

This latest proposal appears to reduce exhibition space by up to 70%! What possible justification can the NSW Government have to spend $250m to deliver a museum with 70% less exhibition space than it currently has! The proposal to remove the mezzanine floors is just ridiculous.

To not have any permanent exhibitions is just ludicrous. "Steam Revolution" along with the Space and Transport section were always key elements of the museum. And with no steam section, what is to become of the Boulton and Watt engine? Presumably it just becomes a static object, with no boiler left to power it... unless of course somebody somehow manages to "accidentally" destroy it beyond repair. No doubt the museum hating CEO would be happy for such an outcome!

It appears also that parts of the Wran Building are to be demolished, along with the main entrance. These were key design elements that won the museum the prestigious Sulman Award for architecture.

The Australian Museum managed to undergo a refurbishment for one-fifth of the projected cost of this so-called "Revitalisation", and it didn't require closing the museum for an indeterminant amount of time. I would assert that the closure of the Powerhouse Museum has not been for the purposes of "revitalisation". Rather, it is the criminal vandalism of an irreplaceable institution in Sydney, done under the guise of "revitalisation", so as to cover up the dirty deed.

Leave our museum alone, you vandals!

The powerhouse museum was once a fantastic museum which supported transport and science, it needs to go back to this, and not the arts that it has been heading towards for the past few years, there is an art gallery for this.

This is an opportunity to make it very similar to Questacon in Canberra.

In terms of development, please continue with the sandstone architecture - we need to be proud of our past heritage, and how well they designed buildings, you are slowly destroying Sydney. Do not make the extensions white or white rended, these look tacky and cheap, and does not reflect our past history.

I have lived in Pyrmont/Ultimo for 15 years and fully support the long-overdue revitalisation. The government has done a great job with the re-design, setting the Powerhouse up for successful next few decades and making it fit for the times.
Overall a fantastic project and I cannot wait for it to be delivered and

I object to the museum being closed on February 6, 2024 for an unknown number of years with the collections are being moved to storage in remote Castle Hill & now largely inaccessible to the public... The Castle Hill storage space open on weekend is very underwhelming for visitors.

I am most concerned that the planned “Revitalisation” would:
- Ignore the heritage values of the Powerhouse Museum, being a science & technology museum.
- Remove the interior structures of the old Powerhouse leaving only 3 empty halls
- Destroy the people’s science Museum and its key exhibitions and evicting its collections, diminishing museum experiences for families and school students
I understand that the new plan is to reduce the Museum’s exhibition space from its existing 21,800m2 to just 6,200m2... if so that would be more than 70% reduction of exhibition space
To gut the existing museum is terribly destructive .... destroying a much loved museum that should be of scientific / tecnological & cutlural significance to the people of NSW & visitors to our city from the regions, interstate & other countries. I DO NOT want a fashion & event space where a museum once was... My family & I want a science & technology museum feeding the curiosity of young & not so young intelligent minds... providing real food for thought.... & discovery.