2022 Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage Architecture

Jury citation

The cathedral-like spaces of Walsh Bay’s Pier 2/3, which was originally built from vast amounts of timber from old-growth forests and honestly and powerfully expressed, housed Australia’s main shipping facilities of the early twentieth century. They have been masterfully transformed, along with a lightly updated Pier 4/5, to contribute in scale and detail to what has become a cultural heart for Sydney.

Key moves, such as separating the internal spaces from the external building fabric, and identifying the essence of the building and its surrounds, have allowed the various spaces’ qualities to be enjoyed and celebrated.

The structure of the building and the materials that enabled it to deliver robust stevedoring facilities are brought to our attention, exposed in space and reflected in the mirrors on introduced walls. Inspired by Vivian Fraser’s original work on Pier 4/5 in the 1980s, the least amount of work possible has been done to the original fabric, while repairs and additions have been respectfully undertaken. Acoustic and fire isolation along with up-to-date access requirements for the building’s many new uses have been achieved with great care and consideration. New balconies for relief and access across both piers have been inspired by the original steel gantries, with detailing appropriate for the structure’s future life.

The outcome is gloriously restrained and robust, honouring the original design. With its valuable timber resources and their locked-up carbon, Walsh Bay is now fit for another 100-plus years of life for Sydney.

— Walsh Bay Arts Precinct was reviewed by David Welsh in Architecture Australia September/October 2022. Read the review here.

Project credits

Architect Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects; Project team Peter Tonkin, Julie Mackenzie, Grant Sandler, Dmitry Troyanovsky, Jeremy Hughes, Anton Van den Berg, Heather Cappie-Wood, Sophie Hutchinson, Alison Osborne, Kevin Lee, Regina Meyer, Nazia Kachwalla, Wolfgang Ripberger, Sujata Bajracharya, Matilda Watson, Alessandro Belgiorno-Nettis, Bethany Sullivan, Todd Solman, Roger O’Sullivan, Brian Zulaikha; Builder Richard Crookes Constructions; Consultants Infrastructure NSW, Tropman and Tropman Architects, Taylor Thomson Whitting, Arup, MG Planning, GTK Consulting, Accessibility Solutions, Blackett Maguire and Goldsmith, Sangster Design Group, Minale Tattersfield, CC Williams for TZG Signage, Stantec (formerly GTA), CRM, Cosmos Archaeology, Jacobs, Bates Smart

Walsh Bay Arts Precinct is located in Walsh Bay on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.