New South Wales Government Architect
The New South Wales Government Architect, an appointed officer of the Government of New South Wales, serves as the General Manager of the Government Architect's Office, a multi-disciplinary consultancy operating on commercial principles providing architecture, design, and engineering services, that is an agency of the government within NSW Public Works.
Historically, the government architect was in charge of the government's public building projects across the state of New South Wales, Australia. Since the 1990s, when the consultancy service began operating on commercial principles, the Government Architect has reported separately in a second capacity, as an advisor to the government, and serves on various committees and boards in relation to heritage protection, architecture, and design.
The first officer in the role, then styled Colonial Architect, was Francis Greenway, appointed in 1816.
Colonial architects
Francis Greenway (1816–1822)
Francis Greenway was the first official architect for the Colony of New South Wales in a role that was called Colonial Architect and later NSW Government Architect. He was appointed in 1816 by Governor Macquarie to be Acting Civil Architect and Assistant Engineer responsible to Captain J M Gill, Inspector of Public Works. Greenway was a convict who had been sentenced to transportation for forgery. Greenway's works included the Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head, the Fort on Bennelong Point and the Stables for Government House. Greenway's other major buildings include the Obelisk in Macquarie Place, the Church of St James, St Mathews Church at Windsor and the Hyde Park Barracks.Colonial architects 1822–1835
Leaders of the free settler community in New South Wales, such as Wentworth and Macarthur, complained to London about Macquarie's policies, and in 1819 the government appointed an English judge, John Bigge, to visit New South Wales and report on its administration. Bigge generally agreed with the settlers' criticisms, and elements of his reports criticised Governor Macquarie's administration including his excessive spending on public works. Bigge's reports on the colony led to Macquarie's resignation in 1821.When Macquarie returned to England in February 1822, Greenway was without his patron and on 15 November 1822, the recently appointed Governor Brisbane dismissed him from the office of Civil Architect.
Brisbane's two replacement appointees lasted only short terms. Governor Darling arrived in December 1825 and dismissed the incumbent architect, George Cookney, a few months later. Darling left the position of Civil Architect vacant for the term of his governorship while he continued the process of reviewing the structure and roles of the Departments that made up the Public Service.
Governor Bourke succeeded Darling in 1831. Bourke initiated a major enquiry into the Department of Public Works and suspended its director, Charles Wilson. Bourke had received numerous allegations anonymously against Wilson and the department. Wilson was dismissed and following him, six of the next top officers were also dismissed. In effect, the Department of Public Works ceased to function on the date of those dismissals, 13 March 1832.
Bourke established the Colonial Architect's Department in 1832 to be responsible for the planning and supervision of the construction and repair of public buildings. In general, the Colonial Architect's Department had charge of public buildings and their furniture, the duty of preparing plans and specifications for construction and repair and superintending all works executed by contract. From 1833 to 1835 the department briefly became the Architectural Branch of the Department of the Surveyor General before the Colonial Architect's Department was again separately established.
Standish Lawrence Harris (1822–1824)
To replace Greenway, Brisbane appointed Standish Lawrence Harris, a recently arrived free settler as Civil Architect in late 1822. Harris' main achievement seems to be in preparing a report on the condition of the Colony's public buildings requested by the Governor. Harris criticised his predecessor's works. Governor Brisbane found Harris's fees to be excessive. The Civil Architect reported to the Chief Engineer, Major John Ovens. Ovens had stated that Harris' services "can no longer be useful to me" and Harris was dismissed in October 1824.Other than his report on the colony's public buildings, Harris's possible contribution was the completion of the new Courthouse at Sydney begun by Greenway. Harris made enlargements and prepared drawings and specifications, but there is some doubt as to whether even his design was that ultimately adopted. Harris made recommendations about the organisation of the Office for Public Works and the role of the Civil Architect, which were adopted.
George Cookney (1825–1826)
George Cookney was an English architect, the son of D'arcy Wentworth's London agent. Cookney was sponsored by Wentworth and his son William Charles Wentworth. Governor Brisbane appointed him in April 1825, however, there were not a lot of projects he was asked to look at.The only major work completed by Cookney was a memorial at the Sydney suburb of La Pérouse to Jean-François de la Pérouse, the French explorer who visited Botany Bay in 1788. The memorial was requested by
Baron de Bougainville, the son of the more famous French explorer, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who visited Sydney in 1825. At de Bougainville's request, Governor Brisbane directed Cookney to design both the monument and a tomb to be erected over the grave of one of La Pérouse's crew who had been buried at Botany Bay.
Ambrose Hallen (1832–1834)
From 1827 Ambrose Hallen had been the Town Surveyor within the Public Works Department. Within the Department of Public Works, Hallen took on the role of Architect and Town Surveyor under Charles Wilson, the Director of Public Works; under Wilson's directorship, Hallen having become increasingly engaged in minor architectural matters.When Governor Burke succeeded Governor Darling in December 1831, he initiated an enquiry into the Department of Public Works. Wilson and six of those who were immediately under him were dismissed in 1832. Hallen was the next most senior officer and was placed in charge of what remained of the department on 1 April 1832; later that month he was given the title of Colonial Architect and his office was officially titled the Colonial Architects Department. The position as Town Surveyor was absorbed into the Surveyor General's Department. In creating the Colonial Architect's role and department, Governor Bourke defied directions from the Colonial Office in Whitehall, London, which had specified there was to be no such office as an entity separate from that of the Surveyor General.
The new department only had 10 officers and was operating under tighter management following the review of the Department of Public Works. Hallen was not found to providing the necessary leadership and the office became part of the Surveyor-General's office under Thomas Mitchell.
Buildings include St Brigid's school at Millers Point. Hallen designed Berrima Gaol based on the radiating system of inspection. He also designed a courthouse at Berrima. However, the cost of building would have significantly exceeded the funds allocated. Hallen resigned at the end of 1834.
Mortimer Lewis (1835–1849)
Mortimer Lewis was appointed by Governor Bourke whose term was completed in 1837. He served also under Governor Sir George Gipps and Governor Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy.In the mid-1830s there was seen to be an increasing need for new buildings relating to policing, including gaols, courthouses and lock-ups. Bourke negotiated with the Colonial Office in London that these buildings should be built by the Colonial Architect from the Colony's own resources and that this would give greater respect for the buildings, stating: "The attention of the Colonists will be called to them, an interest acquired in their preservation, which does not seem to attach to those works, which are defrayed at the cost of the British Treasury alone."
At the same time, responsibility for civil and military buildings was made separate. Accordingly, these roles reported direct to the governor. The Surveyor-General, Thomas Mitchell, would have supported the independence of Mortimer Lewis, who he had worked with while Lewis was Town Surveyor, and whom Mitchell had suggested would fill the role better than Hallen had. Mortimer Lewis was appointed Colonial Architect in April 1835. Final approval for the arrangements only came in September 1837, due to the delays in corresponding between New South Wales and England by ship.
One of Lewis's earliest works was the Darlinghurst Courthouse. It was significant as a building as it was deliberately built in the popular Greek style fashionable in England to convey a sense of the importance of purpose of the court house. He also managed the project in a more politically astute way by getting the government to approve sequential work rather than a single large intimidating budget.
Lewis produced courthouses at Goulburn, Bathurst, Berrima, and Hartley, and gaols at Berrima, Maitland, Bathurst and Goulburn. Most of these buildings were later replaced.
Under Lewis, the Colonial Architect's Department of Victoria was established at what was at first the new settlement at Port Phillip. The beginnings of the Colonial Architect's Department of Queensland also occurred under Lewis.
In 1843 there was a significant change in the governance of the colony of New South Wales as the first partially representative Legislative Council was established. The new Council was concerned to minimise expenditure and the appropriation of funds for public works was reduced with a consequent reduction of quality and output of the Colonial Architect's Department.
In 1844 the duties of the Colonial Architect were expanded to cover the role previously performed by the Colonial Engineer, that is superintendence of roads, bridges, wharves and quays. From October 1848 military buildings and works were also placed under the charge of the Colonial Architect.
Lewis resigned in 1849. Major works that Lewis mentioned in his resignation statement were six gaols, eleven Courthouses, the new Government House, the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum, later known as the Gladesville Mental Hospital, Customs House, the new Treasury building, the Post Office and numerous other buildings. He also included civic works at Circular Quay and at Newcastle and King's School, Parramatta.
His resignation resulted from an enquiry into the building of the Australian Museum. If Hallen had not resigned, it was quite probable he would have been dismissed also.