Woollahra Modern Buildings Priority Study

In 2021 Woollahra Council completed a comprehensive heritage gap analysis and identified that their heritage listings lacked a good representation of the twentieth-century modern architecture that characterises the harbourside LGA.

They commenced a comprehensive project to expanded their listings to include work by prominent architects of the second half of the twentieth-century. This included Harry Seidler, Hugo Stossel, Douglas Snelling, Aaron Bolot and Allen Jack & Cottier, among others.

The Council engaged GML to undertake a heritage significance assessment of 35 properties across the Woollahra LGA. These properties were identified by Council for their Modernist characteristics and included both houses and residential apartment buildings dating from the post-war period to the early 1980s.

This study was delivered in two stages. Stage 1 comprised an appraisal and preliminary heritage assessment, during which some properties were excluded from further investigation.

In Stage 2, GML developed and applied a robust methodology to assess the remaining 26 properties. This included evaluating historic, aesthetic/technical and social significance within the context of twentieth-century Modern architecture. The integrity of the original design was also a key consideration in the assessment process.

Nineteen properties were identified as meeting the threshold for local heritage significance and have been recommended for listing under Schedule 5 of the Woollahra Local Environmental Plan 2014.

You can find out more about the Woollahra Modern Buildings Priority Study on the Council’s website.

Header image: Yarranabbe Gardens, Darling Point, Hugo Stossel, 1958. Photo: GML