Sydney Open Day 2019: Property Council House

Global design and engineering practice Arup opens its new offices to Sydney Open for the second year in a row, this time inviting the public in for a rare glimpse at the specialty spaces inspiring them to redefine what is possible in the built environment. The offices are located in the CBD heritage pocket of Barrack Place, in one of Sydney’s few commercial buildings to open this year.

The three-storey colonnade facing Barrack Street is an exceptional example of Victorian Greek Revival design with the columns on each floor strictly following classical rules of proportion and decoration, and can be considered the best of its type in Australia.

Inside, the main stairwell has glorious stained-glass windows and original woodwork, and around the building some surfaces have been scraped back to reveal decorative finishes from many different periods.

Inside the original entrance on Barrack Street is a chronological display of archival photographs and descriptions that take you through the history of the building from 1850 to the present day.

On Sydney Open Day, I was be able to access the main entrance, stairway, boardroom and balconies.

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• Category: Sydney, Sydney Open Day 2019
• Tag: building, event, Sydney, Sydney Open Day

Posted by Chris Tham

Chris Tham is a co-founder of Visual Voyager Pty Ltd, the Principal Voigtländer Ambassador for Mainline Photographics and a Workshop Instructor for Mainline Photo Academy. She brings over 35 years of experience as a photographer to her role, starting with a Yashica rangefinder belonging to her dad, joining the Photography Club in school, and developing her own photos. More recently, Chris has been taking photos during her travels, and as a result has experienced some of the most interesting places in the world. Chris focuses on nature, street, and urban architecture subjects in her photography.

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