Earth Exchange Building
This monochrome image looking along Hickson Street, features an excellent example of the Federation Warehouse style with distinctive Romanesque and Art Nouveau detailing. It was designed by a very prominent Federation Period architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, who was the first NSW Government Architect.
Built originally in 1902 as a single-storey sandstone electrical power station, it is today a six-storey brick building with a detached 61m-high chimney stack, which has been recessed into the side of the rectangular plan of the building. It has a combination of sandstone, brick and rendered facades. Considerable bedrock had to be excavated from the former quarry site which had supplied the sandstone used to construct most of the early buildings in The Rocks. The George Street entrance is approximately three storeys above the Hickson Road entrance.
The original plans of the George Street Electric Light Power Station building submitted by Walter Liberty Vernon was for a six-level structure structure similar to the one we see today. The plans were down-sized first to two storeys, then a single storey building, which was the plan finally adopted.
The power station was built to supply power to the 1,000 dwellings in the Rocks/Millers Point area after the bubonic plague outbreak in 1900. Demand quickly outstripped supply and the power station was grossly inadequate. Furthermore, debate had been raging as to whether direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) should be adopted as the world standard. In consequence of the leaning towards AC, a decision was made during its construction to change from DC to AC and the new station was not big enough to house the new equipment. Consequently, no machinery was ever installed, the chimney has never been used, the workshops were never completed and the shell was left roofless.
In June 1908, Vernon was asked to submit plans to convert the building into a mining museum and chemical laboratory. He reverted to his original plans, and recommended the addition of three extra floors similar in design to the large Federation woolstores and warehouses that were being built around Darling Harbour at the time. Vernon incorporated sandstone string courses into the dark red brickwork of the extensions with an attic level behind Romanesque style parapets and gabled roofs. - details from visitsydneyaustralia.com.au.
The building was erected on land originally occupied by Cunnyngehams shipyard in 1840s. At that time, the shoreline came right up to what is today the front of the building (I think that means George Street but happy to be corrected!). The power station was the first major public building in The Rocks Resumption area. When in 1908 the site is vested in the NSW Mines Department, the upper levels of the building constructed specifically for the mining museum and associated chemical laboratories, and a new entrance into George Street, with the Mining Museum opening in August 1909. Julian Ashton's Art School moved into the vacant first floor in 1930. The museum closed in 1995. In 2000-2001 the building reopened as the Arts Exchange with parts of it leased to the Australian Music Centre, the Sydney Opera House, and the organisers of the Sydney Festival. This use continues today.
Earth Exchange Building
This monochrome image looking along Hickson Street, features an excellent example of the Federation Warehouse style with distinctive Romanesque and Art Nouveau detailing. It was designed by a very prominent Federation Period architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, who was the first NSW Government Architect.
Built originally in 1902 as a single-storey sandstone electrical power station, it is today a six-storey brick building with a detached 61m-high chimney stack, which has been recessed into the side of the rectangular plan of the building. It has a combination of sandstone, brick and rendered facades. Considerable bedrock had to be excavated from the former quarry site which had supplied the sandstone used to construct most of the early buildings in The Rocks. The George Street entrance is approximately three storeys above the Hickson Road entrance.
The original plans of the George Street Electric Light Power Station building submitted by Walter Liberty Vernon was for a six-level structure structure similar to the one we see today. The plans were down-sized first to two storeys, then a single storey building, which was the plan finally adopted.
The power station was built to supply power to the 1,000 dwellings in the Rocks/Millers Point area after the bubonic plague outbreak in 1900. Demand quickly outstripped supply and the power station was grossly inadequate. Furthermore, debate had been raging as to whether direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) should be adopted as the world standard. In consequence of the leaning towards AC, a decision was made during its construction to change from DC to AC and the new station was not big enough to house the new equipment. Consequently, no machinery was ever installed, the chimney has never been used, the workshops were never completed and the shell was left roofless.
In June 1908, Vernon was asked to submit plans to convert the building into a mining museum and chemical laboratory. He reverted to his original plans, and recommended the addition of three extra floors similar in design to the large Federation woolstores and warehouses that were being built around Darling Harbour at the time. Vernon incorporated sandstone string courses into the dark red brickwork of the extensions with an attic level behind Romanesque style parapets and gabled roofs. - details from visitsydneyaustralia.com.au.
The building was erected on land originally occupied by Cunnyngehams shipyard in 1840s. At that time, the shoreline came right up to what is today the front of the building (I think that means George Street but happy to be corrected!). The power station was the first major public building in The Rocks Resumption area. When in 1908 the site is vested in the NSW Mines Department, the upper levels of the building constructed specifically for the mining museum and associated chemical laboratories, and a new entrance into George Street, with the Mining Museum opening in August 1909. Julian Ashton's Art School moved into the vacant first floor in 1930. The museum closed in 1995. In 2000-2001 the building reopened as the Arts Exchange with parts of it leased to the Australian Music Centre, the Sydney Opera House, and the organisers of the Sydney Festival. This use continues today.