The design competition
Sydney Central architectural model
Campus 2010 is the University's opportunity to regain its reputation as a patron of great architecture. It is therefore fitting that world-class architects have been selected to carry out the work.
International design competition
Inviting public comment
The Winners
Design Review Panel
International design competition
Architects were selected through a competitive process for the first project in the program, the School of Information Technologies Building. Francis Jones Morehen Thorp (FJMT)
Pty Ltd was appointed for this major new building. FJMT had a previous track record on the campus through the design of the Eastern Avenue Auditorium and Lecture Theatre Complex and its contribution to master planning in the various planning studies leading up to the Campus 2010 program.
Construction on the School of Information Technologies commenced in 2004. With construction underway, an international design competition was held to select designers for the other components of Campus 2010:
The competition, managed by Capital Insight was advertised widely and attracted 120 entries from around the world.
In Stage 1, designers were invited to submit expressions of interest in one or more of the three projects. A competition jury for each project, comprising the Design Review Panel, and senior management representatives from the University, selected a short-list of 15 competitors for each project.
The short-listed designers were invited to enter Stage 2, given a detailed brief and asked to respond with a concept design, a tender proposal and details of their proposed project team.
Inviting public comment
A total of 15 concept designs for the projects were exhibited at the University in November 2003. Each of the teams presented their concept designs to the public as well as being interviewed by the competition jury.
The public were invited to provide feedback via the design competition website where they could access project details, submission requirements and competition rules.
This open aspect of the competition was unique and much praised. Its inclusiveness it was markedly different to the usual 'behind closed doors' decision making process.
The winners
On 1 December 2003 the winners were announced for each project:
Central Building
John Wardle Pty Ltd/Wilson Architects/GHD
Law School Building
Francis Jones Morehen Thorp
Public Domain Project
Camperdown campus Jeppe Aagard Anderson/Turf Design Studio
Darlington campus Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Design Review Panel
Chair - Professor Chris Johnson NSW Government Architect 1995-2005
Chris Johnson was NSW Government Architect and General Manager of the Government Architect's Office for 10 years. He is a member of the Heritage Council of NSW, the Central Sydney Planning Committee and the Board of Architects (NSW Chapter). Chris chairs the Sydney Harbour Design Review Panel and is an adjunct professor at the Unversity of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney. He has written a number of books including Shaping Sydney - Public Architecture and Civic Decorum, Australian Architecture Now, Celebrating Sydney 2000 and Greening Sydney.
Professor Tom Heneghan Chair of Architecture University of Sydney
Tom Heneghan is the Chair of Architecture at the University of Sydney. He was formerly Professor of Architecture at the Kogakuin University, Tokyo, Director of the Architecture Factory, also in Tokyo and has taught in the US and Europe. In 1990, Tom was invited to be one of only five foreign architects comissioned to design part of the Kumamoto Art Polis Program. His Grasslands Agriculture Institute received the 1994 award of the Academy of the Architectural Institute of Japan, the highest award in Japanese architecture.
Professor James Weirick Professor Landscape Architecture, University of New South Wales
A graduate of Harvard University, James Weirick taught at the Boston Architectural Center, the University of Massachusetts, Boston, the University of Canberra and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, prior to his appointment at the University of New South Wales in 1991. His research interests include the history of architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism, with an emphasis on the ‘politics of design’, particularly the work of Walter Burley Griffin, the history of Canberra, and the urban landscape of Sydney. He is actively engaged in issues of contemporary urbanism throughout Australia as an educator, critic, and commentator.