Sydney Architecture Images- Pyrmont Incinerator

	Sydney Architecture Images- Gone but not forgotten Pyrmont Incinerator (1935-1992)
architect	Walter Burley Griffin
location	Pyrmont
date	1935
style	cubist-inspired Inter-War Art Deco A highly eclectic buiding.
construction	concrete, terracotta
type	Government incinerator


	Composite of details of the exterior of the Pyrmont incinerator.



The residents of Pyrmont already had to deal with smoke from the Pyrmont and Ultimo Powerhouses when Sydney City Council decided to build its new garbage incinerator at Pyrmont in 1932. Previously on this site was ‘Tinkers’ Well’, where Aboriginal people continued to camp and gather cockles and oysters as late as the 1830s; it was one of the landmarks that disappeared as the cliffs were quarried back. Designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin, the incinerator's façade was very detailed for an industrial building. The design was influenced by ornamental geometry and pre-Columbian Mayan architecture. The incinerator closed in 1971. The beauty of the Griffins' design and the sheer engineering achievement of building on such a steep site inspired 20 years of protest against its demolition until it was finally approved in 1992. A Meriton apartment now stands on the site.

	Oil painting by Jane Bennett of the Pyrmont incinerator in 1991, shortly before it was demolished.
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