Sydney Architecture Images- Museum of Contemporary Art

	Sydney Architecture Images- Circular Quay and area Museum of Contemporary Art Formerly The Maritime Services Board Building
architect	WH Withers & D Baxter (MSB Design Office) Carved panels by Lyndon Dodswell 1991 Peddle Thorp & Walker (alterations and additions as an art museum)
location	Circular Quay West, The Rocks
date	1940-44 (design) 1947-52 (construction)
style	Inter-War Art Deco (a very late but true example)
construction	terracotta cladding
type	former Office Building, now Gallery








	Site- MSB. One of the first large buildings in Australia and the first to have 4 floors. Commissariat Store at West circular Quay. built 1809-12 , it was built by convicts to a design by Lt C Foveaux, the 150ft building had 2ft thick sandstone walls and accessible by boat. it was pulled down in 1930's to make way for maritime Sevices Board of 1939.
This monumental ‘H’ plan office building was designed to complement the functionalist appearance of Circular Quay Railway Station, which itself was the subject of considerable public controversy during the 1930s. The concrete encased steel framed building, which is relatively narrow in cross section, later required additional area on the George Street frontage to create sufficient gallery floor space. The exterior brick walls are faced with Maroubra yellowrock sandstone and detailed with polished Rob Roy granite. The foyer is clad with polished Wombeyan marble and edged with green marble quarried near Mudgee in New South Wales. Internally, the mezzanine balcony is decorated with a wave design balustrade in aluminium. Windows are bronze framed and, on the whole, materials have been carefully specified to suit the harbourside location. Much of the building’s decoration is contained in bas-relief panels on the central tower and over entrances, similar to the Rockefeller Centre in New York. Commencement of construction was interrupted by World War Two; by the time the building was completed, fashion had changed, and it was considered an Art Deco dinosaur. In 1984, after extensive negotiations, it was offered to Sydney University as a museum for the largest bequest of cash and modern art in the university’s history, known as the Power Bequest. Information appearing in this section is reproduced from Sydney Architecture, with the kind permission of the author, Graham Jahn, a well known Sydney architect and former City of Sydney Councillor. Sydney Architecture, rrp $35.00, is available from all good book stores or from the publisher, Watermark Press, Telephone: 02 9818 5677.
	www.sydneyarchitecture.com
links	Museum of Contemporary Art - official web site