Sydney’s CBD contains a rich collection of Art Deco and early modern buildings that reveal changing ideas about style, progress and city life. This guided walking tour explores landmark structures and lesser-known gems, examining architecture, design and urban history. Along the way, stories of ambition, commerce and creativity bring the period to life. Moderate fitness is required, and the tour includes a relaxed coffee break, provided by the tutor.
This walk will go ahead whatever the weather, except where the guide deems there to be a threat to health and safety. In this situation you will be contacted with an alternative date. Please ensure your mobile phone number is up-to-date with WEA before enrolling and ensure that you have it with you on the day in case the tutor needs to contact you.
- Roy Lumby A Spirit of Progress – Art Deco in Australia (Thames & Hudson, Sydney 1997)
- Grahame Jahn Sydney Architecture Watermark (Balmain 1997)
- Tim Benton et al Art Deco 1910-1939 V&A Publications (London 2003)
- Peter Sheridan, Art Deco Sydney, (Bakelite Publishing, 2019)
The tour will start at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and wind its way to Wynard Station. Some of the buildings the tour will visit:
- Circular Quay train station
- Sydney Harbour Bridge
- Museum of Contemporary Art (former MSB Building)
- Kyle House
- Railway House
- AWA House
- Grace Building
- MLC Building
- Commonwealth Bank building, Martin Place
- City Mutual Life Building
- British Medical Association Building
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Identify the main features of Australian 1930s commercial architecture in its many forms, such as streamline moderne, neoclassical and late gothic revival.
- Discuss the ideas and motivations behind Art Deco architecture, and place them in context with wider forces shaping Australia in the 1930s.
- Recognise and describe a number of key Sydney CBD buildings from the 1920s and ‘30s.
