Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Client

NSW Department of Education and Training

Location

Sydney, Australia

Value

AUD $150M

Jackson Architecture was granted the opportunity to redevelop the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and new facilities for the Conservatorium High School.

This iconic structure obtains a history dating back to 1915, when NSW Government Architect Seymour Wells built a Conservatorium of Music in a stable building designed by celebrated colonial architect Francis Greenway, introducing a Federation-style Concert Hall to the open courtyard.

The historic site required a sympathetic yet decisive response.

Additions from the 1960s were removed and the c1820 Government Stables building was revealed by partially submerging the new campus facilities.

The outcome sees a design respectful of the buildings heritage yet delivers a facility that responds to the demands of a modern conservatorium.

The Concert Hall, 270 seat music workshop, twin recital halls, and some 130 practice rooms now sit beneath the landscape parterres of a reconstructed section of the Botanic Gardens.

A dramatic three-storey foyer space cuts into the sandstone of the site to link the old and the new facilities.