Daytime telephoto view over treetops: the upper floors of the stepped, terracotta-faced front with rows of seated figures on the piers, partly screened by trees. Lower storeys hidden.

BMA House

135-137 Macquarie Street, Sydney

Fowell & McConnel. 1929 to 1930. Art Deco.

Size
12 floors. No height found; the drawing is estimated
Material
Wunderlich faience terracotta over a steel frame
Status
State Heritage Register, 1999. Offices, let mainly to doctors and dentists

The British Medical Association’s local branch built this on the old grounds of First Government House. Its faience came from Wunderlich, who also made six medieval knights and two koalas to stand high on the front. The heritage register calls it a rare example of so highly and idiosyncratically decorated an Art Deco skyscraper. The spandrels between the windows are perforated, so that air could move through the building before air conditioning. There were squash courts on the roof. Its secretary, Dr Robert Todd, drove the whole project and died a year after it opened.

Read about Art Deco in Sydney

Sources

  1. AMA House, Sydney, Wikipedia
  2. The history of the Grace Building, Sydney (Ross, 2024), John W. Ross, hosted on shazbeige.com
  3. BMA House item, University of Western Australia (ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au)