Square-on, slightly elevated view of Sirius at dusk: the stepped stack of precast concrete apartment boxes rising to a tower at left of centre, each with a deep window frame, trees at its foot and the harbour and city buildings beyond. Even blue-hour light, verticals straight.

Sirius

Cumberland Street, The Rocks

Tao Gofers, NSW Housing Commission. 1975 to 1980, refitted about 2022 to 2024. Brutalism.

Size
79 apartments at first, 75 today. 11 storeys in the tallest original block; about 116 m long
Material
Grey off-form concrete, in-situ and precast. Copper-clad pods added 2024
Status
Not State listed: ministers refused twice, against a unanimous Heritage Council. Now private apartments

The Housing Commission built Sirius to rehouse tenants of The Rocks, among them people who had fought for their homes during the Green Bans. Gofers stacked the apartments as repeated cubes in stepped terraces. He wanted them painted white to match the Opera House, and the budget left them bare. In 2015 the state decided to sell. The Heritage Council recommended listing, a minister refused, a court found the refusal invalid, and a second minister refused again. The last resident, Myra Demetriou, left on 1 February 2018. It sold for A$150 million in 2019, and BVN’s refit kept the concrete and added copper.

Read about Brutalism in Sydney

Sources

  1. The Sirius Building, Docomomo Australia (Noni Boyd, 2017)
  2. Support for Save Our Sirius Campaign, Lord Mayoral minute, 24 October 2016, City of Sydney
  3. Sirius denied heritage protection, again, ArchitectureAU
  4. Sirius Redevelopment, 2025 National Architecture Awards, Australian Institute of Architects
  5. Sirius Building, Wikipedia