Powerhouse compromise could halt demolition, save $100m

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The NSW government is considering a compromise plan for the redevelopment of the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo that would spare its 1980s wing from demolition and save taxpayers more than $100 million.

The Herald understands an options paper developed by Create NSW, the government’s arts agency, costs five different options for the museum and is due to be presented to cabinet’s powerful expenditure review committee over the coming weeks.

Proposals range from “do-nothing” to the approval of the current $500 million redevelopment announced by the former Coalition government last December. A middle course option to retain the Wran building, completed in 1988, and build a smaller building on the museum’s Harris Street forecourt is preferred by some within the new Labor government.

An artist’s impression of the new entrance and public square at the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo, as proposed by Architectus and Durbach Block Jaggers Architects.

Closure of the museum and temporary removal of the museum’s large objects would still be necessary because of dust and vibration, but likely be delayed until next year under this scenario. A revised redevelopment retaining existing structural elements would cost somewhere between $350 and $370 million, the Herald understands.

The deliberations come as Treasurer Daniel Mookhey warns the NSW budget is facing $7 billion in unexpected cost pressures and with Premier Chris Minns yet to commit to a metro rail line connecting Parramatta and the CBD amid a purported cost overrun.

At the March election, Labor pledged to save the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo as a world-class institution. Arts Minister John Graham has been undertaking broad community consultation about the museum’s future.

Current plans for a new creative arts precinct centred on the Powerhouse have been developed by a design team led by Architectus and Durbach Block Jaggers Architects following a national design competition.

They seek to reorient the museum’s entrance towards Haymarket and replace the museum’s galleria and the Wran wing along Harris Street with a new six-story annex containing a library, fit-for-purpose exhibition spaces for international blockbusters and upgraded public circulation spaces.

But unions have lobbied Minns to shelve the plans Labor inherited and direct savings into public sector pay rises.

The curved steel roof of the Wran Building could be retained under options before State Cabinet.Credit: Kate Geraghty

With the Ultimo building riddled with water leaks and mould, a minimum of $100 million is thought to be needed to replace its roof and make it safe.

Former president of the Powerhouse’s board of trustees, professor Barney Glover, urged the government keep to plans for a major refurbishment and realignment of the Ultimo site, even if revised, to maintain the Powerhouse as a world-class museum.

“It is vital that this occurs to ensure the long-term future of the extraordinary Powerhouse collection including its fashion collection in particular,” he said.

“Any consideration of a do-nothing option at Ultimo fails to appreciate the current state of the buildings, the additional significant maintenance required to ensure the site was safe and fit for purpose and the likelihood of the museum needing to close on the site even with maintenance funding within a few years.

“I would strongly encourage the government to continue with the planned Ultimo project whether within the currently proposed funding envelop or revised but still ensuring the key expansion, refurbishment and realignment occur.”

The museum’s founding director, Lindsay Sharp, is among those who have called for the government to undertake a less expensive but “radical evolution” of the 1988 campus and exploit major advances in display and audiovisual design capable of taking the museum far into the future.

He said new lightweight skylight structures, adding primarily underground exhibition spaces similar to that of the Louvre, could be built for about $300 million. If a compromise plan was supported the government would be pressed to return the savings to the arts budget. A spokesperson for the arts minister said they could not comment on cabinet matters.

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