Why the UTS Tower still stands tall and defiant

In the second half of the 20th century, in a post-war construction boom, the New South Wales Government Architects’ Office (GAO) was charged with designing most of the public and institutional buildings across the state. In a golden era for the GAO, they were by far the most prolific architecture practice in the country; their buildings –for the most part ignored by the Heritage Council – defined Sydney’s contemporary urban landscape.

New waves of urban renewal across the state are now putting these constructions at risk of extinction, with many too young to be considered as having historical value, and others now too dated for our modern tastes. There is one example, however, that through sheer presence and material properties, seems to be resisting this trend.

In 1968, Michael Dysart began drawings for by far the largest and tallest educational building in Australia to that date, the NSW Institute of Technology (NSWIT) tower that would become the anchor of the UTS precinct. The 128-metre tall concrete shaft drew much criticism over the following decades. Seen as an eyesore in an urban landscape with nothing nearly as large, it dominated the skyline in a bold claim for the institute. Yet, in a time when the institute was struggling to define itself, in some sort of limbo between technical college and university, this iconic structure was able not only to symbolise but to catalyse a new presence for NSWIT and stake a claim for serious recognition.  

This monolith could stand for another century and beyond.

The UTS Tower has since grown into its surroundings, both conditioning and relating to the dense urban landscape now surrounding it. But, through the integrity of its form, it has resisted any dilution. Instead, it seems now to have settled, through juxtaposition and reference, with the grey extrusions of newer neighbours and green billboard-like UTS Central that leverage both legislatively and visually from it. Defining a new height limit for the area, it is rational to conceive that without the planning precedent it set, many of its new neighbours would not exist.

The Tower defies demolition, the post-tensioned concrete structural system that allowed its formation now renders its removal near impossible. With replacement unfeasible, proposals have been put forward to conceal the tower beneath a skin, to soften its harsh edges. But attempts to reconstruct the ‘image’ of the tower have so far, thankfully, failed. Today our building codes and policies, including Green Star energy ratings, suggest that architects and builders consider only a 25-year life span of a building. Now, on its 40th anniversary, this monolith could stand for another century and beyond. 

The vast atrium space of the podium, one of the most spectacular in Sydney to this day, forms the gateway to the UTS precinct, defining its presence in the absence of one unified campus.  A slight rotation of the volume away from Broadway opens the forecourt to the building, but it also reorients the tower, constructing panoramic views of Sydney's sprawling urban landscape.

Only two rooms above the podium still exist in their original state, and even these are now slated for refurbishment. Their exposed concrete beams and parquetry floors stand as testament to a focus on construction quality now seemingly lost. Recently, these spaces took on one final task, setting the backdrop for an exhibition of GAO works from the period. Entitled Quality, Control, the exhibition interrogated the relationship between bureaucratic architecture and design and construction quality, utilising these original interiors as both artefact and container. The exhibition aimed to shed light on the underrepresented achievements of the GAO from the 50s to the late 80s, but also acted as a mechanism through which a claim for preservation can be made.

While buildings from this era continue to fall, sold to private developers and replaced with glitzy apartment blocks, the Tower stands tall and defiant – Sydney’s ‘middle finger,’ not to itself, but to the forces of capital now consuming our public realm. 

Jack Cooper and Luca Enstrom will publish a second edition of their UTS Tower thesis in coming weeks.