Cowboy Town Architecture Sydney Style

Built heritage has a very important meaning in Sydney, but it is mostly 20 century heritage that is preserved, as older buildings are few and far between. In the suburbs it is mostly early bungalow architecture that is preserved, in specially selected areas, usually the wealthier ones. In the city center there is a wider selection of heritage that is preserved, included early townhouse and a variety of commercial and public buildings.

But a lot of the preservation is restricted to facades facing the street only. This applies both to the bungalows, where the front elevation including the roof up to the pitch is preserved, and townhouse facades, but not the roof, and not the space above. 

Four or five floors added to original two story commercial building.

The heatwave here is over and it is back to 25-30 degree C. At the warmest it was 46 degree C at mid afternoon on Friday 18.02, when I was partly on the train into the city (without air condition), a little walk in the center, and partly on an air conditioned bus to the beach.

During my first three weeks in Sydney I had time to run five times, yoga eight times, swam seven times, five times in the ocean at Manly, Mosmann and La Perouse, and three times in the pools at Woolloomooloo, Victoria Park and Milsons Point. I also walked five times along the beach, trice north of the city between Palm Beach and Manly, once around North Head at Manly, once near Botany Bay south of the city, as well as once in the Blue Mountains at Blackheath west of the city. In addition I was once on the river ferry from Parramatta to Circular Quay as well as on the ferry across the bay to Manly half a dozen times. I also experienced Australia Day with free concerts in the city center at Circular Quay and in the Domain park.

Original facade preserved with new interior, two extra floors and adjacent high rise building 

Cowboy town architecture
So looking more carefully at some bungalows, traces of the modern side facades reveal that the house is entirely rebuilt, or looking carefully through the windows or front door, the houses may be totally transparent at the rear, often with open plan ground floors and few internal walls.
In the city center, things are a little different, as a facade can be preserved, but any number of floors added on top. Some of the tallest buildings of 20-30 floors in the city have preserved 3-5 floors facades at the bottom, either as a free standing structure or integrated in the new building. Alternatively, the old structure stands adjacent to a new building, up to 10 times taller than the adjacent older building.

This type of preserving the built heritage works quite well in many areas of Sydney. However, there are some rather disastrous areas, especially where 1960s, 1970s and sometimes more recent architecture or town plans dominates.

Two apartment buildings erected behind preserved bungalow at Manly beach front