The Journey to Restoration and Adaptive Reuse: The Historic Female Orphan School
The Whitlam Institute within the University of Western Sydney was proud to host the talk The Journey to Restoration and Adaptive Reuse: The Historic Female Orphan School as part of the National Trust Heritage Festival 2014.
The historic Female Orphan School is one of the few surviving public buildings of its size from the early Australian colonial period. It has had a varied use throughout the years, beginning as the Female Orphan School (1813 -- 1850), the Protestant Orphan School (1850 -- 1886) and the Rydalmere Psychiatric Hospital (1888 -- 1989) and is now the home of the Whitlam Institute, the Whitlam Prime Ministerial Collection, the A Changing Australia -- The time of Gough Whitlam exhibition and the Margaret Whitlam Galleries.
Heritage architect Megan Jones, Practice Director of Tanner Kibble Denton talks about the renovation and restoration of the Female Orphan School building, beginning from the inspiration behind its original construction - Elizabeth Macquarie's ancestral home Aird's House - and concluding with the third and final stage of renovation, completed in September 2013.
Megan Jones talks about the problems with the building from the onset with rising damp to the problems facing the three stages of restoring the now fragile heritage building after years of neglect. Megan also discusses the challenges of restoring a 200 year old building while respecting the historical significance and yet, at the same time complying with 21st century regulations.
Megan Jones is the Practice Director at Tanner Kibble Denton Architects and leads the Heritage Group. She has undertaken numerous conservation management plans and conservation and adaptive reuse projects. She was the project architect for St Patrick's College, Manly, the Sydney Electric Lighting Station, Pyrmont, the Vernon Group and Drill Master's House, UWS -- Parramatta Campus, the Sydney School of Arts in Pitt Street, the Old Kings School, Parramatta, the former AGL site at The Bond, Hickson Road, Millers Point and two major Macquarie Era Buildings: the Greenway Stables in, Macquarie Street, Sydney, and the Female Orphan School at Rydalmere.
These Projects have received numerous awards. The conservation and adaptation of the St Patrick's College, Manly, the Greenway Stables as part of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Female Orphan School at the UWS have each received UNESCO Asia Pacific Awards for heritage conservation.
In 1998 Megan was awarded the National Association of Women in Construction Award for Excellence for her work at University of Western Sydney Parramatta Campus.
For more details on the restoration and adaptive re-use of the historic Female Orphan School please visit uws.edu.au/fos.