Team
The Art Gallery is privileged to have worked with an international and Australian architecture, design, landscape and delivery team to create a new art museum experience for Australia’s global city. The Sydney Modern Project involved construction of a new building, revitalisation of our existing building, and significant landscape works.
The new building is designed by SANAA with Architectus as executive architect. It was delivered by Infrastructure NSW on behalf of the NSW Government and the Art Gallery, and built by Richard Crookes Constructions.
The revitalisation of our existing building was designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects. The building contractor was Kane Constructions.
Australian landscape architects McGregor Coxall, renowned landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, and Seattle firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) worked together to design feature landscape elements as well as an overall campus landscape strategy.
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SANAA
Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Founded in 1995, SANAA is an architectural and design firm based in Tokyo, headed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, with three partners Yoshitaka Tanase, Yumiko Yamada and Rikiya Yamamoto.
In recent years SANAA has completed several prominent cultural and educational projects such as the restoration of La Samaritaine in Paris, Grace Farms in Connecticut, Louvre-Lens in France, Rolex Learning Center in Switzerland, New Museum in New York, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Japan.
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa were chosen as the 2010 Laureates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
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Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer was formed by Peter Tonkin and Brian Zulaikha in 1987, joined by Tim Greer in 1989 and by Roger O'Sullivan in 1992. Associate Directors are Julie Mackenzie, Wolfgang Ripberger, Jeremy Hughes and Regina Meyer.
The practice has maintained a focus on the visual arts, with collaborations on built works, commissioned artworks and collaborative installation pieces. Leading examples include the iconic Vietnam Memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier, in Canberra, and most recently The Australian War Memorial in London.
TZG's young and energetic team of architects has worked together since the late 1980's on a wide range of public and private projects. They have developed efficient procedures for navigating the design though the construction period, all the time maximising the potential in the process. TZG embraces the future with confidence in technology, fascination for history and enthusiasm for the sense of place to be found within the site for any new project.
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Kathryn Gustafson and Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
Kathryn Gustafson is a globally renowned landscape architect with 35 years of distinguished practice. Among her many accolades, Kathryn was recognised with the 2019 Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award, the highest honour bestowed by the International Federation of Landscape Architecture. Kathryn is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architecture, an honorary Royal Designer for Industry member and a medallist of the French Academy of Architecture.
Kathryn is a partner in two landscape architecture firms, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) – founded in Seattle, Washington in 1999 with Jennifer Guthrie and Shannon Nichol – and Gustafson Porter + Bowman in London. Her work with GGN includes the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago. In 2011, Kathryn and her GGN partners received the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture, and GGN received the 2017 ASLA National Landscape Architecture Firm Award.
Kathryn’s work with Gustafson Porter + Bowman includes the Site Tour Eiffel in Paris, Valencia’s Parque Central in Spain, Westergasfabriek Culture Park in Amsterdam and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in London’s Hyde Park.
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Construction phase project team
Infrastructure NSW managed the delivery of the Sydney Modern Project on behalf of the Art Gallery of NSW and NSW Government.
The NSW Government appointed Richard Crookes Constructions as the contractor for the new building. Richard Crookes Constructions worked with a team of consultants and sub-contractors to deliver the new building and landscape.
The Art Gallery worked with Akin Atelier on the design and fit-out of the retail shop in the new building.
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Design phase project team
A consultant team appointed by the Art Gallery worked with SANAA on the design development and planning for the project. Key consultants during the design development and planning phase of the project included:
Architectus – the executive architect and planner for the Sydney Modern Project.
Architectus websiteArup – advising on the structural, civil, fire safety, fire and hydraulic security, acoustic and traffic elements of the Sydney Modern Project.
Arup websiteGroup DLA – providing advice on the building regulations and certification for the Sydney Modern Project under the Building Code of Australia.
Group DLA websiteMcGregor Coxall – the landscape architect for the Sydney Modern Project.
McGregor Coxall websiteMorris Goding Access Consulting – providing advice on the accessibility requirements of the Sydney Modern Project.
Morris Goding Access Consulting websiteRider Levett Bucknall (RLB) – the quantity surveyor for the Sydney Modern Project.
RLB websiteSteensen Varming – advising on the mechanical, electrical, vertical transport, communication and lighting elements of the Sydney Modern Project.
Steensen Varming websiteWSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff – working with Atelier Ten and the Gallery to ensure the Sydney Modern Project is an ecologically sustainable development.
WSP websiteSome of the consultants listed above continue to be engaged as part of the construction phase project team.