the fight over the future of Seidler’s 1950s Bondi synagogue, previously part of Yeshiva College, where plans for heritage protection have held up the Rich Lister developer’s latest residential tower.The Bondi synagogue designed by Harry Seidler with its distinctive barrel vaulted roof.Angry the state’s Independent Planning Commission recommended the synagogue not be heritage listed earlier this month, Masselos wants NSW Heritage Ministerto issue a new order to keep the building intact.
There’s no doubt the building’s design was groundbreaking. Now part of The Harry Triguboff Centre, its thin concrete roof and unique interiors caught the attention of iconic Australian photographerIn an assessment for the council, Hector Abrahams Architects said the synagogue was “one of the most architecturally distinguished religious chambers of the immediate post-war period”.
The council has begun the uphill task of convincing the Minns government to go against Triguboff’s wishes. It will seek help from the influential Jewish Board of Deputies, the Australian Institute of Architects and advocates of modernist design.Seidler’s family are protective of his endowment to the nation and carefully track developments affecting his work. His widowsays the state government “seem reluctant to go a bit further” and have put the synagogue in the too-hard basket.
“I found their report unusual, to say the least. They didn’t actually say no, they just messed around with it.”