Frankly, these are no Sartorial masterpieces

Frankly, these are no Sartorial masterpieces

AFTER seizing control of the $800 million development of the Carlton United Brewery site at Broadway Planning Minister Frank Sartor explained that he was concerned the City of Sydney would deliver "an inferior design outcome". For the record, during his 11-year term as Sydney lord mayor, Sartor gave the city such celebrated architectural triumphs as the Toaster on east Circular Quay, the Cook and Phillip Park moonscape, the Regis Towers in Haymarket, Victoria Towers above the Catholic Club in Castlereagh Street, various Meriton-built icons and his most enduring projects, the redesign of William Street into a "gateway" and the Cross City Tunnel, which he co-sponsored.

Experts close to home

MODESTLY, Sartor has appointed what he calls "an expert advisory panel" to oversee the CUB project. The panel is chaired by former government architect Chris Johnson, who works for Sartor's Planning Department, and includes Michael Collins, chairman of the Heritage Council and on the board of Sartor's Redfern Waterloo Authority, and Lucy Turnbull, who was deputy to Sartor when he was lord mayor and is also on the Redfern Waterloo Authority. The final member is Neil Bird, deputy chairman of Landcom and a member of the Central Sydney Planning Committee. Nothing like getting outside advice.

That was then, this is now

IN July 2002 Sartor complained bitterly about the Carr government scrapping height and density control He warned this would "end orderly urban development in greater Sydney and open the way for a developers' free-for-all'. He went on: "There are four key determinants of economic value for property: height, density, permitted uses and heritage. Any council which starts playing around with them in an ad hoc fashion open the door to uncertainty, development appeals, and corruption." Pity he doesn't follow his own advice over the CUB site.