PRESS RELEASE – 14 October 2007

St Barnabas Anglican Church, Broadway has taken another major step towards the reconstruction of its church building on Broadway.

The Parish Council of St Barnabas is pleased to announce that Frances-Jones Morehen Thorp is the winner of its Concept Design Competition for its new Church development.  Images of the winning concept appear here.

The selected architect will now be engaged to develop a detailed design for the new Church.  The design and approval process is expected to take up to 9 months followed by a 12 month construction period.  St Barnabas looks forward to returning home in late-2009.  Fire destroyed the original St Barnabas Church building in the early morning of 10 May 2006.

St Barnabas launched a concept design competition in late-June 2007 with the assistance of Winton & Associates acting as project mangers.  Five leading architectural firms submitted concept designs in response to a 100-page brief.  The key elements of the brief included  requirements for a 600 seat worship space, a multi-purpose hall, administrative offices and meeting rooms, and underground parking for up to 80 cars.

A specially convened selection panel carefully assessed the concepts and recommended the successful design to Parish Council, which unanimously endorsed the selection at it’s meeting of 8October 2007.  The selection committee was made up of three members of the parish, the Rector, Rev. Ian Powell, the Bishop of South Sydney, the Rt. Rev. Robert Forsyth and an independent architectural advisor, Dr Peter Armstrong from the University of Sydney.

 “We are very excited about the successful design.  The design is sympathetic to the site and its history, while offering an outstanding new building for the Church and the community.  We are confident that the new building will support the work and outreach of St Barnabas over the coming decades and particularly as we seek to achieve our vision to grow our membership to 1,000 by 2012.  We trust that the new building will make a significant contribution to local communities and that it will enhance the streetscape of Broadway and Mountain Streets” said Ian Powell, Senior Minister at St Barnabas Church.

 “The concept design is just the first step in the development of a new landmark building.  A great deal of detailed design work still needs to be undertaken with the successful architect, and we need approval for the redevelopment both from the Anglican Diocese and the City of Sydney Council.  We are looking forward to working with the Diocesan stakeholders and the Council to develop the best possible building for both the Church and the community” said Churchwarden David Britton. 

A key issue associated with the redevelopment is that the insurance proceeds will only partly fund the project.  A major fundraising drive will be launched in the near future.  “We hope to generate significant financial support for the redevelopment both within our immediate Church family, the wider Christian community, and the people of the Broadway region and Sydney generally” added Mr Powell.

Enquiries about the redevelopment should be addressed to Winton & Associates.  Any body wishing to donate to the redevelopment should contact the Church office on (02) 9211 3496.