Sydney Opera House conservation plan

–90–Management and staff commitment to regular and intelligent housekeepingpractices is important. It is easy for established regimes toslide into decay.Policy 43.4 In addition to informed supervision, a simple, six-monthlyaudit of current practice should be carried out to ensure that the qualityof the housekeeping regime is maintained.Laser projections and external advertisingThe Sydney Opera House will come under increasing pressure topermit laser projections on the Opera House shells. Frequent use forthat purpose would destroy the intended lighting effect and debase theimage of the building as an icon. Policy 44.1 below reflects theConservation Council’s advice. Similarly, external advertising such asbillboards and banners would progressively degrade the place.Policy 44.1 The use of the roof shells as a medium on which to projectimages should be confined to exceptional non-commercial occasions ofbrief duration.Policy 44.2 No advertising material should be placed on, or obscure,the external fabric of the Sydney Opera House or topographical featuresof exceptional significance (fig 67a).Exhibitions, displays, banners,posters and allied materialsThere are spaces of quite exceptional character and significancein the Sydney Opera House. They provide on entry a“strong, unexpected and moving contrast with what hasgone before”. John Waldram, who advised on the originallighting, calls this an “impact view” (Waldram, 3). Whether bynight or day, it is important that such spaces are notprogressively cluttered by the installation of exhibitions,merchandising counters, banners, posters, pylons and alliedmaterial, or by the detritus of past exhibits.66. Banners in the south foyer of theConcert Hall. JSK photograph 93.6.10.The south foyer of the Concert Hall is a case in point. Theimpact on entry from the podium or Box Office stairs is weakened bybanners on the facing brush box wall (fig.66). It was ironical that in1993 they bore the name of a firm that did so much to make the lightingof the public spaces in the building a success in 1973. In October1998, poorly hung commercial banners were still suspendedin the southern foyer, and eleven 7-feet high display caseshad been ranged along the western glass walls (fig.67). Thelatter defeat the architects’ intention of providing magnificentunobstructed views of the harbour and city.Policy 45.1 Free-standing exhibitions, displays and miscellaneousstructures should not obscure or interrupt viewsfrom the Opera House or reduce the impact of its majorinterior spaces.67. Free-standing display cases againstthe canted glass walls of the Concert Hallsouthern foyer for an exhibition in 1998.JSK photograph 98.8.15.Policy 45.2 Except as set out in policy 45.4 below, nobanners, posters or allied materials should be placed on thewalls of spaces listed in the schedule on pages 34 to 38 asbeing of exceptional significance.Such spaces include the foyers surrounding the major auditoria, butnot the Box Office foyer and vehicle concourse. In the latter locations