The Palm Beach House

To overcome the problems of building on a cliff face with numerous rock shelves, architect Ken Woolley designed a timber 'tower' with multiple outdoor decks and balconies that connect the house to the cliff face.

Ken Woolley is a renowned and multi-award winning architect active between the 1950s and the 1990s. In the 1960s he worked for the project home company Pettit & Sevitt, and thousands of homes have been built from his designs. Between 1984 and 1985 he designed and built a family weekender at Palm Beach which received the Wilkinson Award in 1987.

I liked the notion of having a small footprint, and the idea of a tower-like house, which would in itself be a staircase up the cliff terminating in a bridge at the back, evolved.

Ken Woolley quoted in 70/80/90 Iconic Australian Houses: three decades of domestic architecture, by Karen McCartney

Published on 
The practical decorator and ornamentist for the use of architects, practical painters, decorators, and designers : containing one hundred plates in colours and gold, with descriptive notices, and an introductory essay on artistic and practical decoration / by George Ashdown Audsley and Maurice Ashdown Audsley

Ornament source books

Bringing together examples of surface and decorative ornament from a range of periods and cultures, ornament source books provided inspiration for designers, artists, sculptors and architects

Alexander Mackintosh Archive : 
architectural plans and specifications, 1901-1924: E. R. Orchard, architect : architectural plans and specifications, 1913-1915 / Edwin R. Orchard [architectural drawings]

Alexander Mackintosh Archive

The Alexander Mackintosh Archive comprises around 270 architectural drawings and many specification documents relating to the largely domestic building work carried out by building contractor Alexander Mackintosh in Sydney between 1900 and 1924

Susannah Place - goods in the corner shop window re-created to circa 1915, 64 Gloucester Street, The Rocks, 1991
Tour

Members Hour: Susannah Place

Experience Members Hour at Susannah Place

58–64 Gloucester Street, The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000
Monday 30 June 9am–10am
Duncan House
Past event

International Women’s Day Walking Tour of Castlecrag

Celebrate International Women’s Day 2025 with a walking tour that honours three pioneers of 20th-century Australian architecture: Marion Mahony Griffin, Ruth Lucas and Eva Buhrich

Saturday 8 March 10am–12.30pm