The NSW Architects Registration Board has a new registrar, Tim Horton, who will handle the state’s architectural standards during a high-period for NSW projects.
A former commissioner for South Australia’s Integrated Design Commission and current chief executive of the Committee for Adelaide, Horton will now replace Kate Doyle from 1 July to facilitate what board president Richard Thorp calls a “considerable upswing” in the volume and quality of projects taking place in Sydney.
“We are so delighted that Tim Horton’s name came up,” Thorp told The Australian Financial Review on Friday. “He’s already been a considerable contributor to the built environment in the south-east of Australia. The contribution he will make over the next 20 years will be phenomenal and will be proved. We’ve got the best candidate going.”
Horton’s role, a mix of heading the professional standards watchdog and promoting architecture to the public, comes at time of development saturation particularly in Sydney’s public built environment.
The assessment and promotion of plans for Crown Resort’s Bangaroo waterfront casino and hotel will be handled by Horton as the project plans are set to be released to the public for scrutiny and feedback.
Sydney’s Wynyard Station is also set to receive a $1 Billion overhaul by Make Architects and Architectus, another plan that will now fall under Horton’s newfound jurisdiction.
Thorp told TFR that Horton’s appointment comes at a time when public and policymakers in NSW are starting to better understand the value of good design in the public built environment.
“If you look back over the last couple of decades maybe, what’s happening now is catching up with that,” he said.
“But the quality of what’s happening now is much better. If you look at Darling Harbour in the ’80s and early ’90s, what happened there was not generally high-quality developments. That is being redone. I’m very positive about where Sydney’s heading.”
