Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01306:reg:81
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01306
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 81
Character Range: 134346–136322

81   Canberra Times, 7 September 1991, p. 5; 15 October 1991, p. 3; National Film and Sound Archive Newsletter, no. 14, August 1994, p. 11; National Film and Sound Archive leaflet, 'The Archive', c. 1995.

  The extension, which was intended to house the Film and Sound Archive's principal administrative and technical functions, was to be linked to the original building. It was to cost an estimated $12.4 million to build, with work scheduled to start in April 1996. The project was in effect a revival of Cumpston's unsuccessful proposals to have such an extension built in 1937-38 and again in 1944. It also reportedly accorded with the views of the Institute's architect, W.H. Morris, who in 1985 – five years before his death – told a representative of the National Capital Development Commission that it

  was 'appropriate and proper' that the building should be added on to in such a fashion.82

  Following the change of government in the election of March 1996, the new Howard government deleted the project from its budget of that year, much to the dismay of NFSA staff. Many staff members were working uncomfortably in the building's basements or in nearby demountables, while the condition of the building itself continued to deteriorate, particularly through water penetration. The Howard government resurrected the project

  in 1997, allocating $15 million to build the extension. Contractors for the construction of the building, Civil and Civic, commenced work in January 1998, with an expected
  completion date of November in that year. The extension was not designed as a piece of faux heritage – that is,
  to mimic the Art Deco features of the original building – but rather through its scale and external finishes to be sympathetic to the style of its predecessor. It was, as well, to include a new entrance off
  Liversidge Street which also provided wheelchair access.83

Figure 29: Model of proposed NFSA Building extensions, 1994 (NFSA 2018)