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Sydney City Council

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Preceding series

Related series

Building Inspectors' Cards, 1935-1997

Creating agencies

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Building applications inspection and approval

Plan

Plans in this Series (46,027)

Box

Boxes in this Series (7,254)

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Building Application (BA) Plans, 1909-1997 [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]

Description

Unique IDAS-0126Start dateBetween 1st January 1909 and 30th June 1997Start date qualifiercircaFormatPlanShort descriptionThis series contains plans submitted to Sydney City Council for the purpose of approval of building activity. Responsibility for supervision of building activity has rested with Council since the passing of the City of Sydney Improvement Act 1879.DescriptionThis series contains plans submitted to Council for the purpose of approval of building activity. Responsibility for supervision of building activity has rested with Council since the passing of the City of Sydney Improvement Act 1879. Two sets of plans are submitted, one of which is returned to the client.

The plans were created by the following agencies:
- City Architect and Building Surveyors Department I (AG-0078) in the period 01/01/1909 to 31/08/1928
- City Engineering and Building Surveyors Department (AG-0061) in the period 31/08/1928 to 01/06/1936
- City Architect and Building Surveyors Department II (AG-0016) in the period 01/06/1936 to 25/10/1971
- Planning and Building Department (AG-0008) in the period 25/10/1971 to 31/12/1992
- City Development (AG-0135) in the period 01/01/1993 to 30/06/1997.

The applications are registered and given an annual single number from Building Application Registers (AS-0122), and then indexed in AS-0533 and AS-0728, the Street Cards.

Prior to 1909 the plans submitted for approval were registered, annotated with the City Building Surveyor's decision, and then returned to the applicant. In 1908 the City Building Surveyor inquired if the Institute of Architects would approve of duplicates being taken from plans submitted for approval to Council. The Institute agreed, and the practise began in 1909. Council kept a written description of plans submitted from 1879 to 1907, but the records were destroyed in 1952 (AS-0138, A-00478842).

CONTENT
Over the years the plans submitted with the average building application have increased in number. At first only architectural drawings were lodged, mainly elevations and floor plans, and the total number of plans per application rarely exceeded ten.

As structures and techniques grew more complex other plan types were introduced. Today engineering, electrical and mechanical drawings form the bulk of the submitted plans. The 1960s and 1970s saw the erection of many high-rise buildings, some of which had several hundred plan sheets submitted with the application.

It was the practice for many years to treat an application to view or peruse plans as a building application, and allocate the request a building application number. Therefore these perusals (which never involved plans being submitted) are listed with other building applications on the street cards.

BUILDING APPLICATION FILES
Building application plans and files were given the same annual single number until 1979, when a new centralised filing system was introduced into Council. The plans were still allocated annual single numbers from the Building Application Registers, but the files were given a different prefix that did not include the year element. For example, the first plan for 1979 was numbered BA 1/79, but the related file was numbered 11.04.0001. In 1980, the system was changed so that the number included a year element. For example, the first building application file for 1980 was numbered 45.80.0001. The plan was numbered BA 1/1980. The primary number '45' was allocated to building application files from 1980 until 1987 when a new filing system was introduced.

From 1988 until 1993, building application files were given a 'X' prefix. The first file of 1988 was numbered X88-00001, while the plans was numbered BA 1/1988. From 1994 the plans and files ceased to have any numbers in common. Building application plans were registered by the Planning Division, while the building application files were registered by the Records with other planning files (such as applications for hoardings and open-air food stalls) in the one keyword classification. For example, a building application plan lodged for 26-28 Market Street in 1995 was numbered B1995/251 whereas the related building application file is numbered as A95-00309. The plan number was included in the file title as below:

A95/00309: APPLICATIONS FOR APPROVAL - A1 - B1995 00251 - 16 03 95 - WOODHOUSE & DANKS ARCHITECTS - SYDNEY 26 - 28 MARKET ST - ALTERATIONS TO STAIRWAY $5000

This practice continued until 30 June 1997. From 1 July 1997, files and plans were allocated the same number.

STORAGE
Prior to the City of Sydney Archives taking over care and custody of building plans from the Planning Department in 1996, plans were rolled up in large boxes or pigeon-hole shelving, one roll per building application, 50 building applications per box. From 1996, smaller plans were placed inside the relevant file. Plans from 1909 to around 1920 have been encapsulated and stored flat in plan cabinets. In 1996 the Archives began reboxing the rolled plans into grey acid-free boxes.

CONSERVATION OF BUILDING PLANS PROJECT
From 1986 to 1991 Council undertook a project to conserve these plans. Plans from 1909 to 1920, a small percentage of 1954, and 1973 to 1977 were flattened, conserved (if necessary), cleaned and microfilmed. Plans of minor alterations and repairs were destroyed after microfilming. The earlier plans were encapsulated in mylar and are stored flat. (The plans from 1954, and 1973 to 1977 were included in the Project to speed up the number of plans treated).

In the early stages of this project, specifications lodged with plans were numbered as part of the plan, but were not microfilmed. This is why the microfilm of some of the older plans appears to be have a sheet missing, which is not the case. The specifications were not retained in Archives.

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGE
The Local Government (City of Sydney Boundaries) Act 1967 split Sydney City Council, creating a new South Sydney Municipal Council (known as Northcott Council for a short period of time) and handing over other parts of the City Council's area to Leichhardt, Marrickville, and Woollahra Councils.

In 1968 when the Act took effect, all of the plans in this series dating back to 1948 for buildings outside the new Sydney City Council's boundaries were separated and handed over to the new Councils. In 1981 when South Sydney Municipal Council was amalgamated with Sydney City Council the building application plans that had been handed over were returned. They were kept by Archives in a separate series, AS-0092.

With the splitting of the Council again in 1988, and the formation of South Sydney City Council from 1989, plans in this series relating to areas now within South Sydney were made accessible to the latter Council, though the series was not physically split.Relationship summaryCONTROLLED BY: Old Planning Street Cards AS-0710 (01/01/1909 to 20/04/1928)
CONTROLLED BY: Building Application Registers AS-0122 (01/01/1909 to 31/12/1993)
CONTROLLED BY: Planning Street Cards AS-0533 (21/04/1928 to 21/10/1994)
PRECEDED BY: Waterloo Building Plans AS-1075 (by 01/01/1950)
PRECEDED BY: Redfern Building Plans AS-1073 (by 01/01/1950)
PRECEDED BY: Glebe Building Plans AS-1071 (by 01/01/1950)
PRECEDED BY: Erskineville Building Plans AS-1069 (01/01/1949)
PRECEDED BY: Paddington Building Plans AS-1074 (by 01/01/1949)
PRECEDED BY: Newtown Building Plans AS-1072 (by 01/01/1950)
PRECEDED BY: Darlington Building Plans AS-1070 (01/01/1949)
PRECEDED BY: Alexandria Building Plans AS-1068 (by 31/12/1949)
PRECEDED BY: South Sydney Municipal Council Building Application Plans AS-0092 (01/01/1985)
RELATED TO: Building Inspectors Cards AS-0135 (01/01/1941 to 21/04/1997)
RELATED TO: Building applications inspection and approval AY-28 (01/01/1909 to 30/06/1997) LanguageEnglish (eng)

Series

Building and Development Plans

South Sydney City Council Building Application Plans

General Correspondence and Subject Files

Plans of the Capitol Theatre, 1913-1970 [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]

Central Activity Files, 1979-1987

Building Application Plans, 1968-1984 [South Sydney Municipal Council]

Building Application Files, 1941-1978 [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]

Access

Public access statusRestricted original (digital copy available)Public access noteSome of the records in this series may contain drawings of internal layouts for significant buildings that have been identified as being restricted under access direction AD2039.

Identification and Arrangement

Source system ID126System of arrangementAnnual single number

Digitisation

Digitisation statusPartially digitised

Data Quality

Authenticity & integrityThese are the Building Application Plans from the Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney. The record has been held in the Council’s custody and has a high level of authenticity. Users should be aware that this is an historical record and the language used within the record was the language of the time it was captured, and may not reflect current community values or expectations.

Relationships

OrganisationSydney City CouncilControlled by seriesPlanning Street CardsBuilding Application Registers [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]Old Planning Street CardsPreceding seriesBuilding Application Plans, 1968-1984 [South Sydney Municipal Council]Alexandria Building PlansDarlington Building PlansNewtown Building PlansPaddington Building PlansErskineville Building PlansGlebe Building Plans [Glebe Municipal Council]Redfern Building PlansWaterloo Building PlansRelated seriesBuilding Inspectors' Cards, 1935-1997Creating agenciesCity Architect and Building Surveyor's Department ICity Engineering and Building Surveyor's DepartmentCity Architect and Building Surveyor's Department IIPlanning and Building DepartmentCity DevelopmentRelated activitiesBuilding applications inspection and approval

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Building Application (BA) Plans, 1909-1997 [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]