Denison apartments, 15 Wylde Street, on the corner of Grantham Street, Potts Point, were designed in 1966 by Hugo Stossel (1905-2002), architect. Only recently has the extent and influence of his work been uncovered and recognised for its volume and worth.

Stossel was born in Hungary and trained in Vienna. He arrived in Sydney in 1938, one of a number of émigré architects to arrive in Australia during the 1930s just before World War II broke out.

In Europe he had worked on projects such as Buffet Automat (fast food restaurants) in Bucharest.

By 1939 he was registered as an architect in NSW and by 1945 at the end of the war he was a naturalised Australian citizen. In support of his architect’s application he listed several large projects with which he had been involved between 1933 and 1938 in Bucharest, Romania, submitting photographs and letters of reference.

During the war he has worked in NSW as a project manager for Cody & Willis, a construction firm engaged mostly on government projects. He also took on some private work, including the design of Australia’s first prefabricated steel house, erected by the Arcos Electric Arc Welding Products company in Ryde in 1946.

In the early post-war years, Hugo Stossel designed several small modernist houses for fellow émigrés.  The first was built in 1948 at Warrawee on Sydney’s upper north shore for Moses Eisner and his wife, Gisela.  Also built in 1948 was a house in Wahroonga for company director Rudolf Nossal and his family, from Vienna. In 1950 Stossel designed a house for his own family in East Lindfield, and another nearby for Viennese-born furniture designer Paul Kafka and his wife, Ilse.  A fifth north shore house was built in 1952–53 on Collaroy Plateau for Swiss-born Walter Schwarz and his wife, Alison.  The houses were featured in Sydney newspapers or published in magazines such as “The Australian Women’s Weekly” and “Australian House & Garden”.

During the war he worked as a project manager for Cody & Willis, a construction firm engaged mostly on government projects.

All of Stossel’s houses, including two built in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in the 1950s, are boldly geometric and feature open living spaces often adjoining outdoor terraces. His projects appeared regularly in the press in the 1950s. Several of his residential designs appeared in the 1954 publication “Sixty Beach and Holiday Homes” alongside architects such as Harry Seidler, Sydney Ancher and Arthur Baldwinson. Described as Stossel’s most ‘elegant’ project, the St. Ursula Apartment Building in Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay, NSW, completed in 1951, was a reinforced concrete and steel curtain wall structure with floor to ceiling steel framed windows.

His work ethic was prodigious and included homes, high-rise apartments, factories, resorts, hotels, government office blocks, the NSW Police HQ and schools.

He also submitted designs for the 1954 Design for the new Opera House & Concert Hall competition, 1963 Rocks Redevelopment Scheme, the 1972 Hotel and Casino at Nusa Dua resort, Bali, 1976 proposed shops & flats at Hastings Street, Noosa Heads, 1959 Block of flats at lots 4 & 5 Sutherland Cres. Darling Point , the 1962 Redevelopment of Queen Victoria Site, the1974-1984 KMS Project, Kent Market & Sussex Street, a Sydney office/residential block and the 1963 Martin Place office block north-west corner of Martin Place, between Phillip Street and Martin Place 21 storeys

All full catalogue of his oeuvre is still not complete but includes: 1950-1951 Stossel house, 72 Woodlands Road, East Lindfield Residence for Hugo & Hildegarde Stossel,1950-1951 G.M.F. Electric Motors, factory for Improved Constructions Pty Ltd, Woodville Road, Villawood factory building, factory building Bonar Street, Arncliffe, 1951-1953 Marine & Industrial Power factory,1952-1953 Schwarz house, 92 Aubreen Street, c 1952 Collaroy Plateau Co Pty Ltd, 41 Military Road, Neutral Bay factory,1953-1954 Residence for R.A. Pfeiffer Esq, 112 Balfour Road, Rose Bay, 1957-1959 Broadwaters, 11 Sutherland Crescent, Darling Point flats; 8 storeys, Yarranabbe Gardens, 87-93 Yarranabbe Road, Darling Point 77 home units, 1958-1959 Narrabeen Boys High School, Pittwater Road, Narrabeen, 1959-1960 Elizabeth Gardens, 1 Holdsworth Avenue, Elizabeth Bay home units; 7 storeys, 1963-1964 The Chimes, 45-53 Macleay Street, Potts Point apartment block, 10 storeys, 1964-1965 Kamilaroi, 52 1965 The Tor, 51 Roslyn Gardens, Elizabeth Bay Home units, Darling Point Road, Darling Point block of 30 home units; 5 floors, 1966-1967 Macleay Gardens, 6-8 Macleay Street, Potts Point apartment block, 1966-1968 Bayview, 41-49 Roslyn Gardens, Elizabeth Bay apartment block, 1967-1969 Parkes House, 37 York Street, Sydney, 1967-1969 Wynyard TraveLodge, 9 York Street, Sydney, 1968-1970 Eastbourne Tower, Eastbourne Road, Darling Point apartment block , 1969-1970 Crown Agents Office Block, 276-278 Pitt Street, Sydney, 1969-1971 Bundah, 4-10 The Boulevarde, Brighton-le-Sands home units, 8 floors, 1970-1972 BMA Tower, 815 Pacific Highway, Chatswood, 1970-1971 Cambridge House, William Street, Sydney [proposed], 1971-1973 Avery Building, 14-24 College Street, Sydney Former NSW Police Headquarters, c1972 Auburn Motor Inn, 95 Station Road, Auburn, 1970-1975 1979-1981 Hilton International, Sydney Airport and the CAGA Centre, 8-18 Bent Street, Sydney

Such an expansive influence on our mid-century built environment is now only being recognised.

“Denison” at 15 Wylde Street, with its 48 apartments, is an unprepossessing building. But although it lacks the featurism or distinguishing features like The Gazebo, Macleay-Regis, Ikon Apartments or the Chimes at 40 Macleay Street (also by Stossel) nearby, it sits solidly in its streetscape. It retains its Stossel design signatures such as glass walls, which are also typical of mid-century designs.

A mid-life photo of Hugo Stossel shows him as a well-dressed, urbane, distinguished European with savoir faire and an obvious flair with refined taste.

Denison is part of the wide-ranging mix of eclectic styles in the Potts Point area enjoyed by locals.

By Andrew Woodhouse

Heritage Solutions