Sitting nobly at the entrance to Potts Point facing Sydney Harbour at 3 Wylde Street, this intriguing block of apartments forms an entrance pillar to the gateway of Potts Point.

Apartment 25 is for sale through Angelo Bouras and Tonia Croft https://www.rwebay.com.au/7479199/

Built in 1959 by Syd Fischer, its six-storey design was innovative for its time. Syd Fischer built many other buildings including the Gazebo Hotel nearby.
It was designed by architect, Mr N G Forsyth, who also designed Glenhurst Gardens at 11 Yarranabee Rd Darling Point, almost identical in style to The Gateway.

The Gateway utilises a unique method of construction called portal slab construction, now no longer used because of the expense. Each concrete slab was laid down and then jacked up using pillars which became the principal and only supports. The walls were then left free of all impediments and were infilled with glass. Interior apartment wall lights or floor lamps were required because pendulum ceiling lighting would have no access to electrics within the concrete slabs.
As a result, the 34 apartments enjoy unrivalled 270-degree panoramic views with only one common wall, spacious living rooms and floor-to-ceiling glass, a signature mid-century 1950s feature.
The original sales brochure described it as “the most honoured home building of 1957”, hinting at its awards. The original design was later altered to accommodate a penthouse and 16 garages during a minor recession, to boost the first sales.

Original apartments had parquet flooring, utilitarian kitchens with formica benchtops, later called laminex, and “modern” blue and/or pink tiled bathrooms, all integral to its 1950s mid-century design some of which are still evident in apartment 25.

The fascinating entrance murals were created by German-born sculptor, Kurt Nordern, from Frankfurt, who was gifted at an early age. He was born in 1917 and sculpted a mask of Field-Marshal Hindenburg (1847-1934), a German World War I military commander and president, when he was only 11. He moved to New Zealand in 1931 for three months after WW I to work on repairing shop models and then moved onto cleaning sculptures in Sydney’s Royal Botanical Gardens. A page one photo in the Sydney Morning Herald, February 1953, shows him working on cleaning the sculptures wearing glasses, clad in an apron using a wire brush and smoking a cigar. He said “I’ve been smoking cigars since I was 14-years old. I now smoke 75 a week”. He lived locally at 53 Macleay Street on the corner of McDonald Street, three minutes away from The Gateway. His murals are engrailed and depict the relationship between indigenous peoples and their land and show a timeline from their first habitation to today’s modern city.

One resident who moved in just after completion before Christmas 1959 has said they enjoy the aspect and crossflow ventilation designed-in by low, ankle-height opening windows. Other residents say they appreciate the 1950s-style variegated red bricks, simple design lines, the handy porte-cochère entryway and its building name signage and exterior glass panels.
Good design never goes out of style.

By Andrew Woodhouse
Heritage Solutions