Architect Philip Thalis has been elected to the City of Sydney Council as a member of Clover Moore’s Independent Team, following the New South Wales council elections on 10 September.
He joins Clover Moore, now serving her fourth term, and eight other councillors who will serve a four-year term.
Thalis’s committee leadership positions include being a member of the Central Sydney Planning Committee and deputy chair of the City’s Transport, Heritage and Planning Subcommittee. He is also the alternate member of the Central Sydney Traffic and Transport Committee and alternate chairperson of the Local Pedestrian, Cycling and Traffic Calming Committee.
As a founding member of Hill Thalis, Thalis has won more than 60 awards, commendations and competitions for architecture, urban design, planning, public domain and heritage projects. Awards recognition includes a 2015 national award for multiresidential housing for Studios 54.
Thalis said the absence of built environment professionals on the council was one of the reasons he decided to stand for election.
“If you think back to 1992, there were three people with architectural training and a planner out of the seven councillors, whereas this time I think I was the only person with specific built environment experience actually standing out of the 30-plus candidates,” said Thalis.
“Jess Scully, on our independent team, who’s very involved with public art, would be the only other one really with direct expertise in these areas,” he said.
Thalis faces some conflicts following his election, with the City of Sydney being excluded from involvement in some state projects including Barangaroo.
The design Hill Thalis put forward in collaboration with Paul Berkemeier Architects and Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture for the Barangaroo site won the international competition in 2005, but was pushed aside by Paul Keating.
Projects deemed to be of state significance by the New South Wales Government, such as Barangaroo, largely exclude the City of Sydney’s direct involvement, “despite the expertise that the City could bring,” said Thalis.
“It would be very refreshing to see much more engagement by the state government with the City and others on issues such as Barangaroo,” he said.
One of the issues Thalis hopes to tackle through his council role is affordable housing, an issue that is currently in the spotlight in Sydney following the announcement of the Sirius building’s lost heritage status bid.
“I think Sirius is a symptom of a wider malaise, which is the disposal of public housing at Millers Point and The Rocks, and so Sirius has become a flashpoint of this policy,” said Thalis.
He continued: “To me, the sale of the longstanding public housing in Millers Point is a disaster for social equity and inclusion, it’s a disaster for heritage and it doesn’t make for an equitable city.
“Of course, that’s also tied to the crisis of affordability in the city more generally and the question of diverse social inclusion rather than just allowing the city to follow the economy and to become largely for the wealthy, as is happening in London and Manhattan.”
Thalis praised the City of Sydney’s work in creating high-quality public spaces and buildings. “Cities matter incredibly and I think we’ve had very ineffectual urban policies across Australia for much of our history. With very few exceptions, the federal government has been missing in action since Federation on cities policy and investment,” he said.
“[Prime minister] Malcolm Turnbull proclaims he’s very interested in cities – [but] if we want to bring together things like health outcomes, equity and social inclusion it would be preferable not to simply silo them into discrete departments. They all come together in the physical and social space of the city.”
Other successfully elected members of Clover Moore’s Independent Team include Kerryn Phelps, Jess Scully, Robert Kok and Jess Miller.
Liberal candidates Christine Forster and Craig Chung were also elected, as well as Labor candidate Linda Scott.
The newly elected councillors were sworn in at a City of Sydney council meeting on 23 September where councillors were elected into committee leadership positions.
