Cadigal land of the Dharug clan
NSW
The original Assembly Hall was opened on 14th April 1939 by Lord Gowrie, the 10th Governor General of Australia, and was part of substantial alternations carried out to the Heritage-listed Middle School Building (b 1915). Destroyed by fire in 1975, the reconstruction work was intrusive and unsympathetic to the Heritage item. The principal Dr Lambert articulated a vision to update the Hall, increase capacity and improve facilities while returning it to its former grandeur. With support from Old Boys the plan crystallised to reconstruct the Hall as close to the original 1939 design as possible. The guiding principle underlying the reconstruction process was respect for the buildings cultural significance to the Scots Community. Every effort was made to reproduce the earlier known state of the fabric from archival records and oral histories gathered from Old Boys, within constraints imposed by the 1975 construction work.
The elegant Victoria Road entrance to the Harry Triguboff Auditorium once again accurately points to what is within, as for 50 years the formal College gathering space was a modernist composition, devoid of meaning and budgeted from an insurance payout. The restored interior speaks to a College aware of its heritage and the role of the built environment to support and enhance everything that takes place within. The grandeur of the hall was restored, but with increased capacity, air conditioning and unprecedented accessibility, allowing all members of the Scots community to enjoy and celebrate this space.