Tor apartments, 51 Roslyn Gardens, Elizabeth Bay has an interesting heritage. It was designed in 1965 by Hugo Stossel, who also designed its buddy building “Bayview” at 49 Roslyn Gardens in 1968.

Both have similarities including light-coloured brickwork and panoramic windows in the European post-war idiom.

Tor is named after the natural but unusual rock feature nearby which projects from the harbour-side. A tor is an old English word for a craggy outcrop and still exists on the harbour.

Tor’s’ designer, Hugo Stossel (1905-22), has had a lasting impact on the local area. Hugo Stossel (1905-2002), a Hungarian, was on of a number of highly skilled and highly educated émigré architects who fled Europe in the late 1930s to escape Nazism. He trained in Rome and Vienna and travelled widely before arriving in Sydney, aged 34. His European projects were featured in USA magazines. He was initially employed by the NSW Department of Works. By 1947 he was registered in NSW as an architect . He designed Yarranabbe Gardens, Darling Point, the NSW Police HQ, College Street, The Mascot Airport Hilton hotel, The Chimes, 45 Macleay Street (1964), 5 Onslow Avenue, Denison and the Devere Hotel, Macleay Street, Potts Point, among many others.

Click here to see his other designs: https://first.mhnsw.au/images_linked/recno56295B.pdf

His ouvre is more recently being understood for its significance.

by Andrew Woodhouse

Heritage Solutions