The construction of the Anzac Memorial by Bruce Dellit, signalled the arrival of Art Deco as the dominant style [of architecture in Sydney].At the same time, a number of architects such as Arthur Stephenson, Arthur Baldwinson and Sydney Ancher returned to Sydney having been exposed to modern European architecture. The result was a curious mixing of styles - jazz-age Art Deco blended with European Modernism and a growing sensitivity to Sydney's climate and topography.

Some buildings, such as Emil Sodersten's City Mutal Life Building, expoited corner sites to create dynamic V-shaped forms completmented by faceted detailinh which reinforced a sense of forward looking mordernity. This stratgey was usually coupled with powerful vertical elements, as with the AWA Building in York Street, which added a skeletal communications tower to its 46 metre high building (the maximum height permitted at the time), making it the tallest building in Sydney until well into the 1950's. Budden and Mackey's Transport House, opposite Wynyard Park, celebrated a sleek horizontal geometry, although with a vertical Art Deco tower above the entry to Wynyard underground station.

Most - and this was also evident in the design of many houses and apartment buildings - favoured elegant curved facades and strip windows. The influence of the Dutch architect, Willhelm Marinus Dudok, was strong, with many buildings adopting his curved brick walls, continuous glazing, decorative restraint and powerful horizontal lines. It was a style adopted in the mid-1930s by the brewing company, Tooth & Co. for their hotel chain. Typically, these hotels were built from brick, and curved around corner sites with cantilevered awnings and brightly tiled walls at street level. Other signifcant buildings designed in this style are the Dental Hospital near Central Railway, the ACI Building on South Dowling Street in Waterloo, and the King George V Hospital in Camperdown.

This mixture of styles persisted in both commercial and residential architecture after World War II and, despite its derivative and eclectic origins, has given Sydney a distinctive architectural character, which is still evident today.

From Sydney Architecture -Paul McGillick & Patrick Bingham-Hall 2005