George Henry Freedman, (6 March 1936–21 July 2016) was Australia’s leading interior designer/interior architect from 1970 until a younger generation became prominent in Sydney during the 1990s. Born in New York, where he studied architecture at Syracuse University, Freedman arrived in Sydney in 1969 and later designed many prestigious interiors, often including custom-made furniture. His outstanding interior schemes included executive suites for the Bank of New South Wales (1970) and the State Bank of NSW (1985), cultural institutions including Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum/Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (1988), businesses, government premises, restaurants, residences and historic monuments, including a refurbishment of the Queen Victoria Building shopping centre (2009).
In 2005, Freedman was described by The Sydney Morning Herald as ‘the Godfather of Sydney interior design’. He was recognised by design and architecture industry experts for his daring and widely emulated combinations of colours, inventive uses of materials, relentless attention to detail, and commitment to high-quality furnishings (often imported signature classics). He was respected also for his sophisticated understandings of optical perception and volumetric manipulations of interior space. For this reason he was highlighted by design writers as practising more like an architect than his colleagues who were educated as interior decorators and designers. Although he never finalised his American degree studies to register as an architect, Freedman worked repeatedly with Sydney’s leading architects of the late-twentieth century—including Glenn Murcutt, Peter Stronach, Richard Johnson and Ken Woolley. He also trained some of Sydney’s outstanding younger architects and designers—including Iain Halliday, Sam Marshall, Stephen Varady, William MacMahon, Arthur Collin, Robert Puflett, Tim Allison and his late-career partner, Ralph Rembel. In 2005 the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (NSW Chapter) awarded Freedman Rembel an Interior Architecture commendation for its AMP project.
Freedman’s 1970s and 1980s furniture designs, often finished with luxury European veneers and eye-catching details, were often promoted in Australia’s leading home furnishing magazines, especially Belle and Interior Design. His cocktail trolley for Bilson’s restaurant (1988) is in the collection of Sydney’s Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. He was a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia and the Academy of Design Australia.
Freedman was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Nathan Freedman, a colour designer for an American paint manufacturer, and Rose Freedman (née Hirsch). His childhood memories included riding horses in Manhattan’s Central Park, and he recalled that his father would annually repaint their home in different colours for each room.
From 1949 to 1953, Freedman attended Manhattan High School, then studied architecture at Syracuse University and worked until 1960 with architects Kahn and Jacobs, where his projects included the American Airlines’ first class lounge at Idlewild (now John F. Kennedy) Airport. In 1960, he abandoned the final year of his degree to travel to Europe, initially Ibiza. During 1963 and 1964, he exhibited and sold artworks in Amsterdam and Brussels, then worked as an interior designer for architects Tandy Halford and Mills in London.
Returning to New York in 1968, Freedman joined the international planning unit of leading furniture manufacturers and interior designers Knoll and Associates. He worked with director Florence Knoll, who maintained close ties with many European and American leaders of modern design. Freedman’s projects with Knoll included the United States pavilion for the 1970 Osaka World Fair and offices for accountants Price Waterhouse in Buffalo, NY.
In 1969, Knoll despatched Freedman to Sydney to ‘Manhattanise and Internationalise’ the executive and boardrooms for the Bank of New South Wales, one of Australia’s oldest banks (founded in 1817 and renamed Westpac in 1982).
While working on this project, Freedman began a personal relationship with prominent Sydney decorator Neville Marsh—who employed him as a designer with Neville Marsh Interiors in 1970. To exploit Freedman’s international experience, they agreed that the practice should ‘go modern’, and in 1973, the business was rebranded Marsh Freedman Associates (MFA).
As well as designing interiors for some of Sydney’s most prestigious and prosperous families, MFA created sophisticated fine dining rooms for some of Sydney’s outstanding restauranteurs, notably Anne Taylor (Taylors, 19XX), Tony and Gay Bilson (Bilsons, 1988; Berowra Waters Inn, 19XX; Kinselas, 1983; Ampersand, 1998 and Treasury, 19XX), Damien and Josephine Pignolet (Claudes, 1981), Helen Spry (Chez Oz, 1985), Leon Fink (Quay, 2004), and Armando Percuoco (Buon Ricordo Ristorante refurbishment, 2007).
During the late 1980s, Neville Marsh retired from Marsh Freedman Associates and Freedman continued to practice as George Freedman Associates. In 1996 he appointed a younger German architect, Ralph Rembel, as his business partner and in 2002 their practice was renamed Freedman Rembel. In 2010, Freedman joined architects Peddle Thorp and Walker as Head of Interior Design (while continuing to advise his existing private clients).
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2017
- Last updated:
- 2017
