George Henry Freedman, (6 March 1936–21 July 2016) was Australia’s leading interior designer/interior architect from 1970 until a younger generation (including some architects and designers he trained) became prominent in Sydney during the 1990s.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied architecture at Syracuse University (1953–1958) but did not graduate. Son of a paint company’s colour decoration adviser, he first worked as a designer and painter in London, Amsterdam and New York before he was despatched to Sydney in 1969, by New York design consultancy Knoll International, to deliver Manhattan-modern executive offices to help internationally rebrand the British colonial origins of the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac).
During 1970–1971, Freedman formed a personal and professional partnership in Sydney with Neville Marsh, a socially prominent decorator from Perth. Trading as Marsh Freedman Associates after 1972, they designed many prestigious Sydney commercial and residential interiors, often including Freedman’s own furniture designs (most built in-situ but including a restaurant cocktail trolley collected by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences).
Marsh Freedman Associates’ most significant project was furnishing two floors of executive offices atop a new Martin Place tower for the State Bank of New South Wales (1985–1988). Across eighty rooms, Freedman and his team provided one of the world’s finest curations of postmodernist (1970–1990s) perceptions of interior design. Freedman later specified colours and finishes to update two Sydney heritage monuments: the Powerhouse (Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, 1988) and the Queen Victoria Building (historic markets to a modern 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. With his American and European architecture and arts knowledge, he was highlighted by design writers as practising more like an architect than his colleagues who were educated as interior decorators and designers. He worked with Sydney’s leading architects of the late-twentieth century—including Glenn Murcutt, Ken Woolley, Peter Stronach, Lionel Glendinning and Sydney Baggs. 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 (German-educated) 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. He was a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia and the Academy of Design Australia.
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 and Rembel dissolved their practice and Freedman joined PTW (Peddle Thorp and Walker) architects as Head of Interior Design (while continuing to advise his existing private clients).
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2017
- Last updated:
- 2017
