George Freedman (Brooklyn, New York, USA, 6 March 1936 – Sydney, NSW, Australia, 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 1968 and later designed many prestigious interiors, often including custom-made furniture. His notable 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 Interior Design’. He was recognised by design and architecture industry experts for his daring and widely emulated combinations of colours, inventive uses of materials, 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 design of executive offices at the AMP Insurance building overlooking Circular Quay.

Freedman’s 1970s and 1980s furniture designs, often finished with luxury European veneers and eye-catching flourishes, were often promoted in Australia’s most stylish design 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.

Early life
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 their home interior paint colour was changed every second year to challenging new colours.

Education
From 1949 to 1953, Freedman attended Manhattan High School, then studied architecture at Syracuse University and began working from 1960 with architects Kahn and Jacobs, where he worked on the American Airlines’ first class lounge at John F. Kennedy Airport. He abandoned the final year of his degree to travel to Europe; initially Ibiza, with a friend. 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.

Life in Australia
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 restaurateurs, notably Anne Taylor (Taylors, 1984); Tony and Gay Bilson (Berowra Waters Inn, 1976; Kinselas, 1983; Tresury, 1992, and Ampersand, 1998; Damien and Josephine Pignolet (Claudes, 1981); Helen and Malcolm Spry (Chez Oz, 1985); Leon Fink (Bilsons and Quay, 1986, 1988), 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 (with Robert Chester and Sam Marshall). In 2002 he appointed a younger architect, Ralph Rembel, as his business partner and renamed the practice ‘Freedman Rembel’. This practice was dissolved in 2010, when Freedman joined architects Peddle Thorp and Walker as Head of Interior Design (but he continued consulting to his existing private clients).

Personal life
Freedman was widely known for his waspish wit, warm laugh, home cooking, Negroni’s, and devotion to his dogs (owned in pairs shared). During the 1990’s Freedman was caring for Neville Marsh and supported by Andrew Bryan. In 2005 he met and later exchanged vows in Paris with psychologist Peter O’Brien. In 2014 they had a formal same sex wedding in New Zealand. Freedman died from cancer in Sydney in 2016, aged 80.

List of projects
1963 American Airlines First Class Lounge
1965 The Loose Box
1965-66 Bovril Group
1967 Beecham Pharmaceuticals
1968 Price Waterhouse offices
1968–1969 VIP hospitality suite in United States Pavilion for Osaka World’s Fair 1970
1970 Bank of New South Wales
1971 Neville Marsh Interiors for Kim Bonython’, in SIDA Rooms on View Exhibition Design
1972 Partnership Pacific headquarters
1973 Her Majesty’s Theatre
1974 Hoyts Theatres
1978 Berger Vogue paint colours
1976 Berowra Waters Inn
1980 Five Ways Fusion
1981 Price Waterhouse
1982 Kinselas
1982 Alexandra
1982 Kempsey Museum and Tourist Centre
1982 Magnus Nankervis and Curl
1982 204 Clarence Street Sydney
1983 Leighton House
1983 Order Imports
1983 Mayur at MLC Centre
1983 Kessel residence
1983 Nankervis residence
1984 Glo Glo’s
1984 Taylor’s
1985 Freedman Marsh Apartment
1986 Barrister’s Chambers
1987 State Bank of New South Wales HQ
1987 Swift Apartment
1988 Powerhouse Museum
1985 Chez Oz
1986 Apple Computers Australian HQ
1986 Senso Unico
1987 Claude’s restaurant
1987 Jarrett House
1988 Australian Pavilion, Expo 88
1988 Kraanerg’
1988 Bilson’s (1)
1988 Luna Park redevelopment concept
1988 Sturkey Apartment
1988 Spry House
1989 Knoll showroom at Arredorama
1990 Grand Hotel Disco
1990 Staley Apartment
1990 Fairfax Residence
1990 Dani Marti Apartment
1990 Clean Living
1990 Immediate Health Care Offices
1990 Xmas tree & Wreath Designs
1991 Soft Bruising’
1991 Mercantile & General Reinsurrance
1991 Pearl Beach House
1992 Wentworth & Selbourne Chambers – level 6
1992 Videotronics – Video Stores
1992 Smouha-Ho Residence
1993 Treasury at Intercontinental Hotel
1993 Penrith Panthers Leagues Club
1993 Macquarie Bank HQ
1994 Notaras Residence
1994 Peter Johnson
1994 Boonoke
1994 Kingsclere Apartments
1994 Centennial Park swimming pool area
1995 James Fairfax Residence
1995 Elizabeth Bay Apartment
1995 Wollahra General Practice
1996 Mirabelle
1996 Moran Residence
1997 Thomas Residence
1997 Berg Residence
1998 Tiger Lane
1999 Ampersand
1999 Pan Apartment(1)
2000 Miller Residence
2000 Mythologia’
2000 Thomas Residence (2)
2000 Halpern Residence
2001 Denton-Byrne Residence (Stage1)
2001 AMP HQ Executive offices and entry foyer
2001 AMP Offices
2001 Pan Penthouse (2)
2009 Queen Victoria Building
2003 Pan Residence (3)
2003 Pan Ranch (4)
2003 Bilson’s (2)
2004 Medina Grand
2004 Spry House (2)
2004 PBL Holdings (Levels 2 and 4)
2005 Quay
2005 ‘Changing Spaces’ exhibition at Elizabeth Bay House
2005 Double Bay House
2007 Leighton
2005 Adagio
2006 Sea Level Restaurant
2006 Mosman House “Easterly”
2006 Freedman Apartment
2007 Buon Ricordo
2007 Tiger Lane
2007 PBL Holdings (Ground Floor Foyer & Private Dining Room)
2007 Qualia resort
2007 Onslow apartments
2008 Residence – “Finisterre”
2009 Denton-Byrne Residence (Stage 2 )
2009 Elizabeth apartments
2012 Bondi Pacific apartments
2013 Redesign of de de ce Knoll showroom for Knoll 75th anniversary
2015 Bryan Apartment

Source From Wikipedia