$1.4 Billion Precinct

Powerhouse Parramatta

Powerhouse Parramatta

Category

Architecture & Infrastructure

Client

Powerhouse Museum, NSW Government

Year

2024 – 2026

Role

Data & Integration Architect

[ Overview ]

[ $1.4B precinct · 4 precincts ]

The enterprise data and integration layer behind the $1.4 billion precinct, from ticketing to what visitors see.

Powerhouse Parramatta is a $1.4 billion precinct, the largest investment in Australian cultural infrastructure since the Sydney Opera House. It is now open, with five opening exhibitions and a 23-day opening festival.

I was the data and integration architect for the precinct, defining the enterprise data and integration layer across every system the museum runs.

Project Information

[ Architecture & Infrastructure ]

[ The Challenge ]

One integration layer across ticketing, CRM, venue operations, collections and content, for four precincts.

The data estate covers ticketing (Tessitura), CRM (Prospect2), venue operations (Momentus Elite), collections (EMu/Axiell) and CMS (Sanity). It had to serve Parramatta alongside Ultimo, Castle Hill and Sydney Observatory, plus Sydney Science Festival and Sydney Design Week, with data flows, governance and lifecycle management defined from source-of-truth ingestion through to what visitors see.

[ The Approach ]

Architect the contracts first, then test them before any infrastructure existed.

I defined the enterprise data and integration layer, with Workato and Next.js bridging the stack across all Powerhouse precincts. A distributed Content API pulls live data from Tessitura, Sanity, Momentus and EMu into one contract for concierge digital signage, mobile apps and the web.

The payment, ticketing and content APIs were load-tested with failure-mode simulations before any infrastructure was provisioned, so the architecture and throughput assumptions were proven before anything went near production.

[ The Outcome ]

A precinct open on its digital systems, with governance that outlasts the project.

The Content API handles millions of requests with sub-second latency, fast enough to drive live programming displays across every venue. The enterprise data and codebase governance frameworks I wrote are now followed by internal teams and external delivery partners across the precincts.

[ Scale ]

  • $1.4 billion precinct

  • Four precincts: Parramatta, Ultimo, Castle Hill and Sydney Observatory

  • Sanity CMS estate: 109M CDN requests, 7.9M API requests and 4TB of bandwidth a year

  • Millions of Content API requests at sub-second latency