In refurbishing their Balgowlah flagship gallery on Sydney’s lower Northern Beaches, Trevor Harvey and his family have realised their long-held vision for a white envelope gallery. Harvey, who heads his family’s three galleries in Sydney and Melbourne, said they wanted the new space to appear “like an igloo”; luminescent on all sides, from the floors up. “White ceilings and walls [would] meet a white floor.” The floor of their imagining would reflect the “light sparkle of polished terrazzo with marble aggregate.”

Harvey appreciates the role a floor plays in creating a unique gallery space. It’s the fifth wall, holding and reflecting a gallery's many varied exhibits. As Harvey notes, “a gallery floor is totally exposed... It’s not covered over with furniture or rugs.”

Some very exacting physical challenges constrained the Harvey's aesthetic quest. The floor needed to be extraordinarily thin. They had already installed “elaborate” doors that left gaps of just 12mm under which to lay a floor. It also needed to be extraordinarily strong, supporting heavy static loads and the routine wheeled-passage of sculptures weighing more than 400 and 500 kg.

The Harvey’s aesthetic quest led them to Covet in Melbourne, designers and suppliers of contemporary polished concrete and terrazzo overlay flooring. The Harveys saw that Covet’s Concrete Overlay system offered them a wide selection of concrete colour bases including a natural white real concrete. The creative possibilities multiplied when combining the various mixes of stone and marble aggregates, and finishing lustres. The innovative concrete formulation also easily met the Harvey’s exacting requirements for an exceptionally strong, yet thin floor.

Seeing the possibilities, the Harveys considered their options. Covet’s team happily assists asset owners, architects, and interior designers create to their own singularly distinctive floors. The Harveys hadn't considered a genuinely bespoke solution until they viewed a sample of Covet’s new white-on-white terrazzo design.

What they saw was a white concrete terrazzo floor of exceptionally light purity. It seemed to have the quiet integrity of original artwork while supporting and reflecting the other exhibited works. The Harveys' search was over. They knew this was the floor that would animate their white envelope vision.

Decision made, Covet referred the Harveys to Diamondshine Polished Concrete, their trusted installation partner in New South Wales. Covet's thin profile concrete overlay system is installed by their network of approved installation specialists located around the country. These installation specialists work with builders and asset owners to confirm site-specific installation and scheduling details.

Diamondshine’s principal, Barton Dowe says, “Covet’s manufacturing and delivery processes give me great flexibility when planning an installation. Unlike traditional wet concrete, the Covet Concrete is made to order and delivered in bags of premixed dry concrete and aggregate, giving enormous transport and storage benefits. The dry delivery frees my jobs and crew from the time and distance limitations of our wet-cement jobs.”

The installation crew mixed and cast the concrete materials at the gallery, hand troweling and raking the concrete overlay to ensure even placement and level surface. Within 24 hours, the concrete was hard enough for tradespeople to walk across as they continued their refurbishment work. The floor took another eight or so days to cure fully. Dowe’s team returned to grind a 2mm layer off the top to expose the intended surface texture. They completed the installation by polishing and applying a final seal.

The Harveys launched their refurbished gallery with a dazzling reception in early February 2022. For Trevor Harvey, the floor “completes the space. It is exactly what we envisaged”. The luminescent floor has become the distinguishing physical feature of their new creative space. Harvey considers it to be the “proprietorial Harvey Gallery floor”! He wishes he “had a dollar for every comment ... received about how amazing and wonderful the floor looks."

And as for the artists, Harvey says that exhibiting artist Johnny Romero, a particularly vivid exponent of contemporary pop art, “says his colours have never been shown off better."

“In a way”, concludes Harvey, the “flooring combines with the lighting to create the essential gallery experience and process. Without great lighting, you can't show great art". The Harveys have created a feature of their long imagined "light sparkle of polished terrazzo”. No rugs on this floor.