Wharfage Hall, the two-story lobby at the building's central entrance. Today, adapted for use as a museum, much of the interior is now gallery space with plain white walls, concrete floor, and high ceilings. The fourth story's offices have been retained for the museum administration. History 1798–1942: Prior history of site The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is located south of the landing spot of the First Fleet. The site originally housed two Commissariat Stores, built using convict labour. The state government assumed control of the Commissariat Stores in 1901 and leased them to commercial tenants. In 1937, the Circular Quay Planning Committee, which had originally recommended the buildings be demolished to provide parkland, changed its mind and called for them to be replaced with a new office for the Maritime Services Board (MSB), which had been displaced by the Circular Quay Railway. Demolition was completed in 1939. Originally the committee had considered holding a competition for the new building's design, but by then it had decided to use the MSB's own architects. One, William Henry Withers, designed a Stripped Classical building for the agency, with a central tower meant to echo the pylons of the nearby bridge. After site clearance construction was halted in late 1940 since restrictions resulting from the onset of World War II made continued work impossible. The building was resumed in late 1944 with the erection of its steel frame and the offices were opened eight years later by Premier Joseph Cahill. It is listed on both the Register of the National Estate and the New South Wales State Heritage Register. 1943–1991: Power Gallery of Contemporary Art The MCA's roots are in the 1943 will of Australian expatriate artist JW Power (1881–1943), the first Australian-born painter to experiment with Cubism. Independently wealthy from his previous medical career, he specified that upon his wife's death, his personal fortune, mostly stock worth £A2 million (A$ today), was to go to his alma mater, the University of Sydney, with the express purpose of informing and educating Australians in the contemporary visual arts. It was to be used specifically for "museums and other places for the purpose ... of suitably housing the works purchased so as to bring the people of Australia in more direct touch with the latest art developments in other countries." When Powell's wife died in 1961, the bequest was made public; she also willed most