Construction work has commenced on the new Warriewood Community Centre after a formal ‘turf-turning’ event on 29 May. The centre is being built at a cost of at least $17 million dollars, alongside sports fields at the junction of Jacksons and Boondah Roads, Warriewood, replacing an existing building. The long-fought for project was required to replace the existing centre which was beginning to sink – the site is a former tip.
Mayor Sue Heins and Warriewood Residents Association’s (WRA) Chris and Julia Hornsby turned the sod at a special ceremony this week.
Features of the new centre will include:
- Five multi-purpose halls for a wide range of recreational activities
- Two multi-purpose meeting rooms
- An entry lobby with seating and kitchenette facilities
- Covered outdoor spaces overlooking landscaped gardens
- Multiple kitchen facilities
- 78 car parking spaces, five of which are wheelchair-accessible and a mini-bus drop-off point.
The soil-turning ceremony was witnessed by designers from architects Terroir, development administrators from construction contractors Belmadar, and fellow councillors Vincent De Luca and Miranda Korzy.
Terroir described the Warriewood design project as “a complex brief, resolved by the siting of different areas in and amongst the trees, [but]avoiding tree removal…
“The exterior is clad in metal sheet, a rain cover that brings these multiple elements together as a whole and which is peeled back at key moments to let light into the interior.”
Terroir are the award-winning architects that were commissioned to redevelop the Manly Surf Life Saving Club on South Steyne (as Manly Observer previously reported here), a project still in development. A separate story is on its way on that matter.
Belmadar, the team engaged by Northern Beaches Council to build the new Warriewood Community Centre, is a Sydney-based, privately-owned construction company that have won a number of Master Builders’ Association (MBA) awards of excellence during their 60 years in business.
Among their portfolio of works, they built facilities for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, redeveloped the iconic Dawn Fraser Baths in Balmain, rebuilt the Willoughby Aquatic Leisure Centre, refurbished the Cruising Yacht Club in Rushcutters’ Bay, landscaped the Guardian Early Learning Centre in North Sydney and enhanced numerous buildings around the historic Sydney University campus, several of them Heritage-listed.
On the Northern Beaches, they undertook construction of a new bar with informal dining and restaurant options, including a balcony extension and façade works at Manly Pacific Hotel.
Belmadar said now the demolition of the existing community centre was complete the Warriewood Community Centre works program would comprise constructing a new single-storey facility arranged in pods and joined through a complex roof structure.
“The structure will be built from a mixture of Glulam, CLT panels and Structural Steel. The project includes significant landscaping works around the perimeter of the site.”
The building site, for years occupied by the dilapidated Nelson Heather Centre was, before conversion to sports fields and amenities, a Council tip. This means that when securing the new building’s foundations, developers Belmadar have to take specific environmental and structural precautions while digging down into the turf and dirt covering household and industrial waste several metres below.
At the 29 May soil turning ceremony, Mayor Sue Heins declared the event marked the first step to a new spacious and environmentally-friendly multi-use community facility.
“I, along with the local community, am delighted the construction phase has finally begun for what will be a truly wonderful facility that will cater for a wide range of community, recreational and educational activities in the area.
“There has been a growing need for a multipurpose centre like this to accommodate the expanding local community. I look forward to seeing this beautiful and sustainable new space come to fruition.”
Terroir described the new building’s interior: “Each functional space has a warm interior that is almost domestic in scale. A foyer unites all elements and works with an outdoor garden to create a series of ‘third spaces’ that are formally unprogrammed but invite occupation in different modes by the large cross section of community that visits and uses the building.”
A Council spokesperson revealed the building’s sustainable features: “Passive design, solar panels, 2400 litres of captured rainwater [for irrigating neighbouring fields and plant beds], LED lighting, electric vehicle charging facilities and Australian sustainably-sourced cross-laminated timber structural elements.”
Manly Observer is waiting on confirmation on the cost of the project.
The Warriewood Community Centre is expected to be completed and opened to the public in late 2025.
Terroir architects website: https://terroir.com.au/project/warriewood-community-centre/
Belmadar construction project website: https://www.belmadar.com.au/warriewood-community-centre
Northern Beaches Council website: https://yoursay.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/Warriewood_Community_Centre
