Welsh and Major has designed a “bold” extension to a community centre in inner-city Sydney.
Located on the site of the former Pyrmont Public School, the Pyrmont Community Centre will be expanded with new facilities, universal access and a larger gym.
The historic building on the site, which opened in 1884, is a locally listed heritage item designed by William Kemp. Pyrmont Public School closed in 1934 and the building was then used as a hostel for unemployed men until 1948, when it became a facility for Sydney Technical School. City of Sydney extensively refurbished the building to designs by Jones Brewster Regan in 1993.
Welsh and Major described the design for the new extension as “elegant, minimal and gentle […] humane in scale, bold in scope and deliberately quiet.”
“The new Mount St Entry will pragmatically and symbolically open the site up to the varied community groups to utilise and enjoy the rejuvenated community centre,” the practice said in a design statement.
“We propose a symbolic street window as a key part of the Centre’s presentation to the street. It is perhaps more important as a symbol than programatically, acting as a connection between the public and ‘private’ realm.
“The bold gesture that is the new building, and the way it connects with the existing spaces and structures with a series of architectural stitches and splints, assembles all the building fabric built across a timeline of over 100 years into a cohesive Pyrmont Community Centre.”
The major upgrade will also include a new 60-square-metre community room, a new, bigger gym, converting the existing gym cardio room into a community space, and refurbishment of the main community hall, library link and community room on the first floor.
The new building will be capped with clerestory window and finished in textured and smooth-faced concrete along the street facade with light coloured powdercoated steel columns, shade awnings and street window. Rough cast render to the rear will unify the new and old.
“The new Pyrmont Community Centre is an assembly of materials and spaces that creates a flexible and vibrant community hub that should serve the local community well for the next 50 years and beyond,” Welsh and Major said.
