Today’s Tavern

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Establishing new standards of refinement for pub fitouts, The Centennial restaurant and bar in Sydney’s Woollahra combines warm timberwork with edgy stainless steel and noisy acoustics tailored to not leak to the neighbours.

Photography Bart Maiorana


top Public bar, looking towards the restaurant at rear from the main street entry. above Restaurant, looking to the kitchen. Click to see enlarged photo.


Restaurant looking towards coffee bar and side entry, with kitchen at right.

Project Description
The Centennial is a bar and restaurant on the ground floor of an existing Victorian corner hotel in a prestigious neighbourhood. The developers appointed Alexander Tzannes Associates to design the fitout within an envelope set by a previously council-approved plan. The refit comprises a public bar to the main street and a restaurant and bar entered from the side street. The two zones are linked/separated by a large open kitchen and a pivoting glass door. Acoustics have been planned to provide a lively internal buzz without allowing noise to leak outside and disturb occupants of nearby houses. Interior finishes include oiled floors of wide recycled timber boards, timber exterior windows and doors, pivoting glass interior doors, acoustic ceilings and walls of perforated timber veneer and various metals for bars and tables. The exterior was redesigned to include large windows on the street facades and a courtyard off the dining area. The total area is 120 sq metres.

Architect’s Statement by Alexander Tzannes
The Centennial project has recycled an old building within a conservation area by restoring and adapting the facade in accordance with established heritage methodology and comprehensively redeveloping the interior and open space elements. The new elements are designed to be distinctive and sympathetic to the existing fabric and representative of the design philosophy of our practice in relation to design process, detailing and the making of community-oriented public amenity. These elements were deliberately underplayed in their detailing to express the natural characteristics of the materials as simply as possible and to enhance the atmosphere created by activity, sense of space and illumination or light. From the onset, the owners provided an inspirational brief underpinned by a deep understanding of the value of good design to their proposed enterprise.

Comment by Gay Bilson
I thought the dining room/bar bar very fine indeed: it has the perfect proportions to instill a sense of calm. In fact I think the proportions (ceiling height, etc) really beautiful. It is as if there is a magic formula that Alex knows through Modernist reference and his own sense of aesthetic and balance (the lighting plays its subtle part here) which produces this sense of beauty. The materials make sense too; there is a warmth to the space which does not lessen the strength of the lines. There is a great sense of confidence and intelligence in the resolution of the parts. The sense of calm is so strong that the crowded, low, horizontal layer of diners and drinkers doesn’t interrupt it at all. It’s my kind of room! In fact, I actually began to think about Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion while I was there: the only building to have bought tears to my eyes. I’m not making odious comparison, just saying that the proportions of the space caused me to become contemplative. My son (29-years-old) was with me, naive about these things, but he said something which I think defines the room really well: “I like it because if you turned it upside-down it would still work”.
The open kitchen quarrels badly with all the above, but then I will always hate open kitchens. I felt that the owner was the one who wanted it, not the architect. Alex’s solution for Bistro Moncur is the perfect one, a modest suggestion and connection rather than blatant nudity.
I don’t really have an opinion of the public bar area. The above is a gut reaction over one slow drink at the bar in the dining room.

Gay Bilson is a Sydney restaurateur, writer and former RAIA NSW awards juror.

The Centennial, Woollahra, NSW
Architects Alexander Tzannes Associates- design director Alec Tzannes; project architect Julian Venning; assistant architects Anna Power and Vera Batalha. Clients Cos & Toni Psaltis. Structural Engineer James Taylor & Associates. Mechanical Engineer Nappin Associates. Hydraulic Engineer DC Hydraulics. Acoustic Engineer Louis Challis Associates. Quantity Surveyor Donald Bayley Associates. Heritage Consultant Trevor Howells. Contractor Beach Constructions.

Source

Archive

Published online: 1 Mar 1998

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Architecture Australia, March 1998

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