Warringah Golf Club: Bid to add ‘Lego-like’ coloured facade to ‘very dull’ building, knocked back
It is one of the dullest and drabbest public buildings on the northern beaches, but a bid to add some colour to the former golf clubhouse has been rejected.
Manly
Don't miss out on the headlines from Manly. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A bold bid to beautify one of the drabbest public buildings on the northern beaches has been rejected by local planning officials.
Owners of a childcare centre chain — Giraffe Early Learning Centres — wanted to add colour to the exterior of the “very dull” premises that was once the home of the Warringah Golf Club.
Giraffe lodged an application with Northern Beaches Council for a distinctively designed facade made up of a series of “Lego-like” coloured frames to mask the plain brown and beige building frontage along Condamine St, Allambie Heights — one of the busiest road routes in the area.
Permission to convert the old golf clubhouse into a long day care centre for 150 children was given by the Land and Environment Court in August 2022.
A DA for the new facade was referred, by the council, to the independent Northern Beaches Local Planning Panel because it contravened local building height rules by more than 10 per cent.
It would have extended past the height of the existing building, by 19 per cent, to a height of 10.1m.
A neighbour made a submission to the council calling for the facade to be rejected due to its height
Scott Turner wrote that the increased height, due to the proposed facade, would reduce sunlight reaching his property and increase shade “to an unacceptable level especially in winter”.
“I see no reason why the frontage has to be higher than the original building.”
In documents attached to the DA, the applicant said it had put forth other options, which included a building height that did not extend beyond the approved, existing development.
But in a memo to the panel, a council officer wrote that the changes were discussed between the council and the applicant but “they did not resolve council’s concerns”.
In a letter supporting the DA, a leading Sydney architect, Chris Johnson, wrote that the new childcare facade was an attractive design and the centre was a “much better neighbour than the club house building with its uninspiring character”.
“The proposed Lego-like facade will break up the uninteresting bulky, existing building mass.
“The existing structure is a very dull, institutional looking building that in no way reflects the proposed change of use to a warm friendly child care centre.”
Giraffe has a history of aesthetically updating old buildings. In 2019 it opened a childcare centre in a former electricity substation at Balgowlah.
Warringah Golf Club is seeking approval to construct a new clubhouse, near the community sports complex at the corner of Kentwell and Pittwater roads at North Manly, to replace the existing building at 397 Condamine St.
Giraffe has been contacted for comment.
John Hopoate could face jail over latest driving charge
A notorious former NRL player, who police describe as a ‘recidivist traffic offender’, faces the prospect of 12 months’ jail for his latest serious driving charge.
Former Waterhouse family member drove to cop shop while drunk
A former member of a famous Sydney racing dynasty and cancer nurse drove to a police station while drunk after being chucked out of a late-night northern beaches nightspot.