The Department of Planning and Environment has approved HDR Rice Daubney’s changes to the Woolooware Bay Town Centre at the Sharks’ Leagues Club to make the building more attractive and encourage more visitors.

As a result of feedback from the Council and members of the community, the application was changed to improve the overall design of the development. These changes included relocating stairs and escalators away from the walkway entrance on Captain Cook Drive, improving the design of the canopy above the walkway, and adding improvements to the facade of buildings to make them look better.

“These changes respond to issues raised by the community and the local council and will improve the design, walkways and allow for better use of space and easier movement around the Town Centre,” the spokesperson said.

THE WOOLOOWARE BAY DEVELOPMENT

The modifications for the Shire development, which is being built on land owned by the Cronulla Sutherland Leagues Club, were submitted by Bluestone Capital Ventures.

The Woolooware Bay development has been called the Shire’s answer to Barangaroo, and aside from the CBD development, is the largest waterfront conversion underway in Sydney right now, set to transform the Woolooware landscape and position the Sharks better financially.

The development includes:

A retail hub featuring dining precinct, fresh food marketplace, supermarket, and lifestyle stores, with 770 car parking spaces
Foreshore parklands featuring a network of boardwalks, a playground, cycle paths and abundant open space
Shark Park/Leagues Club – Home to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks rugby league team
A residential community consisting over 600 apartments in a resort-style bay side address

A series of DAs have already been approved by the Sutherland Shire Council to allow for the commencement of construction for the first residential stages. Work is already well underway on the first stage of the residential precinct, and is on track for a September 2016 completion (the same time the Sharks hope to be battling it out in the NRL finals). Stage 2 has also commenced construction and is due for completion in mid-late 2017, with the final stage, Stage 3, still subject to final DA approval.

PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS TO RETAIL HUB AND LEAGUES CLUB

The modification applications seeks to facilitate changes to the approved architectural design of the retail/club precint which arose following a comprehensive design review that was undertaken by the newly appointed project architects HDR Rice Daubney.

Sitting between Captain Cook Drive and the Woolooware foreshore, the site sits on the eastern precinct of the Woolooware Bay Town Centre, and currently consists of the Stadium, Leagues Club and car park, with a total area of 59,340sqm. The site is bounded by a tidal storm water drainage channel to the west, Woolooware Bay to the north, Woolooware Road North to the east and Captain Cook Drive to the south.

The proposed changes include the addition of a child care centre, enclosure of the retail dining terrace, and the introduction of a full roof structure above the top level car park to ensure it is fully utilised.

The centre itself seeks to infuse the site with an urban sensibility, with the introduction of an internal street, running north-south, connecting the Captain Cook Drive entry with the landscape beyond, providing visitors with a sense of the natural environment beyond the limits of the centre itself.

The facades would also see significant changes to the approved development, with a reprogramming of the southern facade to include more active street frontages and greater facade articulation to strengthen the relationship between the retail centre and the streetscape.

The proposed modification provides greater clarity and refinement of the architectural and material treatment of key building facades, particularly the southern (Woolooware Bay) and northern (Captain Cook Drive) foreshore elevations.

The geometry of the northern facade draws inspiration from the natural landscape, with the language of the facade taken through the building in the form of a sculpted skylight running along the length of the main mall and in the design of the shopfronts.

The material palette for the southern facade is to be comprised of precast concrete, steel panelling and timber panelling, responding to the more urban form of the Captain Cook Drive environment. In comparison, the northern facade to the foreshore parklands will include a much higher proportion of timber panelling and painted surfaces to respond to the more naturalistic setting.

Architecture & Design Team

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