Affectionately known as the “roundhouse,” the “champagne cork” and even the “wedding cake,” a well known brutalist landmark in Newcastle’s civic precinct has been added to the State Heritage Register.
Designed by practice Romberg and Boyd in association with Wilson and Suters and opened in 1977 , the former City Administration Centre represented an “important regional New South Wales expression of the 20th century international modernism style of brutalist design,” said Heritage NSW executive Sam Kidman. The original building took its inspiration from the Boston City Hall in Massachusetts.
The original building was transformed into a hotel designed by EJE Architecture, which opened in 2021.
Heritage Council of NSW chair Frank Howarth said he was impressed by how the original construction and design was conserved and celebrated through the building’s recent rejuvination.
“The renovation of the former City Administration Centre into the Crystalbrook Kingsley hotel has revealed a highly successful adaptation of an historically important building,” said Howarth.
The renovation was intended to strengthen the identity of the building, “elegantly completing the existing structure with a rooftop addition,” said the Crystalbrook Collective. “The colour and materials of the additions are recessive in their nature, accentuating, celebrating and not competing with the concrete masonry for which the Roundhouse is known.”
A space on the State Heritage Register will protect the building by law and will ensure the conservation of the heritage character. The building has now been identified as holding an important place in the state’s collective imagination, enriching local understanding of the history in NSW.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
