Bondi Pavilion facelift given the green light

BY BENEDICT BRUNKER

Waverley Council has voted to go ahead with the first stage of redevelopment of the historic Bondi Pavilion, passing the plans at a council meeting last Tuesday.

The council split the controversial redevelopment of the Pavilion into separate “phases,” with the first phase now about to begin.

The first phase of the plans will focus on areas of redevelopment the council deems “critical,” such as restoring the building’s heritage status, renovating and expanding the pavilion’s public toilets and addressing waste-management issues.

The push to restore the building’s heritage status will include work on the beach-facing façade as well as the demolition of the ‘Bucket List’ restaurant, which the council considers to have fallen short of heritage standards. But critics are calling a move to secure a commercial advantage for élite restauranteurs seeking tenancy in a redeveloped pavilion.

More controversial and less critical aspects of the redevelopment plans will be put on pause until after the proposed merger of Waverley, Randwick  and Woolhara Councils.

Waverley Mayor, Councillor Sally Betts, said the council wanted to “get the project moving and start on the critical things.

“In that way we can address all the community’s concerns because we’re not making a decision on anything the community’s worried about.

“A lot of people in the community have recommended a phased approach, so we’re taking a phased approach.

“The community has made a lot of points that they are concerned about, such as the pottery studio – we can quite easily build a new one in the first phase.

“We have put aside the music studio to be decided on by the new council. They’ve also talked about the new theatre, we’ve said that the new council could make that decision.”

The plans also include a proposal to ‘put solar panels on the roof to transform the pavilion into a ‘green-star’ building.’

When asked when the redevelopment plans would start, Mayor Betts said the council was “aiming to launch a development application early next year.”

But member of the campaign Save Bondi Pavilion, Peter Winkler, was sceptical about the move, pointing out the council only two days prior to the meeting had received a report which was an “overwhelmingly negative response from the community. One that was fundamentally negative about the plans, and two days later passed stage one of the plans.”

The report was the third community consultation commissioned by the council so far on the issue, all of which have highlighted opposition to the council’s proposals.

Mayor Betts claimed that all the report’s recommendations had been taken into consideration, and that community concerns were part of the rationale behind splitting the redevelopment into separate phases.

Mr Winkler was also critical of the council’s extravagance with regard to the redevelopment: “The architect commissioned by the council has been paid nearly $2m to date and has only produced concept drawings promoting the plans.

“What on earth has this architect done that would value him at $2m?”

Mayor Betts herself questioned the $2m figure, saying she thought it “highly unlikely to be that much.”

Mr Winkler also questioned the council’s motives in proposing to demolish ‘The Bucket List’, suggesting that it would “give commercial advantage to restauranteurs earmarked for the top floor of the pavilion.”

Mayor Betts confirmed “the addition that was placed onto the front of the building some years ago will be removed,” but insisted that the move was designed to restore “the beautiful symmetry on the front of the building,” in order to conserve the Pavilion’s heritage.