The brief was to relocate Coal Services from Warners Bay at the northern end of Lake Macquarie in Newcastle to a former city council chambers building at Speers Point, some two kilometres away along the lake’s edge. Suters Architects had designed the original headquarters, and with this job, it had to restore a 1950s red brick building with sandstone at the entries and corners to serve two company businesses: Coal Services Health and Coal Services Insurance.
Lake Macquarie Council and the local community had strong memories of the council chambers building. Suters Architects knew the council wanted as much of the original fabric to be maintained as possible and for the building’s history to be commemorated.
Adaptive reuse of the site meant extending the building and carpark areas to provide a modern office. The Health wing has doctors consulting suites, a physiotherapy section, rooms for nurses, a gymnasium, general offices and a reception and waiting area. There is also a functional assessment room for miners’ rehabilitation, where the work they do underground is re-created, including a brick rubble pit and large electrical cables to drag around.
Insurance, policy assessment, claims and the workers compensation side of things includes a reception, management offices, conference rooms and administration areas. The two halves are linked by a common staff room and courtyard.
“We wanted to establish state-of-the-art facilities to look after the welfare of coal miners who are injured or debilitated in the workplace,” says Geoff Troup, project leader and associate at Suters Architects. With repairs, alterations and additions for various uses, including an art gallery, community workshops, the Mines Subsidence Board and Hunter Water Corporation, the council chambers had “become a bit of a jumble,” he says. “The architectural style of the building is not groundbreaking — its cultural history is critical.”
The two street frontages are typical of its time and layout and, Troup admits, in better quality at the front than the back. “We demolished a small area at the back to make way for new work. The original building was about 800m2 and we added about the same though from the street.”
The additions at the rear required changes to roof configurations and detailing. The red terracotta tiled roof was retained and a recess introduced at the junction between the new work and the existing building. Additional pavilions are delineated from the existing fabric. “We reinterpreted an existing detail in a contemporary way that reflected the existing brick but didn't copy it,” Troup says. “We didn’t want to do a pastiche.”
Suters Architects used a corbelled brick detail (bricks stepped out rather than stacked vertically) below a fascia, but set flush to the brickwork. “It means that a council heritage officer in 100 years will be able to recognise the different eras of the building.”
Steps and ramps had to be replaced at the main entry to bring the building up to current standards of access (AS 1428 Design for access and mobility series) — the original ramps were steeper and shorter. “One ceiling on the upper floor in the old council chambers building (now a conference/function room) was in too poor condition to be retained,” says Troup. “This original ceiling was removed and a new ceiling was built using similar proportions, similar lighting and a similar pattern, so the space has the same feeling.
“We also shoehorned a lift into the middle of the existing building, without affecting the space. That involved a bit of origami. We had to underpin [the structure] and get in there and dig out by hand.”
The roof-mounted plant area has been relocated to reduce its visual impact and the whole site landscaped, adding more eucalypts and rectifying drainage issues that were affecting the neighbours in what is mostly a residential area. New sections of the building comply with BASIX, and insulation has also been added to existing ceilings where possible. There is natural light and ventilation, with external sun control louvres on the western façade.
Timber windows have either been retained or replaced with similar double hung timber sashes. Timber floors have also mostly been retained. Some product choices were compromises, where the architects wanted to preserve the existing look but also needed to find a “fresh, modern appearance”, Troup says. One example is Urbanstone polished pavers used in parts of the internal courtyard and outside, a product with “extra class” that also reflected the architects’ desire to be neutral and as true as possible to the original. Natural stone vanity basins and stone kitchen tops also embody the old/new mix.
Offices and rooms are mainly fitted out with Schiavello office furniture and workstations. “The funky interior colour scheme is lime green and red,” Troup says. Contrasting with this, the CEO’s office is all Sydney red gum — flooring, panelling and one-off furniture built by the joiner to the CEO’s wishes, with Forbo’s Marmoleum linoleum on joinery.
Ron Land, a director of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU), was in charge of Coal Services during the $5 million project. “From a predilection for polished finishes and timber panelling, Ron’s interest, vision and drive were behind the development at Speers Point and were crucial in determining the detail of design and construction activity on site,” Troup says.
The work of project managers Coffey Projects and builders Brisland kept the project to schedule and to tight environmental controls, even though Newcastle’s drought broke and it rained throughout construction.
Troup most remembers the responsibility of collecting the building’s story and displaying it. Although Lake Macquarie Council expected this, “they didn’t have much at all in the way of records,” says heritage consultant Linda Babic of Heritas. With Hunter history consultants, Rosemary Melville and Anne Dunne, she carried out research at the Land Titles Office in Sydney, at local libraries and talked to council employees and former Mayor, John Kilpatrick.
Heritas designed a plaque based on this information. Further showing Coal Services’ sympathetic approach to heritage, the council chambers clock tower was also uncovered and restored and a new clock mechanism added. Says Babic: “Conserving and extending a building to enable it to be interpreted and appreciated by the public is the ultimate goal.”
