Council entrance with concrete canopy, brick wall and Warringah Council sign. Colours look heavily saturated or filtered.

Warringah Civic Centre

725 Pittwater Road, Dee Why

Colin Madigan and Christopher Kringas of Edwards, Madigan, Torzillo & Briggs. 1972 to 1973, commissioned 1970. Brutalism.

Size
About 63 m long, on three platforms
Material
Bush-hammered in-situ concrete, precast piers 12.8 m high
Status
Recommended for the State Register in 2024. Northern Beaches Council offices

The shire council asked for this in 1970, and Madigan and Kringas set it on a rock outcrop planned as an acropolis above the Dee Why shops, with Bruce Mackenzie’s native bushland around it. Inside, three open floors are linked by concrete ramps, U-shaped in section, under a skylight, with the air-conditioning ducts left in view. Outside, the walls are hammered back to expose the aggregate. It opened in 1973 and served Warringah until 2016, when the council merged into a larger one. Heritage nominations have been deferred and renewed since 2008.

Read about Brutalism in Sydney

Sources

  1. Warringah Council Civic Centre, Dee Why, full documentation fiche, Docomomo Australia (Scott Robertson, 2010)
  2. State Heritage Register Committee minutes, 4 June 2024, Heritage Council of NSW
  3. State Heritage Register Committee minutes, 7 May 2024, Heritage Council of NSW
  4. Warringah Civic Centre heritage listing, NSW Government, Have Your Say
  5. Warringah Civic Centre, Wikipedia