The MacMahon Street front in grey exposed-aggregate concrete: square piers carrying a canopy lettered CIVIC CENTRE over a flight of steps, a strip of windows and a broad panelled band above, a louvred plant room on the roof and a solid block with the council's arms and HURSTVILLE CITY COUNCIL; street lamps and planting in front.

Hurstville Civic Centre

MacMahon Street at Dora Street, Hurstville

Hurstville Council’s architect, not named in the sources. 1977 to 1982, an extension to the civic centre of 1962. Brutalism.

Size
No dimensions found. Three levels and a plant room on MacMahon Street; the drawing is estimated, about 13 m high
Material
Exposed-aggregate concrete, cast in place and precast
Status
No heritage listing found. Seat of Georges River Council. The precinct was rezoned in 2023 for future redevelopment; no decision on this building was found

Hurstville’s first civic centre, designed by Peddle Thorp & Walker in the Post-War International Style, opened on 2 June 1962 with a hall seating 1,264. In January 1977 the council bought the former Rivoli Hall on the other corner of Dora and MacMahon Streets, demolished it, and built an extension in the Brutalist style that included a new central library, designed by the council’s architect. It cost about $4.3 million, and Premier Neville Wran opened it on 30 July 1982.

The front is exposed-aggregate concrete throughout. A colonnade of square piers carries a deep canopy lettered CIVIC CENTRE over the entrance steps. Above are a strip of windows set back in shadow, a broad band of panels, a louvred plant room, and at one end a solid block carrying the council’s arms.

Hurstville and Kogarah councils merged on 12 May 2016 to form Georges River Council, and the 1982 building is now its seat. In October 2023 the precinct bounded by MacMahon Street, Park Road, Queens Road and Dora Street was rezoned for a mixed civic, cultural, commercial and residential redevelopment, with heights up to 60 m. The council’s page says the Hurstville Museum and Gallery, a heritage item, would be kept, and does not say what would become of the civic centre buildings.

Read about Brutalism in Sydney

Sources

  1. City of Hurstville, Wikipedia
  2. The Brutalist Project Sydney, Glenn Harper, Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series, NSW Architects Registration Board (2016)
  3. Hurstville Civic Precinct Site (past planning proposal), Georges River Council