This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
The Concourse, Chatswood | |
---|---|
General information | |
Address | 409 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, New South Wales |
Coordinates | 33°47′44″S151°11′00″E / 33.7956886°S 151.1833663°E |
Opened | 2011-09-10 |
Other information | |
Seating capacity | Concert Hall 1000 Theatre 500 Civic Pavilion 500 |
Website | |
The Concourse |
The Concourse is a cultural centre in the North Shore suburb of Chatswood, which is a 20-minute journey from the Sydney Central Business District. In 2007, the City of Willoughby commissioned new designs to replace the old Chatswood Civic Centre.
The first Willoughby Town Hall was built on the site in 1903. The hall doubled as the Council Chambers and the site was shared with the Council Pound, the School of Arts, and the Ku-ring-gai Masonic Lodge. A three-story administration building was also built on the site in 1967 (with a fourth floor added in 1980).
In 1972, the original Town Hall was demolished and replaced by a new Civic Centre, comprising the Town Hall which seated 850 people, and the smaller Bailey Hall, which seated 350. This building played an essential part in Willoughby City's community and culture for many years.
The new cultural complex was designed by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp [1] architects. Following demolition of the old buildings, construction began on The Concourse in July 2008 at a cost of approximately $162 million [2] and was complete in July 2011. The complex was officially opened on 17 September 2011 by the Governor of NSW, Marie Bashir. [3]
In addition to a 5,000 m2 library, The Concourse at Chatswood features a large public open space, a 500-seat theatre, rehearsal spaces, a 1,000-seat concert hall, cafés, retail and commercial outlets, a boutique hotel, and a multi-purpose exhibition hall. The Concourse also includes car parking over two basement levels and a 5,000 m3 stormwater detention tank as part of an integrated water management system. [4] Within the ground floor of The Concourse is The Art Space, which is a gallery and a community space that features weekly art exhibitions from local artists and art collectives. It measures 92 m2, and is equipped with professional track lighting and hanging systems.
For the Chatswood Library, where reading light for eyes of all ages was a central issue, lighting specialists Klik Systems were enlisted to design & construct energy-efficient beam luminaires. The Chatswood library occupies 5,000 m2 on the lower ground level, entered via the main podium.
Patrons of The Concourse include leading figures in Australia's arts industries including soprano Yvonne Kenny, poet Les Murray, authors Matthew Reilly and Renée Goossens, and rock icon Angry Anderson AM.
Reilly, author of the best-selling thriller Ice Station, said "For any writer, it all starts at your local library. Chatswood Library on The Concourse offers the next generation of Willoughby-born writers an opportunity to work in a marvellous state-of-the-art facility – right on their own doorstep."
Murray said "As a supporter and user of the Willoughby Library, I am greatly impressed by the increased size of the new library…private study rooms, meeting rooms, state-of-the-art IT facilities and lovely sunny and shaded spaces for quiet reading… the new library will be a great match for the many enthusiastic visitors it receives."
The library was complete and open for the National Year of Reading 2012 in Australia.
The Ensemble Theatre has staged productions at The Concourse. In 2014, artistic director Sandra Bates mounted performances of all three plays in David Williamson's Jack Manning Trilogy– Face to Face , A Conversation , and Charitable Intent – back-to-back. In 2016, in her final directorial role, Bates reunited with Todd McKenney and Nancye Hayes for a reprise of their 2006 production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks , [5] [6] which became the most successful production in the Ensemble's 58-year history. [7]
Clover Margaret Moore is an Australian politician. She has been the Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney since 2004 and is currently the longest serving Lord Mayor of Sydney since the creation of the City of Sydney in 1842. She was an independent member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1988 to 2012, representing the electorates of Bligh (1988–2007) and Sydney (2007–2012). Her "recurrent motif" is described as "making Sydney more liveable for individuals and families". Moore is the first popularly elected woman Lord Mayor of Sydney.
Town Hall railway station is a heritage-listed underground commuter rail station located in the centre of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The station opened on 28 February 1932. It is named after the Sydney Town Hall, located directly above the station.
The North Shore is a region within Northern Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia, generally referring to suburbs located on the northern side of Sydney Harbour up to Wahroonga, and suburbs between Middle Harbour and the Lane Cove River.
Chatswood is a suburb in the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 10 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Willoughby.
Wynyard railway station is a heritage-listed underground commuter rail station located in the north-west precinct of the Sydney central business district, in New South Wales, Australia. The station opened on 28 February 1932 to coincide with the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The City of Willoughby is a local government area on the Lower North Shore of Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north of the Sydney central business district. It was first proclaimed in October 1865 as the Municipality of North Willoughby.
The Denver Performing Arts Complex in Denver, Colorado, is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. The DCPA is a four-block, 12-acre (49,000 m2) site containing ten performance spaces with over 10,000 seats connected by an 80-foot-tall (24 m) glass roof. It is home to a professional theater company and also hosts Broadway musical tours, contemporary dance and ballet, chorales, symphony orchestras, opera productions, and pop stars.
Westfield Chatswood is a large indoor shopping centre in the suburb of Chatswood in the Lower North Shore of Sydney.
Todd McKenney is an Australian dancer, theatre performer and TV personality. He is best known as a judge on the Australian television talent show Dancing with the Stars.
The Ensemble Theatre is an Australian theatre company and theatre, situated in the Sydney suburb of Kirribilli, New South Wales.
Northern Sydney is a large metropolitan area in Greater Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the north shore of Sydney Harbour and Parramatta River. The region embraces suburbs in Sydney's north-east, north and inner north west. Northern Sydney is divided into distinctive regions such as the North Shore, Northern Beaches and Forest District.
Richard Alfieri to Sam and Nena Alfieri is an American playwright, screenplay writer, novelist, film producer, and actor. His awards include two Writers Guild Awards and an Emmy nomination.
Bankstown City Library and Information Service was a library service in Sydney. Bankstown situated in the south-west of Sydney, Australia. Part of Bankstown City Council, the library service includes the Central Library, located in Bankstown Central Business District, and four branch libraries Chester Hill, Greenacre, Padstow and Panania.
The Charles Perkins Centre (CPC) is an Australian medical research institute, clinic and education hub that primarily focuses on diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, as well as other related conditions. The centre is affiliated with the University of Sydney and is located within the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital health precinct at the Camperdown campus of the university in Sydney, New South Wales. The centre is named in honour of alumnus Charles Perkins, the first man of Aboriginal descent to graduate from an Australian university. The centre's academic director is Professor Stephen Simpson.
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks is a 2001 play by American playwright Richard Alfieri. It is a play with only two characters: Lily Harrison, the formidable widow of a Baptist minister, and Michael Minetti, a gay and acerbic dance instructor hired to give her dancing lessons. It premiered at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles before moving to Broadway. It has gone on to performances in 24 countries and been translated into 14 languages.
Francis-Jones Carpenter (fjcstudio)is a multi-disciplinary Australian design studio established in 2002 and noted for design excellence and a commitment to enhancing the public realm. fjcstudio has a reputation as an ideas-driven practice "with an agenda for strong public engagement and masterful resolution of tectonics" and the firm's work demonstrates "an extraordinary ability to uncover the real and often contradictory issues and potentials of a project by a very careful analysis of purpose and place".
Nancye Lee Bertles AM, billed under her maiden name as Nancye Hayes, is an Australian actress, dancer, singer and choreographer/director and narrator. She has been a leading figure in Australian musical theatre since the 1960s. Although her roles have been almost exclusively in theatre, she has briefly worked in television as a character actress, filling in for Judy Nunn on the soap opera Home and Away.
Jonah is an Australian musical with book and lyrics by John Romeril and music by Alan John. It is based on the 1911 novel Jonah by Australian writer Louis Stone. Set in the inner suburbs of Sydney in the thirty years prior to World War I, the musical is an ironic story of the capitalist rise of a hunchback shoe repairer from a leader of a local Push to an industrial magnate.
The New Law School building of the University of Sydney is designed by Sydney-based architectural firm Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (FJMT). The building is located at the university's Camperdown campus in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and was officially opened on 30 April 2009. It serves as the new building for the Sydney Law School.
UTS Central, also known as Building 2, is the building housing the Faculty of Law and UTS Library at the University of Technology Sydney. It is the final building to be opened under the A$1 billion City Campus Master Plan. The building is designed by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (FJMT), with elements of an original podium design by Lacoste+Stevenson in association with DJRD. Construction was overseen by head contractor Richard Crookes Constructions. The building is located next to the UTS Tower in Ultimo. It opened in August 2019.