Centurion Australia Winter 2022

BlackBook Ready to Shine

BlackBook Ready to Shine The retro-inspired Splash Club pool area at The Mysa Motel in Palm Beach No Time Like the Past Gone are the days when significant buildings were considered too expensive to restore. Now, they’re being honoured and reborn. And, in good news for travellers, often as incredible hotels. By Carrie Hutchinson t’s I been a landmark of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula for nearly 150 years. Built by entrepreneur and Melbourne’s grandfather of theatre George Coppin in 1875, the four-storey Continental Sorrento, constructed from local limestone, attracted Melbourne’s well-heeled for seaside getaways. In the many years since, the Continental changed hands and missions. In 2017, when it closed, it was a pub. Developers had plans to upgrade the venue and add apartments. But construction stalled and, with some of the building exposed to the weather, it began to deteriorate. “There are a lot of people who are very angry, from a whole lot of different perspectives, [about] what has been allowed to happen to a heritage-listed building … [in] the centre of the whole township, the iconic building for the township,” Professor Ursula de Jong, president of the Nepean Conservation Group and an architectural historian at Deakin University, told The Age newspaper in mid-2019. Thankfully, a consortium of Melburnian rich-listers purchased the site and brought in acclaimed architecture firm Woods Bagot. IHG signed a management agreement for a planned hotel. The original building was restored to its former glory and connected to a contemporary addition. A lifestyle precinct was created. “A lot of destinational experiences are singular … you know exactly what the offer is,” says Woods Bagot CEO Nik Karalis. “The Continental Sorrento is a total delight and surprise – you have no anticipation of what is about to unfold in front of you. “The second [important aspect] of this project is to regenerate the whole of Ocean Beach Road. The community waited patiently for this project to emerge. Now it is open, it will have a precipitation effect on the whole street.” Stroll into the Continental Sorrento (thecontinentalsorrento.com.au) and you’ll be greeted by seven restaurants and bars, including Scott Pickett’s restaurant Audrey’s, a pool club, Aurora Spa and Bathhouse, and the InterContinental Hotel, which brings old-school glamour and luxury. Many of the 106 rooms, split between the heritage and contemporary buildings, have ocean views and a terrace. The Continental Sorrento is no outlier. Historical buildings that are both beautiful and socially important are being preserved for posterity and, using clever planning, becoming part of the community once more. Across Australia, they are reappearing as hotels that honour their history. They’re not just for the fleeting visitor to enjoy, but also protect the integrity of the local area. In NSW’s second-largest city, QT Newcastle (qthotels.com) has taken over the old David Jones store, built more than PHOTO TRENT MITCHELL 32 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM PLEASE CHECK THE LATEST GOVERNMENT ADVICE BEFORE BOOKING TRAVEL OR DEPARTING ON ANY TRIP

“In the spirit of revival sweeping Newcastle, we have the opportunity to reinvigorate this space and create new memories with locals and visitors alike” Left: a Panoramic King suite at The Tasman in Hobart; below: the artfully restored Continental Sorrento; bottom: the new QT Newcastle, in the heritagelisted David Jones building PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: ADAM GIBSON, © THE CONTINENTAL SORRENTO, © QT NEWCASTLE 110 years ago, on Hunter Street Mall. It’s part of the former industrial city’s East End redevelopment that will preserve and restore other heritage buildings, including the Lyrique Theatre. “In the spirit of revival sweeping the city, we have the opportunity to reinvigorate this space and create new memories with locals and visitors alike,” says general manager Michael Stamboulidis. “Guests will see nods to Newcastle through every touch point.” Creative agency Toben has used Newcastle’s more modern history – rock band Silverchair, the city’s six-stop tram line, and a pub called the Royal Inn that is often called Tits on Toast due to its weekend-only, bikini-clad breakfast servers – to create the artwork around the building. At the opposite end of the country, Hobart’s The Tasman (marriott.com) is part of the Parliament Square redevelopment near the city’s waterfront. “The site houses significant heritage buildings from the 1840s through to the inter-war period of the 1930s,” says David Haseler, head of Fjmturban, the architecture firm overseeing the project. “Over time, low-quality and unsympathetic additions to the rear of sandstone and brick buildings congested the site and limited public access and enjoyment. “The Parliament Square project removes invasive structures and opens the heart of the site to a new public domain linking Salamanca Place to Murray Street. The great ensemble of heritage buildings of Parliament Square is being carefully restored and reimagined.” The Tasman, Marriott’s luxury property, is set in magnificent 1840s Georgian and 1937 Art Deco buildings, as well as a new contemporary structure that marries the two. In the fit-out, the designers have used Tasmanian materials – one of the suites has a bathtub made from native sassafras – and drew on nautical lines to honour the heritage of the area. It’s not only some of Australia’s earliest buildings that are being reborn. In the 1960s, visitors to the glittering Gold Coast would often stay in low-rise motels. By the late 2010s, most had disappeared, victims to the development of high-rise accommodation. Eliza and Jason Raine bought the Palm Trees Motel in 2019 and restored it to create the seven-room Mysa Motel (themysamotel.com). “It tunes in to the authentic voice of the Gold Coast through the engagement of local craftspeople, artists and builders, and pays homage to its heritage through the use of locally sourced, pre-loved materials,” say the couple. “We preserved the façade of the original motel and upcycled items wherever possible.” They scoured the neighbourhood for retro fittings and finishes, such as breeze blocks, glass mosaics and old pool recliners they had restored. “Our mission was to renovate with as minimal impact as possible, not only for sustainability reasons, but because we believe that commemorating heritage buildings does more to enhance a city’s character than new construction ever will.”¬ CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 33