City of Kingston

Project

Mentone Life Saving Club.
Mentone VIC.

Description

The Mentone Life Saving Club is a landmark building that includes:

  • training and social rooms sized to suit large carnival days or hold training events,
  • boat and board store with direct drive in / out access,
  • public amenities with a changing place at beach level for improved community participation,
  • an accessible roof top terrace with indigenous paving artwork, and
  • an observation room with clear unobstructed views.

Construction Cost

Project Completion

$14.5M

2023

Design Statement

The new building takes on an organic shape both in plan and elevation. These simple forms are designed to enable clear circulation to the perimeter of the building and improved sight lines and passive surveillance in line with CPTED principles.

Additionally, the exposed insitu concrete columns and beams are angled to reflect the original club building, which had a similar structural system. The same stepped geometry of the original building was utilised and adapted to suit the modernised form.

The priority for the building layout was to separate club and lifesaving activities from public. This required careful design consideration as the building is backed by the bay trail at the top of the dune and promenade at beach level.

BM_ achieved separation through careful planning of entry and opening locations for the watercraft stores and building entry. CPTED principles were also addressed, where openings provide passive surveillance to quiet areas of the building perimeter.

The precinct works and building occupy 200 lineal metres of sand dune. This area was once cliff face that was subjected to significant earthworks, including explosions in the 1890s which helped create the Mentone Beach that exists today. The site investigation with cultural heritage advisors found evidence of rock tools and shale that were used by indigenous peoples long ago. This area of the precinct was isolated as part of the design process and will be left undisturbed.

The new precinct works introduce a site wide planting scheme that extends the native plant species on the bay. The new planting will increase the existing vegetation on site by 30% and will provide stability for the sand dune. The new planting will extend the habitat space of the native bird species and Rakali (native water rats) that inhabit the area. A wildlife handler was used to relocate any species that occupied the sand dunes prior to commencement of the vegetation removal.

Prior to completing the Sketch Design, Bickerton Masters and Kingston Project Officers met with over 300 local residents in the largest community consultation event held by the City of Kingston. The outcomes of the event resulted in significant design changes – mainly introducing a public roof top terrace to match the existing building. Overall, there was overwhelming support for the project from the community and the club members.