Western Sydney council facing massive cost to refurbish 50-year-old aquatic centre

Hills Shire Council in western Sydney has approved a $55.5 million redevelopment of its ageing Waves Aquatic Centre - a project first budgeted at costing between $19 and $23 million.

On Tuesday night, Councillors voted to support the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the 52-year-old Baulkham Hills facility that will include upgraded pools with hydrotherapy and learn-to-swim indoor facilities and an expansive fitness centre.

Councillors also approving a masterplan for the future inclusion of a children’s water play area and additional 10-lane 25 metre outdoor pool.

Hills Shire Mayor Michelle Byrne told the Hills Shire Times “we have chosen an option that strikes a balance between recreational swimming and play, fitness, rehabilitation and squad training.

“It also provides indoor and outdoor recreational uses, as well as providing additional carparking and greatly improved gym space.

“Council will now prepare a detailed design for a construction tender, with construction to commence in the first half of 2020.”

Deputy Mayor, Alan Haselden justified the development based on population growth of the area, adding “as higher density living increases across The Hills over the next 20 years, there will be more and more families without a backyard - so all of these things point in the direction of a liveable, quality aquatic facility for the future of The Hills.”

However, Councillor Elizabeth Russo said she was left “disgusted and speechless by extreme blowout of costs”.

She told the Hills Shire Times “previous construction costs given to councillors just last month suggested the redevelopment would cost between $19 and $23 million.

“This is more than double our expectation and I don’t know where it all went wrong.

Councillor Mike Thomas said he was never shown any designs that “meet the brief of the budget” and stated “we are looking at more than double the cost of Hornsby’s Aquatic Centre.

“No one is opposed to upgrading the pool but we have to do it in a responsible way and this project appeared to be well managed until a month ago when the cost was blown out by two to three times the cost of other councils.”

In response to this, a spokesperson for project architect NBRS Architecture was quoted by the Hills Shire Times that pools are “finite features and their costs are also finite”, adding “we answered the brief required of us.

“It was clear it would require a greater budget and we have provided what the councillors asked for and done this as economically as possible.”

Reference to the NBRS Architecture website appears to show that the practice has designed just a single aquatic facility, the Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre in Auburn, but do have a large portfolio of designs for residential, retail and church projects.

Australasian Leisure Management has previously questioned the high cost of aquatic facility developments and a budget of $55.5 million for the refurbishment of an outdoor 50 metre pool and the addition of an indoor learn-to-swim indoor pool and gym would appear to be a further example of this.

Australasian Leisure Management Publisher, Nigel Benton stated “this would appear to be a massive cost for the construction of a couple of pools and a gym.

“Certainly, the design is impressive but aquatic, fitness and recreation facilities in the majority of locations need to be functional and low-cost and not to be bespoke structures that are designed to secure architectural awards.

“It is good to see that the concept designs for this facility include a large array of solar-panelling - a feature often ignored in extravagant roof designs that, over the past decade or so, have all-too-often featured skylights, wave shapes and other bon-functional elements.

“However, the industry has to move towards more modular ‘off-the-shelf’ designs for facilities that are proven to be cost effective and efficient to build, operate and maintain and not fuel the egos of architects who seek to build monuments.”

The report considered by Councillors included four different options for the future of the facility, which opened in 1967, including a $12.6 million basic upgrade to the pool, a $39.6 million like-for-like redevelopment of the centre featuring an indoor leisure pool, the - now accepted - $55.5 million expansion with additional splash pad and warm water rehabilitation pool, gym and group fitness centre and an ambitious $63.3 million expansion adding another 23 metre learn-to-swim and leisure pool and a series of water slides.

The report said the catchment area for Waves Aquatic Centre is capable of delivering the numbers to support a $63.3 million redevelopment, advising “with this option there are concerns that the intensity would impact on community negatively given that the neighbouring community is of a predominate low density, single lot housing character and scale.

“Best practice would suggest that the facility would need to be designed to maximise operating hours, maximise activity, minimise circulation space for efficiency and sustain a universal mix of uses that have compatibility.”

Other examples of massive cost blowouts of aquatic facilities include the Ashfield Aquatic Centre - where costs have risen from $14 million to $42 million for an impressive wave-shaped roof facility and the City of Sydney's Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre where costs have risen from a 2015 estimate of $50 million to a currently advised $84 million.

Australasian Leisure Management understands that the likely final cost of the Gunyama Park facility is set to exceed $100 million.

Click here for more information on the project.

Images: Architects' concepts for the Waves Aquatic Centre, courtesy of Hills Shire Council. The middle image shows elements of the $63.3 million redevelopment.