Private school’s $25m sports centre wins major building award

Lyons Construction was named the region’s Commercial Builder of the Year for the Belerren Sports & Wellbeing Centre at The Geelong College.

A $25m new sports and wellbeing centre at The Geelong College featuring 10,000 hand-cut bricks has won a major building gong.

Geelong firm Lyons Construction took out the Master Builders Victoria Western region Commercial Builder of the Year for its work on the striking Newtown complex.

The three-storey, purpose-built Belerren Sports & Wellbeing Centre anchors the sporting precinct on the western edge of the college’s senior campus.

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The curved brick building, designed by Wardle architects, includes a double court gymnasium, an elite training facility, changerooms, four large classrooms, external warm-up courts, a spacious events area and basement carpark.

Lyons Construction managing director Steve Lyons said it was biggest project the company had completed in its 96-year history.

At peak times during the 24-month build up to 70 people were on site.

My Lyons paid tribute to those who brought the ambitious design to life, including now retired site manager Bernie Henry, who was “chuffed” to see his swan song recognised.

The curved brickwork was chosen to complement existing buildings at the school.

The facility includes indoor sports courts.

Budding sportspeople can advantage of the gym and training facilities.

“They see buildings as an art piece so there was a lot of curved brick work, with bespoke handmade bricks that came from a company called Krause,” Mr Lyons aid.

“We had to have an apprentice bricklayer and he did about 10,000 cuts on the bricks, so the brickwork is pretty special.

“It has got to blend in with the rest of the heritage buildings, which it does quite well.”

He said it was a challenging structural project, with the basement carpark requiring substantial retaining works.

“There was a lot of precast wall panels and there are some feature steel web trusses that span across the two basketball courts,” he said.

“They were so big that they couldn’t be brought in and erected in one piece, we had to have them made in two pieces and two cranes simultaneously erect them and join them together mid span.”

An aerial view reveals the scale of the project.

Stacked brickwork features in the change rooms.

Master Builders Victoria regional building awards chief judge Frank Pavan praised the project’s attention to detailing, particularly the complexity of the brickwork.

“Some 50,000 bricks were laid with almost a full-time brick cutter onsite during this phase of the project,” Mr Pavan said.

“Even the back of house, storerooms and utility cupboards were finished to a very high standard.”

Another Lyons Construction project, the Harwood Andrews new office fit out, won the Excellence in Construction of a Commercial Building in the $1m-$3m category.

It was among several commercial Geelong project recognised at the at the MBV’s Western region awards night.

Nicholson Construction earned a special commendation for the Biyal-a Armstrong Creek Library. Picture: Mark Wilson

Plan Group Geelong Pty Ltd took out the $3m-$6m category for a new-look AFLW Players Lounge which includes a basketball court and barbecue area.

The distinctive Biyal-a Armstrong Creek Town Centre Library earned Nicholson Construction a special commendation.