Inner West Council has announced the winners of the 2023 Built Environment Awards. This year’s theme was “Sharing stories of our built environment”. We are pleased to announce that 59a Reynolds Street, Balmain was awarded the 2023 Marrickville Medal. The jury praised this c. 20th period cottage, considering it to be a sensitive and well-designed residential alteration and addition. The judges commented that it “conserved a dilapidated house, with carefully considered additions which complement the original house without overwhelming it, due to their scale, form, and siting”.
Located on the corner of Reynolds Street and Rumsay Lane, within The Valley Heritage Conservation Area, the additions are designed as two pavilions, allowing for the retention of the form of the original house, and creating a new, private landscaped internal courtyard within what was formerly an unlovely concreted driveway and car parking area. Care was taken to protect the stone wall to the Rumsay Lane boundary.
The new pavilion to the street, clad in painted timber, is a contemporary, contextual infill which makes a positive contribution to the streetscape without competing with the original house. The connections between the old and new elements have been sympathetically and clearly delineated, with an axial link joining them. The jury praised the care that is evident in all aspects of the project, including the selection and detailing of materials and its well resolved construction.
The winner of the open category of the Urban Photography Awards is Matthew Venables for ‘On Livingstone Road.’
Winston Parry won the Secondary School category for ‘The Egyptian Room’ and Andre Antunes took out the Primary School category for ‘Trinity’. About the Built Environment Awards
The Built Environment Awards are two separate programs that contribute to, and celebrate, our understanding of the inner west’s built heritage: the Marrickville Medal for Conservation, and the Inner West Urban Photography Competition.
