The New South Wales Independent Planning Commission has advised the state's planning department to deny local heritage listing for a Harry Seidler-designed college and synagogue in Sydney's Bondi, concluding that the building had been altered too significantly to qualify.
Since it opened in 1961, Yeshiva College, formerly Sydney Talmudical College, has served as a vital institution for the Jewish community, functioning as a school, community centre, and meeting place. The college comprises a synagogue, a classroom block and a rabbi's residence.
The synagogue is the only religious building designed by Harry Seidler.
Waverley Council in Sydney's east voted unanimously in 2023 to apply for an interim heritage order on the college at 34-36 Flood Street, temporarily preventing it from being demolished, following a application from the site's owner to rezone the land to medium-density residential. The council rejected the application, however, the proponent was later granted provisional gateway approval by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
On 7 February 2024, the NSW Independent Planning Commission was tasked with assessing the local heritage value of the college by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.
In its advice to the department, the commission stated that while it "acknowledges the history of the site and recognises its remaining heritage value, most specifically with respect to the technical and architectural feature of its thin concrete shell roof, as well as its association with Seidler and the local Jewish community," the "heritage significance of the synagogue has been compromised over an extended period through alterations and additions to the building that have a significant degree of intrusiveness on the original fabric."
The listed alterations and additions include concrete rendering of the exterior brick, cladding or demolition of building elements, the removal of original glazing, updates to interior and interior layouts, loss of visual access to a side facade showing the vaulted roof line and loss of the front streetscape. "Although a level of intrusiveness over time, where a building retains active function, is not uncommon in items with heritage value, in this case the reversibility of the changes is not considered to be practical," the commission added.
"The thin concrete shell vaulted roof of the synagogue is the remaining (and most prominent) largely intact item of heritage value. However, the condition of the roof has deteriorated and ongoing maintenance and remedial measures would be required to retain the item."
Waverley Council submitted a state heritage listing nomination for the site in June 2023. The outcome of that submission has not yet been determined.
