Chatswood.

'Brutalist' building styles from the 60s and 70s aren't widely appreciated it seems. An example was Civic Place in Chatswood, demolished in 2008.

If Willoughby City Council is to be believed, the buildings were not popular with residents – however, this council's track record on heritage matters isn't a good one.

As Society Chair Roy Lumby noted in a newsletter editorial: "Chatswood has been transformed in a period of thirty years from a pleasant suburban township into a congested and anonymous business precinct with little human scale and an incoherent and chaotic visual character. Losses have included the Kings and Arcadia Theatres, the original Grace Bros. department store, the Hotel Charles and the original Christ Scientist Church. Now three more buildings of consequence are to go."

To see other examples in this style, see our Brutalism page.

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