Located at 115-151 Dunning Avenue, Rosebery Engine Yard is a former hub of innovation that has been refurbished. We redesigned it to honour its unique industrial heritage and character. Over the last century, the site has served various manufacturing and light industrial purposes. The rebirth of Rosebery Engine Yards is a significant win for the community, providing a renewed asset that has stood vacant for decades.
Sydney’s heritage-listed Rosebery Engine Yards has been revitalised from a former manufacturing site into a vibrant retail and lifestyle precinct, activating the pivotal turn-of-century industrial powerhouse.
Owners Goodman Group completed the $60.3 million adaptive renewal project with builders Taylors Construction. Our mixed-use and retail architecture team was engaged to preserve and celebrate the warehouse’s historic features while creating a dynamic space for fashion, lifestyle, food and beverage, boutique commercials, and workplaces.
The site—a cornerstone piece of real estate and history in Rosebery—occupies an entire block at 115-151 Dunning Ave, spanning 1.9 hectares. Once a key industrial area in the early 1900s, Rosebery was home to the creation of the iconic Minties confectionery in 1922.
Our team meticulously maintained the authenticity of the warehouse’s brick-skinned façade and saw-toothed roofs through careful restoration that meets modern standards. The site’s evolution, expressed architecturally over many layers, is upheld in its modern transition.
Sitting adjacent to public transport, food, and fashion, the new sympathetic retail and lifestyle offering, with a significant portion dedicated to public use, will strengthen the area. Adaptive reuse developments like this keep employment generation and working opportunities within residential neighbourhoods. We have purposefully kept the existing built fabric and reinvigorated the heritage elements to give it a new lease of life and to maintain and intensify the employment generation so there is a sustainable, walkable, 15-minute neighbourhood – a key planning pillar for a sustainable city.
The development targets 5 Star Green Star and 5 Star NABERS ratings through sensitive sustainability interventions. Double glazing has been applied to all windows, while the sawtooth roofs are operable, enabling natural ventilation and light to pour through the space. Sustainability is complex to do in a heritage building, and we pushed the envelope regarding the JV3 modelling and a relatively high whole-of-site performance. The sawtooth roof and façade had heritage orders that needed to be respected. The columns and truss framing are critical to keeping the site’s history.
The site is divided into three architectural parcels, retaining the open-plan warehouse layout with features like an elongated central corridor, existing mezzanines, and exposed timber and steel-framed roof trusses. The preservation of remnant gantry and machinery elements adds to the industrial aesthetic.
Contrasting new works are wholly contemporary, such as sacrificial internal walls and partitions, maintaining the open plan and maximising sightlines of the saw-tooth repetition. The materiality is very understated – that’s been purposeful, so the heritage fabric shines. Designed with customer wellbeing at the forefront, the estate represents a more flexible, comfortable, and sustainable way of working.
Kori Todd, Head of Design for Goodman said, “Rosebery Engine Yards is a great example of the benefits of adaptive reuse and the value repurposed buildings play in the sustainable development of Australian communities. “It demonstrates significant environmental benefits, enhanced the local landscape, and contributed to the Rosebery community identity. Our goal was to preserve the unique industrial character while integrating modern elements. The result is a harmonious blend of old and new, providing an inspiring environment for retailers, workers and visitors.”
A ‘re-wilding’ concept will simulate ‘nature taking its course’ across the built form over time. The idea is the building and landscape are meshed, and the building will become part of the landscape, blanketed by greenery that will permeate the precinct.
Public art offers a captivating focal point at the Dunning Avenue entrance to the Engine Yards. Artist Patrizia Biondi’s 6.5-metre-tall artwork, ‘Timber tapestries—stories carved in grain’, reuses timber from the site to symbolise Rosebery Engine Yards’ renaissance.
Lune Croissanterie, Gelato Messina, Zimmermann, Oroton, Estée Lauder, Aje, Rebecca Vallance, Viktoria & Woods, July, and M.J. Bale are among the retailers joining the precinct, which started opening from August 2024.
There is much more to share on this unique project…coming soon.
In the meantime, read the media coverage to date:
> Urban Developer, July 2024 – Goodman Precinct Fills as Shopping Centres Lead Retail
And read about the public art installation on the site from Art Pharmacy
Image: Rosebery Engine Yards public art by Patrizia Biondi. Image courtesy of Art Pharmacy. Photo credit: Luke Turner
