Opinion split on heritage protection for Burvale Hotel

The iconic Burvale Hotel could win heritage protection under a radical plan to protect the 1960s pub from development.

Whitehorse Council describes the building at the corner of Burwood Highway and Springvale Rd as “a living time capsule” and has asked an independent panel to consider if it’s worthy of a heritage overlay.

But the landlord, ALE Property Group, and the pub’s leaseholder, the massive Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, are fighting moves to protect the beloved “Burv”.

ALH Group national property manager, Barry Cloke, said the sprawling 45,000sq m site demanded a better hotel.

“It’s a gateway site worthy of a bigger development that would include an improved hotel,” Mr Cloke said.

“We haven’t got anything in concrete right now, and nothing would happen this year or next, but hopefully in the near future we can realise the potential for that iconic site.”

A Heritage Alliance report said the Burvale Hotel was “possibly the best and most well-preserved example” of work from the firm Jorgenson and Hough, one of Australia’s leading designers of modern hotels and motels in the post-war period.

The council’s own review of the building said: “The clear influence of (influential US architect) Frank Lloyd Wright in its adoption of organic principles both in form and use of materials, together with conscious desire to create a specifically regional architecture, are both of significance.”

Source: Whitehorse Leader  Jesse Wray-McAnn  February 4th 2015