may-june 2012 north-west rail link Discussing the state’s major rail initiative interview Gold Medallist 2012, Lawrence Nield urban renewal Newcastle, Sydney, Bordeaux mass transit A survey of key transport projects Planes, trains & automobiles Will an integrated transport system remain the missing piece of Sydney’s planning puzzle? NORTH SYDNEY WALSH BAY DAWES POINT MILLERS POINT GARDEN ISLAND THE ROCKS DARLING HARBOUR CIRCULAR QUAY POTTS POINT WYNYARD WOOLLOOMOOLOO COCKLE BAY ELIZABETH BAY PYRMONT TOWN HALL EAST SYDNEY KINGS CROSS ROZELLE RUSHCUTTERS BAY DARLINGHURST LEICHHARDT CHINATOWN EDGECLIFF CITY CENTRE PADDINGTON ULTIMO RAILWAY FOREST LODGE SQUARE CENTRAL TAYLOR SQUARE CAMPERDOWN BROADWAY CITY SOUTH SURRY HILLS CHIPPENDALE N DARLINGTON REDFERN BONDI JUNCTION MOORE PARK WATERLOO NEWTOWN ERSKINEVILLE CENTENNIAL PARK UNSW SYDNEY PARK GREEN SQUARE ST PETERS ZETLAND ALEXANDRIA BEACONSFIELD MASCOT editor Peter Salhani [email protected] editorial Committee Chair Contents Joe Agius [email protected] art direction and design President’s message Jamie Carroll and Ersen Sen 02 leadinghand.com.au 23. Copy editor Editorial Monique Pasilow 03 managing editor Roslyn Irons News and views from around the NSW Chapter advertising 04 [email protected] subscriptions (annual) Institute advocacy on transport and planning Six issues $60, students $40 06 reviews Built Environment Committee [email protected] 24. editorial & advertising office North–West Rail Link conversation: Tusculum, 3 Manning Street Kim Crestani, Tom Gellibrand, John Richardson, Potts Point NSW 2011 on the cover 08 (02) 9246 4055 City of Sydney’s proposed regional and Ross de la Motte bicycle network. Usage figures page 31. ISSN 0813-748X image: Courtesy, City of Sydney Published six times a year, North–West frontier Bob Meyer Architecture Bulletin is the journal of 14 the Australian Institute of Architects, NSW Chapter (ACN 000 023 012). THANK Continuously published since 1944. 16 Build it and they will come: the challenges Disclaimer to transport infrastructure Peter Hynd The views and opinions expressed in articles and letters published in Mass transit: a survey of key transport projects Architecture Bulletin are the personal views and opinions of the authors of 18 for New South Wales YOU these writings and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Institute and its officers. Material 24 Interview: Lawrence Nield, 2012 Gold Medallist TO OUR SPONSORS contained in this publication is general comment and is not intended as advice on any particular matter. No reader Urban renewal: Is Newcastle off track? AND EVENT should act or fail to act on the basis of any material herein. Readers should 26 Michael McPherson and David Rose PARTNERS consult professional advisers. The Australian Institute of Architects NSW Open road: design along the highways Chapter, its officers, editor, editorial committee and authors expressly 28 Greg Jackson, Gareth Collins and Michael Sheridan disclaim all liability to any persons in respect of acts or omissions by any 22. such person in reliance on any of the Ultimo Pedestrian Network Sacha Coles contents of this publication. 30 Print and paper Patrons Printed by Rostone Print using Architecture Bulletin thanks Sydney Cycleways Graham Jahn soy-based vegetable inks on 31 FSC mixed source certified paper, its Patrons for their support manufactured to ISO 14 001 Gold Patron environmental accreditation using Redux: Bordeaux Leo Terrando elemental chlorine-free (ECF) pulps. Hassell 32 Plates and paper offcuts from the printing process are recycled. Silver Patrons Bates Smart Cox Richardson Group GSA Bronze Patrons fjmt (Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp) Lend Lease Design Tanner Architects Supporter Buzacott Architects Technical Sponsor Architectural Window Systems 32. Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 1 New South Wales is in the midst of an reverse of eye-glazing acres of print that Globally there is renewed interest in New rail projects offer the opportunity important process that will ultimately lead passes for much of the planning we see today. rail transport as a response to increased and incentive to facilitate this and there to a new planning system (see page 6 for a Strategic planning needs to engage urbanisation, growth and the densification has been significant effort by the previous precis of the Institute’s policy submission). communities so that change supports their May/June editorial committee of congested cities. In Australia this is departments such as Department of The benefits of a visionary and well- people’s needs. Through the application of Joe Agius (Chair) Cox Richardson evidenced by the initiation of new proposals Transport, the Transport Construction founded planning system — for architects design skill, architects and urban designers Callantha Brigham (Sydney Metro, Melbourne Metro and Agency and Railcorp over the last decade and for architecture — are obvious to all. can present alternative visions of the future NSW Government Architect’s Office Cross River Rail in Brisbane), or the to be catalysts of change. The new Transport The more difficult challenge for this review to help a community decide where its Kim Crestani Transport for NSW resurrection of previous studies and the for NSW super agency set up in November , of the Environmental Planning and priorities rest. This is not an easy process — Angelo Di Marco Woodhead urgent need to upgrade existing station 2011 by Minister Gladys Berejiklian is a president s Assessment Act will be to bring with it a new there are many legitimate and diverse views Ross de la Motte Hassell infrastructure. In New South Wales, over the paradigm shift which is modelled on the culture of planning for our cities and towns. —but it is essential if a reliable framework for Satvir Mand Cox Richardson last two years a number of significant projects Transport for London agency. New message At the moment we do not have a system future development is to be achieved. Andrew Cortese Grimshaw Architects have been underway including the North West departments such as Customer Experience that supports good design, but rather a The value of strategic planning lies in its Rail Link (NWRL), Wynyard Station master Division will implement new design combative process and a set of overlapping capacity to establish meaningful development plan and studies into the alternative City approaches focusing on way finding / “I love the sentiment and uncoordinated regulations that too often controls against which all future proposals are Relief Lines. branding and public domain initiatives. prevent good design and inhibit creative assessed. This is the key to that elusive factor: The challenge is to deliver an attractive In developing the design of these new invoked by the words thinking. certainty. It is here that the rules are defined. public rail transport that offers an alternative opportunities, ambitions are benchmarked of Jan McCredie: This is a system that focuses almost It is without clearly defined development to the car and bus-dominated commute and against international projects (such as in ‘Strategic plans. exclusively on individual development parameters that many communities appear the consequential traffic and environmental Copenhagen, Munich, London, Hong Kong), projects rather than on their urban context. anti-development. They have to deal with the impacts. In doing so the transport agencies and new constructed local links (Epping Must consist Almost all the effort and intelligence of our prospect of change, project by project, without need to respond to network demand and Chatswood Rail Link), and station upgrades of drawings. industry is exerted at the detailed delivery any real sense of the strategic context. system integration, construction cost and (Chatswood and Parramatta, North Sydney end of the process rather than the strategic The pay-off in sound strategic planning is methodology, maintaining existing operation Station). These built and conceptual projects May include words’.” end. We’ve lost focus on city-making in favour a system that sets up expectations in support and improving customer satisfaction. (such as SydneyMetro) provide valuable of ever more clumsy development assessment, of complying development. Where a proposal 1. Community impacts go beyond transport “lessons learnt” for the design, construction and it isn’t working well enough. conforms to controls in the plan there is no 1. A Munich Metro station with skylights in the concrete accessibility; stations and their precincts and operation phases of future projects. There is a need for renewed strategic need for further consultation. Expert design ceiling bringing daylight to underground platforms. are fundamental to place making and 2. Another Munich Metro station artfully uses lighting. planning at all levels of government: from and other technical advice assist in making 3. In Copenhagen, new elements of the Metro station neighbourhood connectivity, regeneration a national perspective, to the state, and on better proposals, but the underlying principle integrated into a heritage precinct. Photos: Satvir Mand. and growth in both greenfield and brownfield to the local and precinct scales. is that complying development is in the public sites.. The transport interventions can be As good as SEPP 65 is — and our colleagues interest. of varying scales ranging from city-shaping interstate rightly regard it as the country’s best Paul Walter’s insightful chart on page