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

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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 6 initiatives to major reconstructions of the design policy — it’s a policy focused on a single demonstrates how this kind of planning urban fabric, or in constrained and sensitive building type, usually applied at the time when system might work. There is more detail, as environments where minimal–impact design a detailed proposal is being prepared, so it’s well as descriptions of successful strategic responses are required. not directed towards the city as a whole. Yet planning in Australia and elsewhere, in the A number of factors impact commuter there are some real clues for a better culture Chapter’s submission to the NSW Planning expectations; be it convenient access to stations of planning contained within the SEPP, System Review on the Policy Submissions page both at origin and destination or the quality and for instance: recognition of the shared of the Institute’s website. This is a once-in-a- cost of service, the overarching performance responsibility for good design; mandating generation opportunity to deeply embed a indicator is customer satisfaction. Transport for the involvement of skilled designers at each culture of strategic planning in New South 2. NSW has, central to its charter, customer focus step of the development process; and formal Wales. The Institute is dedicating its advocacy as a key objective; this requires a step change in design review prior to approval. to this end. the operator’s delivery of the service and the Planning needs this kind of intelligent management of customer expectations. and creative thinking, expressed through Matthew Pullinger the design process, at all scales. This is NSW Chapter President where architects and design thinking shine. Our training, skills and experience in giving three-dimensional expression to a complex brief makes us natural innovators in the strategic planning process. We are able to conceive the future and communicate how it works through drawings, visualisations and models. I love the sentiment invoked by the words of Institute Fellow Jan McCredie when she says: “Strategic plans. Must consist of 3. Neil Fenelon Neil Photo: drawings. May include words”. The complete

2 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 3 news & views

From the Editorial Committee Chair New Life Fellows DARCH days

This is Peter Salhani’s last edition of Architecture On Wednesday 7 March, a small, though DARCH has started the year some great Bulletin, which he has edited since 2008. Peter’s distinguished crowd gathered at Tusculum events including a Regi(fru)stration seminar commitment to a meticulously presented to honour this year’s new Life Fellows (left). for 150 people supported by Kingspan journal of considered and relevant content to NSW Chapter President Matthew Pullinger, (13 February), small bar tour (13 March: in NSW members, together with his enthusiasm together with National President Brian Zulaikha Redfern, Fredas, The Dock and Dry Land), for architecture, publishing and design, has welcomed 10 new Life Fellows: Michael Dysart, and two photographic exhibitions, one at made Architecture Bulletin the quality journal we for his considerable contribution to design; Wholemeal Café in Taylor Square, Darlinghurst, currently enjoy. It has been my great pleasure to Richard Johnson MBE, an Institute Gold and the other on the hoardings of Frasers’ work with Peter these past four years. On behalf Medallist; and Michael Neustein, for service Central Park site along Broadway. The images, of our members, readers and contributors, our to the Institute’s programs, and in urban from 2011 EmAGN Sydney, are on the DARCH Chapter President and Chapter Council, I’d like planning reform. Peter Phillips was recognised Facebook page. Congratulations to the winners: to thank him and wish him well. for his key role in preservation, restoration and Felix Rasch (Choi Ropiha Fighera), Stefanie conservation; Paul Pholeros AM, for improving Hughes and Miki McBride of (SJB Architects) Joe Agius New Life Fellows (from left): Richard Johnson, Michael Neustein, Peter Mould, Richard Thorp, Peter Phillips, Peter Tonkin, Paul the health and living conditions of Indigenous and Barbara Busina. Pholeros, Col James and Michael Dysart. Centre: Matthew Pullinger, NSW Chapter President. Photo: Nic Bailey. Editorial Committee Chair communities; Peter Stutchbury, for sustainable On 11 April, our Q&A(rchitect) forum AA visiting school brings Infloatables to UTS design, teaching and mentoring; and Peter at Tusculum, saw Matthew Chan, (Scale Chapter Manager’s report Patrons news The upgraded high-tech zone is expected to Tonkin, for his contribution to design Architecture), Marcus Trimble (Bennett In February this year, University of Technology be a forest and innovative city in the near excellence. Richard Thorp’s key role in practice and Trimble), Andrew Donaldson (Architect Sydney hosted a 10-day visiting school by It’s been a busy first quarter for 2012, with Cox Richardson recently prepared the future. Leading the project team is the firm’s management and service to the profession was Marshall), Genevieve Murray, Hannah Tribe London’s Architectural Association, run lots of CPD events, award presentations and second of two issue papers, which were new Associate Director and Senior Urban recognised, as was Col James, for his teaching (Tribe Studio) and James Sandwith (Hassell / by Jeffrey Turko, Nate Colby, Iian Maxwell, celebratory activities such as the Life Fellows submitted to the NSW Department of Designer, Dr Ying Rao, recognised for his and social housing research. Peter Mould, Emergency Architects Australia) share stories Tom Lea and Robert Beson. In response to rising cocktail function in early March. The Newcastle Planning and Infrastructure as part of the State work in urban design and master planning Emeritus NSW Government Architect, was about finding their paths in practice, to sealevels and floods, the workshops aimed to and Country Divisions kicked off the year with a Government’s overhaul of the NSW Planning in China and Australia. recognised for his contribution to heritage coincide with the NSW Emerging Architect design inflatable envelopes and grounds for series of CPD events in Newcastle, Armidale System. Cox is committed to public debate and city planning. He was also warmly toasted Prize. It was possibly a record late night, with Sydney’s waterfront to retain and extend the and, coming up at the end of April, Kiama. on key strategic issues and their submission Hassell is involved in a number of the (and light-heartedly roasted) by his successor, last drinks finishing around 10pm. harbour. The workshop explored theoretical Awards submissions were down primarily recommends that communities be engaged State Government’s key transport projects Peter Poulet. To join the DARCH mailing list or frameworks and precedents as well as physical due to rain hampering the completion of many at every level of plan making. Another key including its major initiative in terms of scale meetings (every second Wednesday morning), and digital techniques. With plastic dropsheets, projects. We extended the deadline by two recommendation is the need for local plans to and cost: the North–West Rail Link. The link Richard Dinham LFRAIA email [email protected], or go to the packing tape and a fan, students created large, weeks was to give photographers time to shoot be considered in the context of a hierarchical connects Epping to the North-West Growth Chair, Honours Committee DARCH website, www.darch.com.au. evocative enclosures, such as ‘Beast’ (above). the work and practices time to make their structure, ranging from federal and state to Sector at Cudgegong Road via Norwest display boards. Presentation days at the end regional and subregional plans. Bottom right Business Park and Rouse Hill Town Centre. Tuesdays@Tusculum of March were well attended and plans are well is an abstraction of the Sydney 2012 region. Hassell’s design team, in collaboration with underway for a special awards evening at Luna Arup and Aurecon, is involved in the project’s VIEWPOINT: Social Cities the scope of the document, though June Conversations across borders, starts with Park. Remember, the Awards are not just about Bates Smart’s design for Winten Property urban design, master planning and integrated there is an absence of priorities. Important Stuart Vokes of Owen & Vokes. Pecha Kucha, the winners, and the presentation night is an Group’s 31-storey commercial building on transport and land use components. Key aims Cities are about people and how they interact. elements for the social success of urban (part of VIVID), comes to Tusculum. Adam opportunity to join colleagues and celebrate the Pacific Highway, North Sydney, has been of the design work are developing a planning They are, arguably, our most important human areas such as the spatial structure, Haddow hosts a conversation over a glass of red. profession. You can book your tickets online DA-approved by council. The proposed building strategy to: stimulate sustainable growth; constructs. It’s common to analyse cities for accessibility, economic success and July NSW Award-winning projects, plus a now. We look forward to seeing a record crowd contains 44,770 square metres of office floor improve access to housing; jobs and services; the goods and services they produce, and for health are not explored, while others, presentation and discussion about protecting this year. space, above a naturally ventilated glass podium increase transport choices; reduce dependence their impact on the physical environment, such as building interface, are described our awarded public buildings — in this, the The 2012 NSW Graduate and Student where a garden plaza of 1,325 square metres is on private vehicles; and foster the creation of because these things can be measured in relative detail. 80th anniversary of the Sulman Award . Awards for excellence in architectural accessible to the public. In response to council’s memorable urban communities. relatively easily. But their impact on human One of the report’s sub-themes is August Planning forum. Winners of the scholarship will be held on 1 June. Many restrictive overshadowing controls, the tower interaction is much harder to analyse. the effectiveness of engaging residents Houses Awards present their work. thanks to our sponsors who make these envelope is incised to preserve solar access to The recent Grattan Institute report, in the decision-making process — which Download the T@T calendar from the awards possible: Mirvac, Lend Lease, the the nearby Miller Street Special Area on the Social Cities, is an attempt to fill this gap, applies as much to the creation of pocket Chapter website, architecture.com.au/nsw. NSW Government Architect’s Office, FJMT, Winter Solstice. The asymmetrical or at least to raise awareness of the impact parks or pop-up cafes and housing projects BVN Architecture, Partridge Partners, Rice composition will give a dynamic experience a city’s physical form can have on the quality as it does to macro city planning. Network & division events online Daubney and Crone Partners. of the tower, and afford unique vantage points of life of its inhabitants. Community involvement fosters Finally, it’s my pleasure to congratulate depending on where you happen to be within it. While it closely examines the impacts commitment to the outcomes, though the NSW Networks winter 2012 calendar is available the 2012 Gold Medallist Lawrence Nield, and to of city structure, streets, neighbourhoods interest of today’s communities must be on the Chapter website under the ‘Events’ tab. announce that the Gold Medal Address, this year Group GSA were chosen by Dalian Science and buildings, there is relatively little in the balanced with those of future generations. Newcastle Division events are online at part of the Vivid festival, will be held at the MCA & Technology Town Development Company report about the effects of different forms Not always an easy task. https://www.architecture.com.au/ newcastle. on 29 May. Book at www.vividsydney.com. to create three master plan options for Dalian of governance and the taxation system. Country Division events and information are High Tech Creative Eco City in Dalian, China. The analysis of the physical draws limited Jan McCredie LFRAIA is a member of the at https://www.architecture.com. Roslyn Irons Covering an area of 90 square kilometres, it conclusions. This is not unreasonable given NSW Built Environment Committee au/i-cms?page=16433. NSW Chapter Manager has been dubbed China’s eco-silicon valley.

4 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 5 institute advocacy

A synopsis of the Institute’s hydrology, etc) can be undertaken to inform will draw on the area technical studies. The NSW long–term transport master plan On the other hand Hard choices submissions to the NSW the plans produced through an iterative Community consultation will only apply While the paper acknowledges that Improving public transport services and design process. It is at this stage that the to proposals that do not comply. The NSW Government’s transport agency ‘determining future routes’ and ‘planning reliability is the first step. But change can’t Planning Review and the community needs to be engaged in responding During the process of developing the Transport for NSW has released a discussion and designing an integrated transport system’ happen until the use of private cars in dense long–term Transport to alternative designed visions of the future Institute’s response to the issues paper. Built paper, the first step towards the development are two key issues, the mechanisms for finding urban areas incurs increasing financial Master Plan, prepared by and helping to decide what the appropriate Environment Committee member Paul Walter of a long-term transport master plan. these solutions are not addressed. But they penalties, including: development controls should be. produced two charts depicting existing and are fundamental to finding a way out of the • congestion charging (for trips taken in the NSW Chapter’s Built Strategic planning at the state level needs future plan making. The first shows the system An existing plan current planning malaise. central city precincts or at peak hour) Environment Committee. to involve all agencies with a planning function as it is now, wastefully focused on the back end The irony is that a long-term public transport It’s not much good deciding on future • road pricing (tolls similar to those for particularly Treasury, Transport, Health and of the process. The second chart (see below) plan for Sydney already exists. It was transport routes unless population and motorways and the Sydney Harbour Bridge NSW Planning Review Education. It needs to be driven by the Premier depicts the strategic planning system just commissioned by The Sydney Morning Herald economic projections are tied to a strategic and Tunnel) and monitored by Cabinet. described, where time and resources are and published in May 2010; its authors plan for the area that anticipates growth and • high occupancy vehicle lanes (low occupancy Let’s acknowledge that there are some Regional plans are prepared for spread more evenly across the planning included Olympics rail boss Ron Christie development — and an amended built vehicles pay a toll in high occupancy lanes) achievements that rise above the bleak, flat geographical areas based on natural land spectrum, leaving little additional work to AM and architect Rod Simpson. Although the environment — over at least a 20–year period. • increasing rental car parking spaces relative plain that is the New South Wales planning forms, population centres and common land be done at the DA stage. discussion paper does not even acknowledge Transport planners must be involved in the to the total number of available spaces. system. And not just SEPP 65 either, although uses, not just local government boundaries. Will it happen? The NSW Government has the plan, the government has adopted one of process, but the big picture scenario needs GPS technology makes it relatively easy that has been the outstanding performer over At the back end of the process, not given the review panel much time to deliver its key recommendations by renaming its to be set before they get to work. The on-again, to implement these mechanisms. We need to the past decade. In the last few years of the development proposals will need to a green paper outlining its proposals for change. amalgamated transport bureaucracy off-again Sydney CBD Metro was a good idea avoid obvious mistakes like the Cross City state Labor Government, particularly under demonstrate how they comply with the The Institute is taking every opportunity to Transport for NSW. in a strategic planning vacuum. We can’t Tunnel, which would have worked if it had ex-Planning Minister Frank Sartor, the strategic plan. Site-specific technical lobby for a more rational and design-focused The plan’s main heavy rail afford any more expensive and demoralising been toll-free and funded by charging Housing Code was adopted, making it supporting information for the proposal planning system for New South Wales. recommendations — links to the South West mistakes of that kind. motorists who use surface roads to get easier for simple residential development and North West growth centres — are going Wishful thinking about reversing the through the city. applications to be approved, and the Joint ahead. A new cross-harbour rail link is still growth in private transport and switching Regional Planning Panels and Planning a possibility; the proposed Merrylands — commuters to public systems will also come Assessment Commission also established Parramatta – Epping rail link, however, has to nothing unless there is a better connection a new regime for the assessment of larger sunk without trace. between providers and consumers. projects far removed from the NIMBY (not in my backyard) resistance of nervous local A good start A reliable transport system government councillors. There are many positive ideas in the The three critical factors are: Welcome though these changes have discussion paper: • R eliability of service: despite parking been, at best they amount to tinkering around 1. The Institute has long advocated the hassles and clogged roads, the car is the edges of a system that is battered and integration of land use, infrastructure and preferred as a mode of transport because it broken. Planners know it, developers know transport planning. There are many points in is there when we need it. Public transport it, architects certainly know it, and now, at this document where that link is explicitly needs to match that availability. last, we have a government that admits it too. endorsed. • R eal-time information on departure The NSW Planning Review is a once-in-a- 2. We have also called for the integration of the times: the internet and smartphones have generation opportunity to look at the system various transport agencies. Transport for already made this a reality. as a whole and fix it, comprehensively. But NSW brings together Roads, Maritime • Simple payment system: the discussion will the government be willing to deliver on a Services, RailCorp, the State Transit paper proposes an Opal electronic ticketing completely new system? The Institute’s recent Authority, Sydney Ferries and the Ports system similar to the Hong Kong submission in response to the review panel’s Corporations. rechargeable cashless Octopus smart card. issues paper presents a new approach, with 3. The issues paper unequivocally places strategic planning at its core, and design the customers at the centre of the system. vehicle for delivering intelligent creative thinking about the future shape of the built environment. The submission recognises that a planning system review involves more than a change in the governing legislation. What is needed is a change in the planning culture. Not just what the planning system delivers, but how it delivers it. There is a need for strategic planning at all levels, from the state down to the local precinct. This means investing time and resources at the front end of the planning system, where area-wide studies (heritage, Indicative vehicle capacity by mode. Reproduced courtesy of Transport for NSW.

6 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 7 Kim Crestani: The North-West Rail Link (NWRL) into statutory plans that have been informed with design criteria and objectives endorsed it’s for the public purpose — although, in the Tom: It’s important to acknowledge “ We should be — a major priority rail project for the NSW by a reasonably detailed feasibility analysis by the project team for currently owned land long term, it is for public purpose! For instance, that many projects have had time lines Government — has the ability to transform the lives about what development would be and land that government needs to acquire. in Leppington, where the government doesn’t transcending many sequences of many designing for at least of many people in Sydney’s north-west region by appropriate and practical at different locations That commitment to the integration of land own much land around that station, although plans. The obvious one being the Castlereagh 60–90 years, with a providing housing and jobs. This new infrastructure along the rail line to fully capture its utility for use and transport and planning through those there’s a high expectation that there will be Freeway, which would have been identified as can be a catalyst for growth and the creation of new the future. So it’s a collaborative approach. core design processes will now flow through delivery of a town centre, it’s very difficult to a corridor in the 1968 Sydney Region Outline raft of planning and centres. How is this being achieved on land owned local and State Government planning activity. deliver if you don’t own the land. Whereas at Plan (Bob Meyer), and which has been transport projects in the by government and on land requiring acquisition? Ross de la Motte: The NSW Government Rouse Hill, the town centre is sitting there progressively delivered, though not really has commissioned a number of consultants to John Richardson: To me, one of the challenges waiting for the train. completed until around 2007. I think it’s pipeline, all designed and Tom Gellibrand: In terms of future planning, assist them in developing master plans around for government is that it can only control difficult to come up with strategic plans that documented, with land we’re developing partnerships between the each of the station precincts and along the and deliver development on land that it Kim: The latest New South Wales long-term have time frames longer than 20 years because NWRL, the Department of Planning and rail corridor. As an essential part of that, they owns. Around the station area, all it can transport plan discussion paper is on exhibition it’s difficult to capture the interest of both acquired, and rolling Infrastructure and councils in the north west. looked at long-term land use and transport do is ‘encourage’ landowners to redevelop. and Transport for NSW is now accepting the community and, sometimes, government things out every year.” We are working on concept plans for each of planning solutions, as well as the urban master Government can’t resume land unless that submissions to help in determining the best way beyond that. Plans need to be [short] enough — Ross de la Motte our stations and corridor areas, to engage with planning per se, within a nominal 1.5 kilometre land is for public purpose; and it is difficult to deliver transport services and infrastructure to be tangible, yet long enough to actually the community about what the future land and radius around each of the eight new stations. to justify to the community that government over the next 20 years. Do you think this is a long incorporate some strategic projects. development arrangements might look like. So along the entire 23 kilometre corridor should resume land around railway stations enough time line to plan for transport projects, Then we’ll start translating those concepts there are integrated precinct master plans for higher density development and argue that given the time that it takes, sometimes up to Ross: Given that the NWRL will cost around ROSS: I’m not sure that a formal transport grid 10 years, to design and procure such projects? $8 billion, I’m concerned about basing it on is what we need. Conceptually, I understand a transport vision constrained to a 20-year the logic: we have a radial system and then we horizon may not deliver the long term outcomes need to fill in the gaps. Perhaps what we need Sydney needs. The failings of the past two is more a series of concentric rail lines The North–West Rail Link is the state’s largest new piece of transport infrastructure in decades in Sydney transport have been the intersecting with the existing radial pattern; decades. Discussing its implications for Sydney, both in terms of future growth and quality consequence of short-term decision-making ‘circle lines’ that allow some of the big regional of urban fabric, are Kim Crestani (Transport for NSW), Tom Gellibrand (Transport for NSW), and lurching from one plan to another. If we centres to be connected. For instance, you Ross de la Motte (Hassell) and John Richardson (Cox Richardson). are serious about Sydney’s future, we would might hook a line from Macquarie Park into be designing for two or three generations Olympic Park at Homebush, and then take that (60-90 years), with a raft of planning and one down to Hurstville. So as the city grows transport projects in the pipeline, all designed and intensifies concentrically and outwards, and documented, with land acquired and rolling these lines allow people to move conveniently things out every year. We should be spending across the city as well as in to the CBD. Every $2 billion a year for the next 20 or so years. morning and afternoon, the arterial roads throughout western Sydney are choked, JOHN: The problem is that government finds constipated in a way, because we haven’t it very difficult to plan past what it thinks it invested in the infrastructure to service those can fund. Sydney needs long-term strategic communities — arguably beyond Strathfield. planning for transport and land use that goes We are 50 years behind in the investment way beyond what we think we can fund today. program needed to provide for the people It needs to identify corridors and links to future of north-west and south-west Sydney, so systems such as airports and high-speed rail . we’ve absolutely got to think beyond radial.

KIM: The Sydney transport system has JOHN: If Sydney’s population reaches six traditionally been focused on access to the Sydney million in the near future, three million of them CBD, should we now focus on a transport grid will probably live in western Sydney: that’s Kim Crestani is the founding Tom Gellibrand is Deputy Ross de la Motte, Managing John Richardson has been a across the metropolitan area, and how should almost the population of Sydney today. We will director of Order Architects Project Director on the Principal Sydney, Hassell, director of Cox Richardson and the Principal Manager North-West Rail Link, and is an architect, landscape for 40 years and Project corridors be protected to enable this to occur? need connections from north to south, and east ­— Architecture and Station is responsible for Customer architect and urban designer Director on many of the to west. At the moment the system is all focused Precincts — on the Strategy and Planning. Tom specialising in transport firm’s major commissions, North–West Rail Link has 20 years’ experience in and urban redevelopment. for which he holds more TOM: Grids do provide you with opportunities on the Sydney CBD. That has to change. project. In early 2012 strategic planning at both Having led the firm’s than 30 awards. Having for greater accessibility, but they need to she was appointed by state and local government international rail team worked on key rail transport Infrastructure NSW to level, and has been directly over the past 20 years, Ross projects including Sydney actually link to a strategic plan. You would ask KIM: The award-winning but shortened Epping Design Review Panel of responsible for the has designed and delivered Metro and the Chatswood ‘where do people live?’ and ‘where do they want to Chatswood rail link decants its customers into the Sydney International preparation of major prominent heavy-rail station Transport Interchange, he Convention, Exhibition and infrastructure planning and interchange projects holds a strategic review role to go to?’ Then you’d actually look at whether what people have said is a suboptimal public Entertainment Precinct. and delivery strategies. in Australia and Asia. on the North–West Rail Link. or not that warranted the identification of domain on Epping Road. What avenues can certain corridors. So I don’t think you’d do different government agencies and transport a grid per se, it’s part of the consideration agencies undertake to ensure that transport you go through when developing a long-term and land use are truly integrated? > 1. transport plan for the city.

8 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 9 TOM: It’s not appropriate for state relationship between the Federal Government TOM: One thing that’s important to JOHN: We have to preserve employment and is interesting because Government has been “Instead of talking governments to just intervene and impose and the State Government. It’s extremely acknowledge is that a lot of our transport commercial office land in centres in western trying for years to engage the landowners on, its plans on local communities. It has to disappointing that neither seem able to agree infrastructure is operating at between 50 and Sydney and be careful not to erode it all for over and around the station to deliver a really about Sydney’s second engage with councils, developers, landowners, even about the early bits of infrastructure 60 per cent of its capacity because it is radial: residential development. We also need to new place. The private sector never came airport, shouldn’t chambers of commerce. It’s complicated. You delivery, let alone a long-term plan for Sydney. it’s pointing into the CBD. If a train comes to use things like a western Sydney airport as a to the party so the government built a new need to have an integrated form of governance And Sydney is really going to suffer unless the CBD, it heads back out west largely empty catalyst for jobs. When we think that by 2050 North Sydney Railway Station. It’s a dramatic we be talking about before you can actually achieve any form the Federal Government and the State because we’ve still got a predominance of there could be a quarter of a million more improvement on what was there, but is it what western Sydney’s of integrated land use and development. Government start to have an agreed position employment in the CBD. So, one way of people every day trying to get from western it might have been? No. That’s because it’s That’s what we’re proposing for the NWRL, about how Sydney is going to grow. reducing that growth in journeys and Sydney to eastern Sydney for work. Can you constrained by the land owned by government. airport? Because when and it’s something that the NSW Department congestion is to actually put more jobs in imagine how much infrastructure is required So, you can see a thread developing to my western Sydney has of Planning and Infrastructure is looking for in non-CBD areas like Macquarie Park, Norwest to deliver all those people? The answer is that argument on this. three million people, terms of the Epping town centre area as well. Business Park at Bella Vista, Parramatta, we should be providing those extra quarter Blacktown and Penrith. That’s a strategic goal of a million jobs in western Sydney instead. KIM: How will the NWRL leverage the input from it will surely need its ROSS: Some very good moves have been that’s been in a lot of successive metropolitan different government agencies to ensure that the own airport.” made in urban design over the past 10 years. plans. Parramatta is still identified as the KIM: Where do you think projects have been best possible place-making and liveability factors At the time that Epping to Chatswood was second CBD so it’s a good place to put in effort delivered that truly integrate land use and are achieved, and, at the same time, ensure — John Richardson first envisioned in the 1980s (we joined the because it is well served by public transport. planning with optimal public domain? land-value capture? project in 1998), there was quite a different rail fraternity, and a different view about the TOM: Well, I’m a town-planner with TOM: Even though we’re a separate project to roads, buses, bus links, pedestrian and nature of transport and urban planning. qualifications in administration and geography office, the NWRL project team is actually part cycle networks. Things like charging points Rail projects had been about delivering rail, so I don’t want to comment from a design point of Transport for NSW, so we challenge our for electronic vehicles are not catered for trains, tunnels and stations, with no clear of view, which some people will be critical of, peers from within Transport to deliver the currently but we need to keep that in the back idea about the urban realm those stations but I think Bondi Junction represents a very solutions we’re after. We’re not trying to of our minds when writing contracts and going were serving. In recent years, government 2. good integration of land use and transport. deliver a rail line that reflects past or current to the market with our requirements. has got the idea about integrating land use It’s got bus layers, rail layers, pedestrian layers RailCorp practices, but a new rail line and a and transport, and some of its initiatives KIM: Can a transport strategy be developed without and retail layers, all going into public domain. new transport solution that reflects a much ROSS: The challenge for the north-west will need to be commended. They have engaged considering new airports and high-speed rail? Commercial, residential and recreational more aspirational future. So far the response be overcoming the car culture that exists excellent people internally and are driving activities, all on top of each other, in a very is really positive. North West Rail Link is seen there. The population of the north-west has good design outcomes through devices JOHN: It comes back directly to the previous close area and well connected to the broader as a good opportunity for improving the been chronically underserviced by public such as urban design review panels, and point: that we cannot proceed with a plan area through transport. Chatswood is the overall transport product. In terms of other transport so they’ve adapted by becoming a aspirational design briefs. But, as John said, for Sydney without first engaging both the same: it has a well-serviced station, fed with agencies, we’ve got really good relationships car-dependent community. Car sharing and it’s fundamentally a question of property. Federal and State Governments. The Federal buses, next to a busy road full of houses, public with the NSW Department of Planning and electric vehicle charging could be instituted There needs to be a much stronger Government has control over the air, and domain, commerce and employment. Some Infrastructure, and that’s key. The NWRL is a around the stations, particularly if master commitment to the strategic acquisition of is required to thread together (if you like) will say it doesn’t work well enough, but I think transformative piece of infrastructure, so we planning and higher-density precincts land for government transport-related Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and they are two good examples of integration. need to work closely with the Department of emerge around the stations. These sorts of purposes, and to private sector partnerships the Australian Capital Territory in the delivery Planning and Infrastructure to make sure that initiatives can be used, like seeds, as catalysts that can facilitate good place-making. I think of a high-speed rail service. How can Sydney go 3. ROSS: The one that comes to mind is the they can help us, and councils, progress in the for a new way of living that will gradually

we’re part way along a journey. forward without working out where its second 1. The North West Rail Link route. 2. Parramatta transport Copenhagen Metro in Denmark (image 4.). planning and development opportunities in permeate into community behaviours. airport should be? And instead of talking interchange, a Hassell project, completed in 2006. Photo: Max Especially the line through the old quarter, that area. All of that work is informed by an But you don’t change the behaviours of Creasey. 3. Chatswood transport interchange. A joint venture KIM: Do you think transport solutions need a about Sydney’s second airport, shouldn’t project by COX DesignInc, completed in 2o09. Photo: Brett the way they have preserved heritage, created understanding of the feasibility of vast communities overnight: this is going robust bipartisan plan to deliver the required we be talking about western Sydney’s airport? Boardman. 4. A Metro station in Copenhagen, resolved to a high a generous and beautifully detailed public development, and we get some of that advice to take decades. That’s why I’m so strong level of architectural detail and finish.Photo: Ross de la Motte. infrastructure a global city like Sydney needs? Because when western Sydney has three domain, integrated with art, and they’ve inserted from Landcom as well. on intergenerational design thinking. million people, it will surely need its own these modest, finely crafted railway stations that TOM: I think good transport solutions are airport won’t it? There’s too much focus on I think are architectural jewels. The transport KIM: Real benefits can be made by lowering car JOHN: The issue of car parking has many a product of well-developed long-term plans eastern Sydney. A high-speed rail link is also and land-use planning for the Sydney Olympics park ratios, and even deleting car parking in some different facets. Clearly every architect would that have been informed by community and needed, not as an alternative to airport links, for a singular use was highly successful; the cases, in new apartments close to railway stations, support minimising the amount of parking public engagement. It’s not appropriate for but in addition. When Australia reaches 40 Olympic Park public domain is extraordinary and using innovative concepts such as car sharing, spaces in a new development, however, I find me to say how you secure bipartisan political million people—of which 30 million will live and done to a high level of detail. With no and electric vehicle charging. While this is that when designing higher-density residential support, but I think the best plans are the along the eastern seaboard —can you imagine disrespect to John’s firm or mine, I would happening in inner-city council areas, is it an developments, the quantum of car parking ones supported by the community at large. a place without a high-speed link between the argue that even at Parramatta (image 2.), aspiration for new [suburban] infrastructure spaces, and where you put them, becomes three major cities? Like a new airport, a new North Sydney and Chatswood [interchanges] projects, and how easily could it be achieved? critical. It’s desirable to put them underground, ROSS: Absolutely. We need an inter- high-speed rail station is another huge it is still not as good as it should be. but expensive. Can the market always accept generational plan that is accepted by catalyst for employment in western Sydney; TOM: It definitely is an aspiration for new underground parking at a certain price point? government, by the opposition, by the employment it desperately needs. JOHN: I think Chatswood (image 3.) has infrastructure projects. We are developing a On the other hand, car parks above ground are community, and we just roll it out. It’s certain constraints on the public domain, sustainability strategy for the overall North a disaster from an urban design point of view. as simple as that. Let’s get on with it. KIM: How can we reduce the growth in daily which are delivered by not having purchased West Rail Link project that identifies the So it’s a complicated balancing act this question JOHN: The interesting question here is the journeys to work from western to eastern Sydney? 4. enough strategic properties. North Sydney need to provide stations that are connected of car parking density and residential. >

10 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 11 KIM: How do you think government can deliver “If you really want off, either by the internal design team, or by projects of this scale, with the fine attention to the design and construct proponents team. detail and design required to ensure the quality the quality of design If you really want the quality of design detail of architecture in the public realm? detail and finish to be and finish to be manifest in the final product, that review process must continue through STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � TOM: A traditional way is for government manifest in the final documentation and construction, right to COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � to accept that they don’t have all the answers, the very last paving stone is laid, or light bulb is INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � product, that review ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � so they go to the marketplace and call for installed. Government has to be committed all DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � project ideas through design competitions. process must continue the way through, not just long enough till we’ve COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � They outline the project’s general aspirations, seen the pretty pictures and signed off on them. INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � through documentation ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � and then call on the competition entrants to STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � and construction, right COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � ‘define’ the place more fully. We have a large JOHN: I think there needs to be a clear EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � project team with some of the best people to the very last paving commitment by government to quality not ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � available, certainly in Sydney, to help inform just to price. It’s hard for government to avoid STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � stone is laid.” COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � urban design, architecture and all the detail. always choosing the cheaper option, but it has EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � — Ross de la Motte INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � We’ll get to the point when we know what sort to try and look past that into the longer term ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � of project we’re looking to procure, and we’ll because the benefits are much greater if they STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � go to the market. Then we’ll need to assess the do. Also, I don’t think there has been nearly EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � tenders using design review panels (and, again, TOM: We’ve got some fantastic examples of enough emphasis in the past on the actual ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � a range of high-level expertise) to determine how the process [of calling for ideas through public domain around the station precincts, STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � which of those tenders best represents the competitions] can work: the Sydney Opera as opposed to the stations themselves: those EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � brief. If contracts proceed on a design- House, for one. And it’s not uncommon in areas require as much, if not more, design ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � construct basis, you then set up a process of terms of the production of most major focus. And I’m not sure that the public-private STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � design reviews to continually challenge the development applications now. I think we partnership processes that we’ve used so far INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � tenderer to actually achieve that design should maintain that process, especially have really delivered the quality that should DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � excellence agreed to. So you’re potentially for big infrastructure projects like the NWRL. be there. The delivery processes have to be a COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � getting three bites of the cherry. proper partnership, and government needs to INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � ROSS: What the government has been doing be fully committed to quality. It’s a big issue. DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � KIM: As the phenomenon of place is a in the design critique space over the past 10 COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � fundamental consideration in the design of years is commendable. It has demonstrably KIM: How are sustainability issues being INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � liveable cities, how can the professions and improved the process to deliver the quality addressed on the NWRL project? DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � government work together to create truly of civic projects that we all aspire to see. But COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � beautiful places in our cities? we are a very long way from where we need to ROSS: If you want to make a sustainable INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � be. The failure of the process at the moment is city, you build more public transport. It’s DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � that it stops when the concept design is signed as simple as that. The very fact that you are COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � building a NWRL is profound sustainability ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � in action: so I would say that makes it, arguably, STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � the most sustainable project in the country. EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH � DURABILITY � STYLE � ARCHITECTURE � INNOVATION � EFFICIENCY � COMFORT � STYLE � STRENGTH �

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12 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012

AWS_Elevate_AB_FP_Ad_210x297.indd 1 2/02/12 10:46 AM NORTH WEST Rouse Hill North-West frontier GROWTH CENTRE Transport Corridors Hornsby Corridors with high constraints Castle Hill Frenchs Corridors with medium constraints Penrith Forest Other corridors Sydney’s North-West Sector The North–West Sector was expected estimated to hold around 70,000 new Dee Why Norwest to reach a population of 400,000 by 2000; dwellings. Together with the already Urban Centres Mt Druitt is vital to the future expansion Blacktown Macquarie Brookvale a considerable target given that Canberra’s developed areas, a capacity of 250,000 Park Global Sydney Penrith Education of the city, and the North-West and Health population (around 130,000 in 1970) was people was forecast. Mungerie Park was to Chatswood Regional cities forecast to reach 500,000 by the year 2000. be developed as a ‘multifunctional’ centre Rail Link critical to its success. Westmead Existing major and specialised centres The 1974 Sydney Area Transportation and be the focal point for the people of the Parramatta St Leonards Bob Meyer outlines the origins Rhodes Proposed or planned major and Study was the first transport plan for Sydney North-West Sector. North Sydney specialised centres and future direction of Sydney and recommended a number of transport The policy document recognised the Prairiewood Olympic Park CityRail Network planning for this region. initiatives including, for the future North–West importance of mass transport and stated that Fair eld Sydney Burwood Major metropolitan roads Sector, a new railway stretching from Kellyville studies by the then NSW Department of Bondi Junction Source: Transport for NSW 2012 to Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills, Winston Hills, Transport and private consultants were Bankstown Airport– Milperra Green Randwick Forty years ago, Greater Sydney’s North-West Westmead and on to Parramatta. underway. The Rouse Hill Development Area Liverpool Square Education Bankstown and Health Sector was part of a rural area that the first Plan indicated a number of ‘major public strategic plan for Sydney —the County of Sydney into its third century–1988 transport routes’ along Old Windsor, Windsor, SOUTH WEST Kogarah Sydney GROWTH CENTRE Airport Cumberland Planning Scheme of 1948 — Sunnyholt and Schofields Roads, but provided Hurstville Leppington Port Botany proposed to keep in that state indefinitely by Twenty years after SROP, the 1988 no detail. confining the urban area within a green belt. Metropolitan Strategy was Sydney’s third plan; Most of Baulkham Hills and Blacktown was to it was for a projected population of 4.5 million, The North-West Growth Centre–2004 remain rural, reflecting their status as having which was expected to be reached by 2011. The Sutherland the highest rate of primary production in the reason the population forecast had slipped The next milestone in the forward planning Sydney basin: citrus in Baulkham Hills and from the 1968 projection of 5 million by 2000 of the North–West Sector was the nomination Campbelltown Macarthur poultry production in Blacktown. was that the occupancy rate per household of the North–WestGrowth Centre in 2004, The rural zoning beyond the green belt had fallen dramatically since 1968, resulting which was incorporated into the 2005 reflected the planners’ forecasts that Sydney’s in an actual population of 4 million in 2000. Metropolitan Strategy, the 2007 draft population would reach 2.3 million by 1980 The 1988 strategy endorsed the need for the North-WestSubregional Strategy and the and then plateau. What was not taken into North-West Sector by 2011 and expanded the 2010 Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036. a plan of its own, also linking the Parramatta major employment nodes, making the Bob Meyer is Director of Planning with account was Australia’s massive postwar area to include Marsden Park in the Blacktown Any transport proposals in the 2004 North– City Centre with the North–West Sector. North–West Sector highly attractive and Cox Richardson. He worked for the NSW immigration program and baby boom. local government area. The transport corridors West Growth Centre report were still left reducing the high reliance on cars by the Department of Planning (1969-1989). Sydney’s population hit 2.3 million in 1960 were an upgraded Riverstone–Blacktown rail in a vacuum. However, the Draft North–West Beyond 2036 residents of the Hills District. Transport committees and projects he and by 1981 it was 3.2 million and growing link and Windsor Road, which was to serve as Subregional Strategy sounded far more The NWRL offers opportunities for higher has been involved with include: strong. The green belt was abandoned and a major public transport route, possibly for positive by confirming the link from Rouse More recently, the NSW Minister for density within a 5 minute walk and medium • Transport Blueprint for NSW— Reference by 1964 it was realised that a new plan for buses, or some other form of public transport, Hill to the Epping to Chatswood rail link, Transport, Gladys Berejiklian has suggested density within a 10 minute walk of each station. Panel, 2009 Sydney was needed to guide its growth to on its own ‘right of way’. which was nearing completion. The extension the route be extended westwards along Given the example of Norwest, it is also • Action for Transport 2010 Peer Review a projected population of 5 million by the By 1988 a number of significant initiatives to this line, from Rouse Hill, had been subject Schofields Road, intersecting with the likely the North-West Rail Link will attract Committee for Department of Transport, end of the century. had occurred that would influence the shape to a number of studies and was now Richmond rail line and serving Marsden Park, knowledge-based jobs. Rouse Hill Town 1998 of the North–West Sector and its transport. considered to be a fait accompli. a major component of the North–West Centre, the employment area adjacent to the • Urban Design, Capacities Study and The Sydney Region Outline Plan–1968 First, the NSW Department of Planning had The biggest difference to earlier mass Growth Centre. This would allow the future Hills District Centre, and the possibility of a Master Plan for CBD Metro, 2009–2010 purchased the Mungerie Park Golf Course transit schemes was that instead of feeding population of Marsden Park to access major major regional centre emerging at Castle Hill • Land Use Component for NW Rail and The new plan was the 1968 Sydney Region on Windsor Road at Rouse Hill as the future directly into Parramatta’s centre, the employment nodes. In the longer term, the could substantially raise the level of local NW Metro for DOT, 2008 Outline Plan 1970–2000 (SROP). It was based regional centre for the North-WestSector. North–West Rail Link (NWRL)accessed line could be extended from Marsden Park, jobs allowing this to be a more self-contained • Land use component for Western Sydney on the Scandinavian ‘finger plan’: the ‘palm’ of Also, Norbrick requested that their the strategic centres of Macquarie Park, southward towards the Western Sydney growth centre. Castle Hill and Rouse Hill are Orbital for RTA the hand represented established urban areas brickmaking site between Windsor and Chatswood, St Leonards, North Sydney, the Employment Area (WSEA) and possibly the nominated as ‘strategic centres’ in the • City West Rail options for DOT and urban growth took place in corridors, or Old Windsor Roads be zoned to allow the Sydney CBD and Sydney Airport. This route South–West Growth Centre. Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036. • Route evaluation for Airport Railway ‘fingers’, established along existing or development of a business park. forms CityRail’s Global Economic Crescent, The NWRL is possibly the most important As Sydney grows towards a population of for Transfield — CRI proposed railway lines. SROP’s corridors which contains seven universities and the vast railway to be built since the 19th century as 7 million by 2051, it is foreseeable that the • M2 Land Use — Population Forecasts were termed ‘sectors’: the West Sector The 1989 Rouse Hill Development Area Plan majority of Sydney’s knowledge-based jobs. it will link a growth centre of highly desirable North–West Sector will be joined by Dural, for Macquarie Park expanded westwards from Parramatta to The NSW State Government has confirmed housing to Sydney’s vital employment nodes, Londonderry and Glossodia as future greenfield Penrith; the South-West Sector (extended to In 1989, in response to the sector becoming the route of the NWRL, which is currently particularly Macquarie Park, Chatswood, St suburbs, to which the rail network could be Campbelltown via Liverpool; the North sector a significant component of Sydney’s future subject to a number of detailed studies. Leonards, North Sydney, the Sydney CBD and expanded. It is possibly fortunate that went up to Gosford and Wyong; and the growth strategy, a detailed regional plan for There is, however, a rival route supported the airport, as well as seven universities and development of the North–West Sector was North-West Sector. The North-West Sector the North-West Sector, renamed the Rouse by the Federal Government, which links the the bulk of Sydney’s knowledge jobs. delayed, as the new rail line will now give an was the last scheduled to be developed due Hill Development Area, was undertaken by North-West Sector directly with Parramatta. The missing direct link is to Parramatta, opportunity to build up a highly sustainable to the lack of infrastructure, particularly the NSW Department of Planning. The area As you would expect, Parramatta City Council however a future link from Castle Hill to subregion that could be a benchmark for future transport. measured around 9,400 hectares and was strongly supports this idea and has prepared Parramatta will give access to Sydney’s Australian growth areas.

14 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 15 In Sydney there is a dizzying number of the productivity, availability and skills “...94 resource industry infrastructure projects “In Sydney there is Money train: delivery cost estimates of major transport infrastructure projects of our workforce, access to markets and, at an advanced stage of development, with a Build it on, or near, the drawing board that have the importantly, the liveability of our city. a dizzying number record capital expenditure of $173.5 billion at potential to profoundly change the shape None of these infrastructure challenges the end of April 2011”. That kind of spending is of major transport North West Rail Link and they and growth of the city for generations. These are unique to Sydney or Australia. While keeping pace with the state’s expected annual $7.5–8.5 billion include the North West Rail Link; the South somewhat of an adolescent among global infrastructure projects capital expenditure on infrastructure over the South West Rail Link West Rail Link; the Western Express and cities, Sydney faces many of the same on, or near, the four-year forward budget estimates. $ 2.1 billion will come City Relief Line; the shortly expected plan challenges as the grown-ups. In the UK, While Australia escaped the worst of the Western Express and City Relief Line to expand the light rail network in addition Prime Minister David Cameron announced drawing board, that GFC, it did put a dent — albeit relatively small $4.5 billion Light rail inner city expansion to the proposed inner–west extension; and in mid-March a bold policy rethink2, on have the potential to by international standards —in public sector New South Wales has its $150 million the Northern Sydney Freight Corridor, which infrastructure delivery and management to profoundly change the finances and impaired the private sector’s Northern Sydney Freight Corridor work cut out over the next is expected to be finished around 2016. Then address concerns that Britain’s infrastructure access to capital markets to fund $1.1 billion (around 2016) decade to upgrade our vital there’s the Holy Grail for transport planners, has not kept pace with increasing population shape and growth of infrastructure projects. Critically, the GFC Second Sydney international airport transport systems to keep politicians and purists: the potential for a growth, rising congestion and structural the city for generations.” forced a re-rating of risk, reducing the appetite $7-11 billion second Sydney Airport capable of taking economic shifts. for deals where patronage or demand risk is Government contribution to RailCorp network (2010–11) pace with the growth in international services. Some of the ideas being floated by the UK borne by the private sector. Put simply, deals $2.5 billion population. Peter Hynd looks This mere snapshot of projects in planning Government include the privatisation of the same challenges of servicing significant structured with significant private–sector to the challenges facing the or underway adds up to well over $20 billion, national motorway network, with operators population growth are evident in South–East debt, such as Sydney’s Lane Cove Tunnel, before even considering the potential M4 East competing for a slice of the excise duty in return Queensland and Melbourne. On the Gold would be unlikely to get over the line in the delivery of the $20 billion- motorway, expansion of the M5, and the for passing performance hurdles. Tolling will Coast, Australia’s fastest-growing region, the current market without the state having more plus worth of transport current widening of the M2, let alone the also be considered on the addition of new state and local council have been scrambling skin in the game. projects on the table. annual cost to operate services such as the capacity, not existing capacity. The UK to extend the Gold Coast rail line and jointly Our escape of the worst of the GFC was no 1,595 kilometres of main-line track or 377 Government will also be focusing attention deliver the Gold Coast Rapid Transit light rail. more evident than in the static unemployment Looking through the real estate pages for a stations making up the RailCorp network. on delivering high-speed broadband to In Melbourne, work has started on the rate that held off the back of long-running skill place to live in Sydney— or any major city for By focusing on the direct beneficiaries 90 per cent of households by 2015, auctioning Regional Rail Link, which will ultimately shortages in a range of industries. While this that matter — and ‘close to transport’ is a key of individual projects it’s easy to lose sight off the 4G mobile spectrum, and considering provide dedicated tracks for regional trains was great for the workforce, it points to selling point that can’t be stressed enough. A of the fact that each project is important to expansion of London’s airport capacity possibly through the metropolitan system between another challenge facing the infrastructure train line is preferable to a bus route. In all of us. Not just Sydneysiders or New South through a new airport in the Thames estuary. Sunshine and Southern Cross Station with sector: a shortage in critical skills. London, the goal is to find affordable digs in Welshmen, but Australians. The economic A primary aim of the new policy shift will be the the aim of reducing network-wide congestion. A Skills Australia report in 20115 Zone 1 or 2; and in New York’s outer boroughs cost of failing to deliver appropriate attraction of investment and capital including Back to New South Wales. In 2012–13, highlighted a shortage of civil engineers in the ‘bridge and tunnel kids’ must use one or the infrastructure is significant and the effects investment from sovereign wealth funds. the State Government will outlay $55 billion eight of the past 10 years. These shortages have other to get into Manhattan. Transport shapes happily cross regional divides. The recently Sound familiar? Barely a week before to deliver the services, facilities and been constant in each of the past five years, the way we live, influencing our work, housing, published joint study into Sydney’s aviation Cameron’s policy launch, the O’Farrell infrastructure that makes our state function suggesting the problem may be worsening. As educational and even recreational choices. capacity1 found that “by 2060, the economy- Government announced consideration of and provide us with a standard of living for railway signalling engineers, by all Before the middle of the 21st century, wide impacts, in 2010 dollars, across the expansions to the M5 and M4 East, the debate bettered by few countries on the planet. Half accounts they are so rare they’re worthy of a Sydney’s population is expected to pass six Australian economy could total $59.5 billion around a second Sydney airport continues, of this will go to health services and education, film tasking Willem Dafoe with finding proof million. This growth won’t be checked by a in foregone expenditure and $34 billion in and we are all familiar with the National with 11 per cent on transport, a significant of their existence. Or try finding a two- failure to deliver all the major infrastructure foregone gross domestic product”. And that Broadband Network. The NSW Government’s portion of which will go towards delivering bedroom house for rent close to inner– west projects proposed for Australia’s only global the “New South Wales economy would be Waratah Bond Program aims to diversify public transport services in Sydney. railway station Summer Hill for less city, however, our population will be especially heavily affected, with $17.5 billion infrastructure funding by tapping retail Australian governments are not only than $500 a week. influenced by their delivery, thanks to the in foregone gross state product”. investors, and the recently announced pilot competing with the twin challenges of jobs that building this new infrastructure will Let’s not forget that Sydney is competing of Social Benefit Bonds borrows directly from lower tax receipts and increased expenditure. Peter Hynd is a planner who has worked on bring, and to the access to new employment, with global financial centres in the region a program developed by Social Finance UK. Growth in expenditure is driven by the major transport infrastructure and urban education and recreational areas that the such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Take a look over the backyard fence to expectations of increased infrastructure and development projects including Gold Coast completed projects open up. We compete for investment flows off the back Queensland and Victoria, and many of the service delivery from the electorate and wages Rapid Transit, North West Rail Link, Sydney growth. They are competing, and will continue Metro and Green Square Town Centre. to compete, with the booming resources industry for capital and skilled workers to Footnotes deliver infrastructure projects. 1. Joint Study on aviation capacity in the Sydney region, 2012. A 2011 KPMG study3 into the ripple effect 2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/mar/19/ cameron-plan-improve-britain- of the resources boom on infrastructure infrastructure?intcmp=239 delivery identified up to $380 billion worth 3. KPMG, Australia’s resources boom: the infrastructure ripple effect, 2011. of infrastructure associated with the minerals 4. New, R, Ball, A, Copeland, A et al. 2011, Minerals and industry at varying stages of planning and energy, major development projects –April 2011 listing, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource development. The figure is so staggering it’s Economics and Sciences, Canberra, May 2011. hard to comprehend. But believe it we must. 5. Skills Australia, 2011 interim report on resources sector skill needs, Canberra, May 2011. The latest industry monitoring4 identifies:

16 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 17 abandoned Mass transit A survey of transport projects that have shaped, or will shape Sydney’s urban expansion, and perhaps define the city. Compiled by a network of contributors, the survey is not exhaustive and projects fall into four categories: abandoned; in planning; completed; and revived. We begin with two contentiously abandoned Sydney projects: the metro and light-rail greenway.

Sydney metro rail Greenway (inner west) to light rail extension

It’s now over two years since work on Sydney’s • Urban sprawl is still happening, but is How would Sydney Metro be unique ? also provide large public land holdings at The Sydney Light Rail: Inner West Extension network servicing the communities of the proposed metro rail network was deferred. balanced by inner-urban concentration, as South Maroubra and Little Bay with direct Study—a light rail stops and greenway inner-west, with a subsequent on-street At the time, there was widespread rejoicing, land is recycled for more intensive use; not • Because metro services are frequent, access to the city and the wider region. Perhaps preliminary concept report-was produced connection through to the Anzac Bridge but was metro rail really such a dumb idea? just in the traditional housing areas, but where timetables aren’t required: passengers know the recently stalled Civic Place in Parramatta by GHD and Aspect Studios in late 2010 and into the city. Metro rail relies on fast, frequent services, industries have moved out near main roads, in there will be a train within a few minutes. may well have gone ahead with the stimulus for NSW Transport and Infrastructure. In terms of delivering transport typically in tunnels, using single-deck trains old employment areas and on river foreshores. • Metro services are far more likely to arrive of a metro station beneath it, as planned. The primary focus of the project was infrastructure projects, this was low-hanging with high standing-to-seat ratios: think These places are rarely near rail lines, and on time: trains load and unload faster, and to prioritise the delivery of the 5.6 kilometre fruit. Politically, it was a good-news story. It London Underground; Paris Metro; Hong buses are expected to take up the slack, each line has its own track, so ‘network delay’ An urban phenomenon extension to the existing light rail network was supported by a wide demographic of the Kong MTR. The proposed ‘CBD Metro’ was to competing for road space with increasing is a thing of the past. from north Leichhardt to Dulwich Hill, which surrounding inner-west community as it was complement the existing rail network, which numbers of cars, and clogging city centres. • Because metro doesn’t compete for road Sydney is increasingly an urban, not just included an integrated ‘greenway’, thereby proposed to occur within the existing Rozelle caters mainly for long-haul, peak-period trips, If the city is to house more people without space, trip times are far quicker than by suburban, city, with more cross-regional or creating an active transport corridor that freight-line rail corridor and there was very and buses and trams, which are important for choking, we need alternative ways of moving bus, car and most trams. short-distance travel for non-work purposes. would promote walking, cycling, and the little environmental impact. And yet, it was local trips. around reliably. Metro can deliver reliable and • Because metro systems are highly automated A long-haul rail system in established corridors restoration of lost habitat via community-run one of the first casualties of the newly elected fast travel and give Sydney what other major (driverless trains; electronic ticketing; will never be an option for many people doing bushcare sites. O’Farrell State Government in early 2011. Why a metro for Sydney? world cities have: a genuine alternative to the computer-controlled signalling systems), they especially on weekends or late at night. The premise of the project, commissioned And, at a purported cost of $120 million car for work and non-work trips. are reliable, and can operate around the clock Metro is for big cities with high-density by the former Labor State Government, was for the whole project ($30 million for • Sydney’s population is growing, like it or not. Using narrower tunnels and more (and at weekends) without cost penalties. inner areas, widely spread destinations, and to integrate the community-led greenway the greenway) — minor in the context of We can influence it through birth control, nimble rolling stock, a metro fits into tighter Metro was intended initially to serve a travelling public doing more than weekday into the planning of the transport network. infrastructure projects — it was a lost decentralisation and immigration policy, but corridors, and can be built more cheaply the north-west, as a direct, less-expensive long-distance commuting. It’s for a city that has The greenway — which was proposed to run opportunity to deliver a model sustainable we can’t stop it; net result: urban congestion. than typical heavy-rail options. Investment alternative to the North–West Rail Link. its own Time Out, not just The Daily Telegraph. alongside the light rail infrastructure — was transport project that combined habitat • Work trips are more disparate, though in town centre metro stations could trigger It was then truncated to the CBD Metro, a Perhaps that’s why Sydneysiders, that most a low-cost high-impact transport solution restoration, walking, cycling and light rail still heavily concentrated in the CBD, major urban design renewal: it was already compromise that at least gave access to vital suburban of breeds, failed to understand it. connecting Dulwich Hill to Iron Cove via in the one ready-made corridor. > and don’t always fit radial road and rail presenting opportunities for the town train stabling at Rozelle, and, at the Central end, Metro is not dead. It’s too good an idea, a grade-separated shared path and cycle networks, even if they could cope with centres of Strathfield, Five Dock, would be the launch pad for later extension to and the need is too great. Around the world, the peak demand. Camperdown and Leichhardt, where the Westmead via the inner west and Olympic Park; metro has proven itself as an agent of renewal • More people, more households, more cars and station would have galvanised a run-down the south-east; the northern beaches... places and sustainable urban life. Sydney needs the changing lifestyles mean more trips for family retail and parking area behind the notoriously heavy rail doesn’t reach. kind of step change in transport and urban gatherings, education, health, recreational depressed Parramatta Road. Stations would be in town centres; at key form that a properly planned and integrated shopping, and social life in general. Why else interchanges with other transport services; at metro network would deliver. are the roads busier with private cars at regionally important health or education sites, weekends than during the week? and in major growth centres. For example, metro would have unlocked the enormous potential of Sydney Olympic Park, which is effectively quarantined without serious weekday public transport capacity. It would Top: The abandoned metro route. Right: Relational sketch of the proposed greenway extension; courtesy Aspect Studios.

18 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 19 in planning

North-West Sydney Railway station Wynyard East Coast City Relief Rail Link Light Rail master plans, Wynyard Walk High Speed Rail Expansion The North-West Rail Link (NWRL) has come During the late 19th century, and well into Of the recent station master plans considered This planned pedestrian link will connect The East Coast High Speed Rail Study is a A number of new city congestion-relief full circle from its initial feasibility studies a the 20th, Sydney’s tram network was the for Central, Wynyard, Redfern and Town Hall, Wynyard Station to the CBD western corridor Federal Government-led initiative to consider lines have been considered with the aim of decade ago to the current project scope and envy of the Empire. The second most perhaps the most critical study has been at and Barangaroo. the construction of an eastern seaboard rail expanding Sydney’s rail system to increase envisaged construction commencing in 2013. extensive in the world, at its peak, it catered Wynyard Station and its precinct. The scope The walkway will provide a quick and network to connect Brisbane and Melbourne capacity, accommodate growth and improve Originally announced in 1998 (completion for 405,000,000 passenger trips each year. of the study in 2010 (continued from 2008), safe route for pedestrians from the Wynyard via Canberra, Sydney and regional centres. service. The first of these proposals, the expected 2010), it was re-announced in 2006 In 1961, the last tram ran its route, integrated a number of independent projects: transport hub to the city’s western waterfront Such a link would require the installation Western Express (WEX) proposes an express (completion 2017), and in 2008 it was replaced as Sydney (shortsightedly) embraced the station upgrade incorporating reconfigured paid and Barangaroo in approximately six minutes, of over 1,600 kilometres of new standard- service from Penrith to Central Station by by the North-West Metro incorporating 17 private car and the bubble of personal space and unpaid concourses with potential additional avoiding steep inclines and road crossings. gauge double-track and cost an estimated dedicating existing track infrastructure west stations to Sydney’s CBD. This, in turn, was it represents. Fast-forward to 2012: after an entries; Wynyard Walk with a new entry to the Separating pedestrian movements from bus, $61–$108 billion. The trains would reach of Redfern. cancelled in 2009, and superseded by the extended period of lobbying, particularly station off Clarence Street; and the proposed road and cycle routes should alleviate the speeds of up to 350 kilometres an hour, North of Redfern, a new underground link CBD and West Metros, which were subjected by the City of Sydney, the NSW State City One development and the reconfiguration congested western corridor and improve arriving in Sydney from Brisbane in three is proposed through the city with new stations to extreme negative scrutiny despite their Government has commissioned a feasibility of the station entry off George Street. access for people with disabilities, the elderly, hours, and taking 40 minutes to Newcastle adjacent to existing infrastructure at Redfern, unique opportunities and were subsequently study into a new light rail network for the city. The aim of the study’s proposals was to or people with strollers and luggage. In the from Sydney, and would be expected to carry Central, Town Hall and Wynyard, with the deferred. In 2010, NWRL was resurrected as Conceived as the first stage of what might simplify a complex transport interchange and longer term, the walkway should increase the around 54 million passengers a year by 2036. potential to continue across the harbour. a long-term objective of the Metropolitan ultimately become a more extensive network, streamline passenger circulation between a entry/exit capacity of Wynyard Station to cope A key impetus is the desire to significantly The feasibility study tested the vertical and Transport Plan. the planned light rail will connect Circular reconfigured bus interchange and Wynyard with future demands for the CBD’s western reduce carbon pollution. It is estimated that it horizontal alignment of the rail tunnels within A significant portion of the 23-kilometre Quay with Railway Square. From here the Park at street level, through to generous new corridor and waterfront. This includes could cut emissions per passenger by two-thirds the constraints of the city basements and line runs underground west from Epping, with network will run to the University of Sydney station concourses. Studies have identified Barangaroo, an area that, when complete, is if used in place of a car, and that each full train of sub-surface infrastructure. These interventions the remainder either transiting to, or running and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital via the that by 2013 the existing, narrow Kent Street expected to accommodate up to 23,000 office 450 passengers would equate to the removal of within the existing constrained CBD fabric and on an elevated structure. The station contexts University of Technology, Sydney and tunnel would be at capacity, and the existing workers, and attract up to 33,000 visitors a day. 128 cars from Australia’s roads and cut flights sensitive environments demand design vary greatly, either in greenfield or brownfield Broadway. A second strategic route will run to footpaths along Margaret Street, the main between Sydney and Melbourne by half. responses of minimal impact, yet are required sites, and are adjacent to either predominantly the University of NSW and the Prince of Wales pedestrian desire line, would also be Grimshaw Architects, AECOM, Sinclair to provide an integrated transport solution residential, retail or commercial developments. Hospital via Anzac Parade, the Sydney Cricket unsatisfactory. This is compounded by Knight Mertz and KPMG are continuing the and improved connectivity across the city. The eight stations are at Cherrybrook, Castle Ground, Sydney Football Stadium and Royal Wynyard Station’s unique characteristic; work of their phase one study, joined by ACIL The WEX project established a consistent Hill, Hills Centre, Norwest, Bella Vista, Randwick Racecourse. As a starting point, unlike most stations, it has three pedestrian Tasman, Booz & Co and Hyder Consulting level of investigation through its engineering Kellyville, Rouse Hill and Cudgegong Road; it couldn’t be more strategic than this: three movement peaks: morning; evening; and a for the second phase to determine more and station studies, and it is recommended the train stabling facility is located further west. major universities, two teaching hospitals, lunchtime flow that has a significant impact on precisely the potential to integrate regional that previous CBD alignment proposals, The key driver for the NWRL has been to the pre-eminent sports and recreation bi-directional movement through the station. and metropolitan communities, while easing such as MetroPitt and MetroWest, and any develop a viable project, without compromising precinct in the city, and the ceremonial, civic Wynyard Walk will be the western gateway 2. congestion on roads and at airports, and new alternative alignment proposals that customer benefit, by minimising the depth of and commercial spine of the CBD. The obvious to the Barangaroo Development when it setting a benchmark for a low-carbon mode incorporate a second harbour crossing or the alignment and reducing excavation, and first extension of this initial network must be surfaces adjacent to Napoleon Street and the Key features will include: of transport. The focus of phase two work is new North Shore stations, be subjected to providing the potential for direct access from to Green Square: the largest urban renewal Westpac Plaza, which, coincidentally, is at the • a new western entrance to Wynyard Station to further define the corridor alignment, city the same level of scrutiny. This would ensure street level to platform. This has facilitated project in Australia. same level as the Wynyard Station concourse. (Clarence Street portal) for direct access to centre access points, station locations and the network strategy that emerges will fully the opportunity for two elevated and three Similar light rail projects, both domestic and The link continues across Sussex Road as a the station concourse; associated urban impacts. realise the potential of the North-West Rail open-cut stations — rather than underground international, have cost around $60–80 million pedestrian bridge. The eastern end interfaces • a new underground pedestrian link from It’s still early days and, given the scale of Link and Epping to Chatswood Rail Link as a configurations — allowing for the maximum per kilometre, so the project represents a huge with Wynyard Station, providing a new Wynyard Station’s new western station works and length of track, it will be years (if consolidated new rail corridor for Sydney. use of natural light, intuitive way-finding public investment, but a necessary one for western gateway for the station and a catalyst entrance to the intersection of Kent and ever) before it is rolled out; even then, it would The client is Transport for NSW. and reduced mechanical ventilation. This is Australia’s international gateway. The political for reconfiguring the station concourse. Napoleon Streets (approximately 3.5 metres likely occur in stages: Canberra to Sydney, Engineering is being done by AECOM and a city-shaping project that will impact not just test will be one of resolve. The new State high, 9 metres wide and 110 metres long); Sydney to Newcastle, and so on. Parsons Brinckerhoff. Architecture and urban Sydney’s rail network, but its growth strategy. Government will find it very difficult to back • a pedestrian bridge over Sussex Street, with design is by Cox Richardson and Hassell. > The client is Transport for NSW. The away from its early ‘commitment’ to public lifts and escalators to Barangaroo. Engineering is being done by AECOM and transport. However, when the profound In January 2012, three consortiums were Parsons Brinckerhoff. Architects are Cox implications of light rail running along short-listed for the final bid round for the Richardson and Grimshaw Architects, with George Street become more widely walkway’s design and construction: VIA (a urban design by Hassell, Arup and Aurecon. understood — the partial pedestrianisation Watpac/Ferrovial joint venture) with and displacement of buses — we can expect Woodhead as architect; the Reed/Bouygues 1. nothing less than vigorous debate. joint venture; and Thiess. The successful The client is Transport for NSW. Design applicant will be announced mid 2012. Early and engineering is by Hassell, Arup and works around Wynyard Station are due to Aurecon. The integrated transport and land commence in May 2012, with substantial 3. use study is by AECOM and Booz & Company. construction expected to start in late 2012. 1. An artist’s impression of Napolean Plaza. 2. The steep incline at Margaret Street, is set to be addressed as part of the Wynyard Walk project. 3. Proposed route of the East Coast High Speed Rail.

20 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 21 completed revived

2009 Epping to Chatswood 2009 Chatswood Transport Sydney’s Second Rail Link (ECRL) Interchange Airport The origins of the Epping to Chatswood The Chatswood Transport Interchange was a The on-again off-again story of Sydney’s Rail Link (ECRL) go back several decades. NSW Government Public Private Partnership second airport began in the 1970s with the A catalyst was the Action for Transport 2010 project for the proponent team of CRI and Major Airport Needs of Sydney (MANS) plan announced by the State Government in BMCL (Barclay Mowlem Construction, now intergovernmental group established to select 1998. A preliminary Environmental Impact owned by Laing O’Rourke). The architectural/ a site. In 1986, the group recommended Wilton Statement was completed in 1999, and design urban design component was delivered or Badgerys Creek. The Federal Government, work commenced in 2001. The chief proponent through a joint venture between DesignInc under Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, was Parramatta Rail Link Company/Transport and Cox Richardson known as COX DesignInc. settled on Badgerys Creek, however, in 1989 5. Infrastructure Development Corporation on decided to permit a third runway to be built behalf of the NSW Department of Transport 2006 Parramatta Interchange at Kingsford Smith Airport, alleviating Contrary to popular belief or political will, networks. Any growth has to acknowledge and Infrastructure. the urgency for a second airport. In the there is no such thing as a remote airport. No that land is limited and that infrastructure The ECRL stations of Epping, Macquarie The Hassell-designed bus and train interchange intervening years, dozens of reports by matter how far an airport is built from the city, must be networked into the city rather than University, Macquarie Park and North Ryde, was completed in 2006 for Transport both Labor and Liberal governments have the city grows towards it: Osaka’s Renzo continually placed at a distance. connect to dormitory suburbs in Sydney’s Infrastructure Development Corporation. proposed or explored alternative sites Piano-designed 1.7 kilometre Kansai The plan for Sydney needs to include west and north-west, providing a projected It has won a string of design awards including both inside and outside the Sydney basin. International Airport terminal in Japan, being cluster-style developments on brownfield capacity of an additional 12,000 rail the 2006 Premier’s Prize. A 1999 report to the Howard Federal a case in point. Hong Kong International inner-city sites that capitalise on population passengers a day. They serve existing high- Government recommended that regional air Airport is another. cores and are connected by efficient transport technology, commercial office, educational travel be shifted to Bankstown Airport, a new networks. Like Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, 2000 Airport Link and retail centres, and act as catalysts for 2. general aviation airport be built at Badgerys “Contrary to popular the redeveloped Sydney airport terminal could urban redevelopment along the strategic The Airport Link’s four underground stations: Creek, and a fast train between Sydney and include museum and gallery spaces; ‘global arc’ employment corridor. Green Square, Mascot, and Domestic and Canberra be established. In December 2000, belief or political will, conference centres; meeting facilities; large Hassell was the principal architectural International Terminals (Kingsford Smith both the second airport and the fast train there is no such thing retail outlets, hotels and office buildings. consultant and landscape architect for the Airport) were designed and delivered by project were shelved, while Bankstown and Both sides of politics have prevaricated on project, which was built through a Thiess/ DesignInc for the client Transfield/Bouygues Canberra Airports were expanded. While as a remote airport. the issue. The current State Government claims Hochtief joint venture, with Bovis Lend Lease (in joint venture) in time for the 2000 Sydney the latest report, released in March 2012 No matter how far an we don’t need a second airport, and the Federal as contracting manager. It officially opened in Olympic Games. Pictured (image 4) is the by the Federal Government’s Minister Government is now backing Wilton as its February 2009. Among other awards, it won Green Square station at Alexandria. for Infrastructure and Transport Anthony airport is built from preferred site, despite already owning the land the 2009 NSW Premier’s Prize, and the 2010 Albanese, again named Badgerys Creek as the city, the city grows at Badgerys Creek. While State and Federal Sulman Award and Sir Zelman Cowan Award. the most logical and cost-effective site for a towards it.” Government handwringing continues, Sydney second Sydney airport, and called for planning Airport has announced its own plan to extend to commence. operating capacity by reconfiguring the airport Even by Australian government standards Piano famously built Kansai International into two airline alliance-based precincts that there has surely been enough talk about where Airport on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, integrate international, domestic and regional and when a second airport should be built; the connected only by road/rail to the mainland. services under the one roof, by 2019. 3. real issue is a tangle of competing agendas. Despite intentions to the contrary, the city has Under the proposal, the current domestic 1. ECRL station interior, The current airport, owned by Southern Cross gravitated to the island’s bridge, which is now terminals, T2 and T3, would accommodate the setting a benchmark for future transport projects. Photo: Airports Corporation Holdings Ltd, which is seen as a desirable destination and location for Qantas Group and its international partners; Simon Wood. 2. Chatswood itself majority owned by a number of Macquarie businesses of all kinds. Public transport has and the current international terminal Transport Interchange. Photo: Brett Boardman. Bank infrastructure investment funds, is on been directed to it, and residential precinct, T1, would accommodate Virgin 3. Parramatta Transport Crown land and, therefore, (controversially) development and job growth has followed as a Australia and its international partners. A Interchange. 4. Airport Link Green Square Station. Photo: beyond the jurisdiction of the City of Sydney. result. It is now a city in itself. non-binding Memorandum of Understanding Christopher Cole. 5. A view of Reflecting this anomaly is the glaring omission- Airports are inextricably linked to the city (MoU) has been signed with the airport’s a reconfigured Sydney Airport in the otherwise commendable Sustainable through the communities that grow up around major domestic airline customers, the Qantas with T3 dedicated to Qantas and its alliance partners. Sydney 2030 Community Strategic Plan them. The key is to plan for that inevitable Group and Virgin Australia to progress the 1. 4. document-of a holistic approach to the growth, to embrace it and cater for it. The ‘not proposal, which Sydney Airport says is connection of the city and the airport; the in my backyard’ mentality never worked. consistent with ‘permissible land uses’ under missing piece in the sustainable Sydney puzzle. The tenets of ‘smart growth’ include: the the Sydney Airport Master Plan 2009. It will Airports have a crucial impact on the use of key infrastructure; the location of evaluate the proposal in the context of the growth of cities, the two are inextricably developments adjacent to existing 2014 Master Plan process, which is scheduled linked. During WW II that link was military; populations and business centres; the use of to begin in late 2013. today the link is civil aviation and tourism. brownfield sites in a way that encourages a In global terms, cities have grown 1,000 per sense of community and promotes mixed use; cent in the past century, with 50 per cent of and the creation of built forms on a human the world’s population now inhabiting cities. scale underpinned by good transport

22 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 23 interview

stories from the [Sydney] Olympic Games. figure. They started digging in the 1920s, and a planning problem there. You have two coves: My wife Andrea (also an architect) and I were by 1929 the tunnels at either end had come there’s Barangaroo South and a cove, then Gold Medallist 2012 coming back from Homebush after some late through; then — no doubt due to treasury Barangaroo Central and a cove. These divide games event. We sat upstairs in one of those —it was put on hold and not finished, I think, Barangaroo into enclaves, which make it more Lawrence Nield played a key role in the planning double-decker trains. Everyone was in high until around 1956. Nobody knew about the difficult to knit the area as a whole back into of three Olympic Games. He has a string of spirits and we all started singing Advance Cahill Expressway because the then the city. Now, the northern cove probably Australia Fair. Everyone got through the first Department of Main Roads (DMR), now the works all right with the headland, but the award-winning public projects to his name and verse, and when someone tried the second Transport, Roads & Maritime Services, kept it southern-most cove at Barangaroo Central is a former NSW Chapter President. In 2010 he verse everyone fell silent. A little old lady secret; there was a committee — called the creates a further enclave not connected to the began a new chapter in his prolific career, sitting in a corner struck up and said “I’m Circular Quay Committee — full of city, not connected with Barangaroo South, becoming a fractional professor at the University a school teacher, I know the second verse”, government apparatchiki that kept things and not connected with the headland, so so she sang it alone and then everyone joined from the Sydney populace. It was only after it doesn’t allow that normal sort of ‘coral’ of Newcastle, and starting Studio Nield. This in again. It was one of those great public they opened the station that they announced growth, which is the way cities develop. This year he received the Institute’s highest personal moments, and another reason I feel very the road was going in. The road was finished southern cove is artificial anyway; only half of accolade, the Gold Medal. At his office in Sydney’s strongly about those trains. two years after the station and is now it is harbour water, the rest is recycled water, Lawrence Nield portrait by Vikky Wilkes. unnecessary; it has very little traffic on it, with a sort of bridge across it; so it’s not energy Dymocks Building, he spoke with Peter Salhani. Monorail and other misfits and, like roads in San Francisco and Boston efficient. The simplest solution would be to that similarly kept the city from the just not build the second cove. The Newcastle c0nnection cutting across from Broadmeadow through the cheap ones. In Paris, no one is more than PETER: As President of the NSW Chapter of the waterfront, it should go. parks (underground), but using the heavy-rail a kilometre from a metro station. Cars are the Institute (1986–88), you staunchly opposed the “Sydney needs to PETER: Is Newcastle an area you’ve had much alignment in the centre as a connection. That cheap alternative but they are becoming less Sydney Monorail. How do you feel about it being City making to do with through your work or personally? alone would reactivate Newcastle because viable, quite apart from their high energy and scrapped, and what should replace it? think about urban LAWRENCE: My very first big building was the city centre would then be about 30 or 40 high carbon footprint. LAWRENCE: Yes, I was in the marches against PETER: What’s the remedy for major transport alternatives, not just in Newcastle, the David Maddison Clinical minutes from Sydney. So I think it’s very it. Obviously not against public transport, but projects being planted in the city, without enough cheap ones. In Paris, Sciences Building, next to the Royal Newcastle important to keep the line where it is. PETER: What’s your view on the second airport the monorail was wrong in so many ways. I consideration of their urban design impact? Hospital, right at the east end of Newcastle proposal for Sydney, and Badgerys Creek? guess I feel vindicated. It should be replaced LAWRENCE: Councils need to be involved no one is more than beach. It was quite a startling building at the Transport LAWRENCE: A second airport is absolutely with a properly designed light-rail system. The with all city infrastructure decisions in a formal, a kilometre from a time, made out of stainless steel and concrete. necessary. Airports are huge employers of present light-rail system should have come approving way. Many of the State Labor It was completed in 1981, but it was left PETER: What’s the most important improvement people, they’re very important for urban into the city centre right from the beginning; Governments decided to get things through metro station. ” stranded for a while, if I can use the beach that needs to be made to ease traffic in Sydney and development but they need to be made so that was also a bad piece of traffic planning. It by telling the public as little as possible rather metaphor, because the hospital then moved improve public transport? they are good neighbours. A second airport was good to use the old line through Lilyfield than keeping them fully informed, including the On the drawing board inland: a move that has since been criticised, LAWRENCE: Well, that’s a big ask. I was a should be linked with a high-speed rail, and take it to Central Railway Station, but to visual impact. And the various committees and because more and more people were living supporter of the metro rail, the lighter rail, and Williamtown should be considered as avoid the city centre was not a good decision. organisations that are set up outside council PETER: You’re working on a Melbourne in the centre of Newcastle. It looked like which was quite well considered. It would have a possible location. It’s next to the coast, it Hopefully, with new light rail in the centre of control (such as Old Circular Quay Committee, project, can you tell us about that? being demolished, but, last year, Newcastle had a major impact on Victoria Road, whereas would be only about 40 minutes from Sydney Sydney that can be improved or rectified. the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority or the LAWRENCE: Yes, it’s a floating swimming developers bought it and I’m now assisting going back to heavy rail won’t have the same by high-speed train, and it would then bring Barangaroo Authority) allow things to happen pool at Docklands for Lend Lease and the them and the architects Crone Partners to impact. I don’t think heavy rail is a bad system; activation to the Hunter so it’s not just relying PETER: The Cahill Expressway: should it stay by stealth. They don’t understand that when Melbourne City Council. I was on a team turn it into an office block. So that’s a very as the master planner for the Olympic Games, on mining. So I don’t think Badgerys Creek or go the way of the monorail? people come to cities, it’s the city that’s the with various landscape architects, doing important connection I have to Newcastle. I fought long and hard to bring the heavy-rail is a bad place but it should be thought of LAWRENCE: Absolutely it should go. It star attraction, not just individual buildings a new master plan for Victoria Harbour. I’ve also had a house in Paterson, in the north line right into Homebush. That was totally together with a high-speed rail and other should never have been there in the first or casinos or whatever. People come to cities Part of the plan was a new square for the of the Hunter Valley, for many years. opposed by the State Rail Authority at the alternatives and then the decision made. place; it was bought in by stealth. I’ve written because of harbours, streets and restaurants. harbour. Now, squares in Melbourne are time. It was important to my aim in planning a section about Circular Quay in a book that’s They come to Sydney because it has a physical difficult because you get all the roaring PETER: Where do you stand in the debate over Homebush to make it a piece of the city, Memorable moments coming out in July by Philip Thalis and Peter attraction. Developing that physical attraction forties through there. It’s no accident that removing the heavy-rail line through Newcastle not just a sporting park, and gradually it’s John Cantrill, called Public Sydney: An is what gives a city its star status. lanes work so well; they’re the best CBD as a means of reviving the city? becoming that. I had to prove it would be PETER: What’s your most memorable train trip? Atlas of Public Rooms, Buildings and Places. environments for the city. But we had to LAWRENCE: For all sorts of reasons it would cheaper to bring the rail in than upgrade all the LAWRENCE: It would have to be the first time The history of the Circular Quay Railway PETER: Barangaroo… design a square that could work with be very short-sighted to stop the heavy rail arterial roads, which is what the government I went on high-speed rail, in France 20 years Station is very interesting. The rail loop LAWRENCE: Controversial. winds, so at a significant juncture of going into Newcastle. Yes, Newcastle needs wanted to do. And we got a wonderful station ago. When I was a young man at Cambridge, I was recommended in the Royal Commission Bourke and Collins Streets we put a public reactivation, and I believe two things will do by Hassell. I think one of the reasons the studied the housing in Dijon by the great French into the Improvement of the City of Sydney and PETER: Yes. What do you think should happen? library to buffet the wind, and a swimming that: a major government department moving Commonwealth Bank and others have engineer, Jean Prouve, and I went to Dijon at the its Suburbs 1908–09, but, initially, no road LAWRENCE: Well, there are three parts: pool behind it. The pool is like the into Newcastle, or the university, which is also moved there today, apart from all the new time; it was quite a journey from Paris. But when was ever proposed there. When John Barangaroo South, which is already decided Josephine Baker Pool in Paris, which floats being proposed and seems reasonable, as many apartments, is because of the railway station. I went back to Dijon years later in the high-speed Bradfield advocated the train station there, so I won’t talk about that; Barangaroo Central; up and down on a pontoon. Swimming of the university faculties are already Transport was a very important part of making train, I returned to Paris that same afternoon. the Commissioner for Railways thought it and the headland. The headland: I still think pools are great things to work on; in the centre of town. The other thing is a Homebush work over the long term. Train So it was memorable for the sentimentality of should not be in the centre of Circular Quay the [Hill] Thalis scheme was better for the everybody likes them. high-speed rail line, which I’ve looked into in lines — not bus lines — improve amenity and returning to a city I’d seen as a young man, but (as it now is) but just off on the Wynyard side populace, but the proposed landscaping will detail. I was involved in a project that looked the value of people’s real estate. Sydney needs also for the marvellous speed of the trip. (which would have been better). But probably be done well. It’s Barangaroo Central at bringing a high-speed rail line into Civic, to think about urban alternatives, not just And I have to tell you one of my favourite Bradfield won the day; he was a powerful that’s critical to the final outcome and there’s

24 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 25 urban renewal

1. A master plan visualisation “While most interest exploring the possibilities of replacing the heavy-rail line at groups accept that the the eastern end of town with light rail, and integrating the old city needs to be foreshore with the CBD. 2. Proposed catalyst project revitalised, as yet there (from a 2011 Suters design competition) for the Hunter is no clear agreement Street Mall rejuvenation, promotes some mixed-use between the three redevelopment with a pedestrian link from the amphitheatre near Christ tiers of government, Church Cathedral to the harbourside precinct. business and the 1. community as to how Is Newcastle off track? this can be achieved.” newcastle harbour Impetus for the urban renewal of Newcastle has stalled, yet again. The sticking point, non-compliance with the current planning as always, is what to do with the heavy-rail line that runs through the city. controls. They will have a long-term effect on the rejuvenation of the city centre through introducing critical mass within the precinct,

plaza enhancing social interaction and improving the light rail lin The stalemate over how to business opportunities that could be derived be overstated. Any potential system should built environment. Both projects will promote e revitalise the state’s second– from the Honeysuckle development. recognise the link that the city of Newcastle similar initiatives in adjoining areas, further boutique Despite the GFC and an emasculated has with its outer suburbs and neighbouring encouraging development and revitalisation. hotel largest city captures the vital adaptive property market, development continues to regions, particularly Maitland and Lake Alongside these new public projects, adaptive reuse - reuse adaptive - reta link between transport and o il o ce reuse - occur in the Honeysuckle Precinct while the Macquarie. It should also establish that this Suters Architects have retrofitted a number conference ce adaptive retail reuse - centre restaurants re - reta o ce tail/ hunter stree il/o c restaurants urban planning. Continuing Hunter Street strip continues to languish. link does not require a heavy-rail line to run of buildings, demonstrating the possibilities e retail/ 8 restaurants t Following 30 years of the exodus of large and the length of the Newcastle CBD. for adaptive re-use as a means of revitalising cinema Architecture Bulletin’s retail/ light rail lin plaza restaurants e small businesses, the two main road corridors Removing the rail line from the city the city. The McCloy9 Group City Exchange o ce/ reside residenta coverage, David Rose and king street ntial o l of Hunter Street and King Street are now peninsular makes way for a dynamic ‘green’ (completed 2009), saw the redevelopment ce 10 light rail line retail Michael McPherson update us dotted with derelict buildings. This is in public transport system to be introduced, of a 5,300 square-metre site and its five amphitheatre on this decades-old debate. stark contrast to the mixed-use, residential, operating through the CBD, across the suburbs buildings: a 1916 building on Hunter Street, commercial and hospitality precincts of the and out to adjoining cities. Introducing a vital in the Newcastle City Centre Heritage Honeysuckle urban renewal project. transport hub at the edge of Newcastle (in Conservation Area, was restored and now For more than 25 years the condition of the This presents as a serious illness for the Hamilton or Wickham for instance), would act operates as a gymnasium; a four-storey Newcastle CBD has been the subject of City of Newcastle, one that has seen a lot of as the distribution point to connect the city, its 1960s King Street building was retrofitted continued prognosis and debate. Despite analysis, and several private revival initiatives suburbs and the Hunter Region. A landscaped for modern commercial offices and is fully the success of a Liberal candidate at the 2011 through public art or design competitions, corridor replacing the 3.5 kilometres of heavy leased; and a new landscaped urban space New South Wales state elections — the first but no real plan or cure. While most interest rail, and the opening up of the city’s north- weaves a new link through from King Street for Newcastle since 1907 — the issue, and groups accept that the old city needs to be south arteries between the old precinct and the to the new Honeysuckle Park at the north end 2. a satisfactory long-term solution, remains revitalised, there is no clear agreement harbour could be the ‘bypass operation’ needed of Hunter Street. unresolved. between the three tiers of government, to keep the city’s central business district alive. Citywide, there are a host of similarly Planning mechanisms have so far promised mechanisms, Newcastle needs a robust Previous articles in this series on business and the community as to how this can While there are no special provisions within promising small-scale projects repurposing much, but delivered little. The Newcastle 2030 overarching planning framework. Newcastle have detailed the obvious be achieved. Two things could help galvanise the existing planning controls to encourage the buildings: a post office in the former west–end Community Strategic Plan aims to provide a With some well-implemented surgery, disconnect between the two sides of the city. all the stakeholders: a holistic transport plan city’s rejuvenation, gains have been made in area converted to a Newcastle TAFE Art School tangible and achievable strategic plan for the Newcastle could be a vibrant and diverse city. At the core of the problem is the existing 3.5 for Newcastle and the Hunter; and the establishing some integrated development and gallery; the restored National Australia Bank city, setting out a vision, directions and actions It has a rich and historic city-centre fabric, kilometres of heavy-rail line running through introduction of a strong but flexible planning the revitalisation of the Hunter Street side of building in the east end; a musical instrument for rejuvenating the Newcastle CBD. The supported by the natural wonders of its the heart of the city, with the Honeysuckle framework that promotes catalyst projects. the city. This is in part due to the efforts and store in a formerly flood-affected retail building Newcastle Urban Renewal SEPP promises to beaches and harbour, but what is urgently Precinct on the northern, harbour side of the The NSW Long Term Transport Master contributions of local private enterprise and in western Newcastle; and a new restaurant in a provide a planning mechanism that fosters needed is a leading-edge public transport line and the old Hunter Street shopping strip Plan is currently underway with a regional some proposed publicly funded projects. disused west–end shop, which has brought revitalising development for key Newcastle system and a built environment to match. on the south side. industry forum and workshops held in Two major public project proposals ‘molecular cuisine’ to the city. urban sites. A draft citywide LEP aims to After decades of studies and debate, what’s The irony is that while the rail line allows Newcastle in early April 2012. This joins the currently have the chance to be catalysts for Though these are relatively small projects, consolidate planning controls and streamline needed now is a commitment from local and the easy delivery of commuters to the CBD, more than 40 studies (but no action) into the change in the CBD: the Civic Precinct’s State in terms of quality, character and diversity, the interpretation of planning requirements, state governments to work in concert to make its severing of the city in two affects the very potential for transport in and around Newcastle Law Courts; and the University of Newcastle they are catalyst developments for however, there is no promise of a CBD master it happen. process of revitalisation because it restricts that have been undertaken in the past few years. City Campus. Both projects require major rejuvenation. They are happening despite the plan, or even an inner-city model to provide a Hunter Street’s physical link with the harbour, The need for a comprehensive public funding from the NSW and Federal planning framework that exists for Newcastle, planning overview for Newcastle. More than David Rose and Michael McPherson, rendering it unable to take advantage of transport system to broader Newcastle cannot Governments, and acceptance of not because of it — and we need more of them. the disparate approach of isolated planning Suters Architects

26 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 27 1. Pacific Highway upgrade, Yelgun to Chinderah. 2. Pacific Highway upgrade Open road Brunswick Heads to Yelgun. Photo: Brett Boardman. 3. Sandstone road walls at Leura. 4. Copper portals over the Cross City Tunnel A simple query about the entrance at Rushcutters Bay. 5. Shell corner (Katoomba). 6. Pacific Highway Brunswick walls used along the Great Heads to Yelgun route. 7. William Street, East Sydney. Photos: Courtesy Roads Western Highway led to this and Maritime Services. discussion by the Centre for 2. 3. Urban Design in Roads and Maritime Services about the thinking behind some of our newer highways.

We are, on occasion, asked how a particular

design outcome has come about: for example 1. 4. 5. the red poles on the M7 motorway, the brick patterns on the walls on the Great Western Highway at Shell Corner, or the enigmatic other guiding documents, the centre works travel experience; and maintaining good with other areas of the Sydney CBD. Larger bas-relief on the Gore Hill Freeway noise walls. as part of multidisciplinary teams to help pedestrian and cyclist connections across features were expertly integrated into the There are usually short answers to influence the design of projects. and along the highway. cityscape: for example, the resolution within these questions: the red poles of the M4/M7 Applying an urban design approach to By contrast, the objectives and principles the tight urban structure of Kings Cross and interchange reference the regiments of the projects occurs at many levels. In the case of for the Pacific Highway Urban Design Rushcutters Bay, was addressed with the Australian Light Horse and the colour of the a program of work to upgrade a whole road Framework between Hexham and Tweed distinctive copper-clad portal and pocket park; Flanders poppy. The brick insets at Shell Corner corridor, such as the Pacific Highway, an urban Heads reflected a different physical setting and the new stone wall protecting the Domain, and 6. 7. relate to an old hotel and railway station nearby, design framework will be prepared to set down program objectives. That framework set a broad the ventilation outlet designed as a slender while the bas-relief on the Gore Hill Freeway a consistent overall design approach. It will vision that the upgrade should be a ‘sweeping, blade, with cladding to match the IMAX

noise walls references a local Walter Burley contain a broad analysis of the corridor’s green highway providing panoramic views to theatre and nearby Energy Australia building. highlighting the undulations in the topography A decade of awarded projects Griffin-designed building and an abstraction qualities and character, and describe design the Great Dividing Range and the forests, In terms of a less urban example, and in a way that cuttings cannot do. Stone pitching, 2010 Great Western Highway upgrade, Leura to of the freeway and local suburb patterns. objectives and principles that will result in a farmlands and coastline of the Pacific Ocean’. returning to the business of walls, there was a split face blocks, sandstone-clad blocks, Katoomba Award for Excellence in landscape architecture / But the longer answer is that these details positive outcome. These would be based on For more discrete projects an urban design different set of challenges on the Great Western reinforced soil panels, and dry-stone walls have road transport / Australian Institute of Landscape Architects are the tip of the iceberg of a development some or all of the nine physical design principles strategy will normally be prepared by urban Highway projects. Emerging from the objective all been used. They each fit within the unique 2008 Great Western Highway upgrade, Shell Corner process that has taken many years; it is based on described in Beyond the Pavement, and designers registered with RMS and working to create a strong differentiation between the character of the Blue Mountains villages, (Katoomba) Award for Excellence in landscape architecture on road transport infrastructure projects / a deep understanding of place and an integrated, articulated in terms that reflect the specific as part of the broader project team. Their work towns and the rural bushland areas, is the helping define a sense of place quite unlike Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA)

collaborative approach to the planning, design needs of the corridor environment and the will be based on the principles and performance principle to create a diverse village feel to the any other road corridor in New South Wales. 2008 PacificH ighway upgrade, Brunswick Heads and implementation of projects. upgrade objectives. This framework guides criteria in Beyond the Pavement, which will be upgrades within each town. There are several When they are needed (and walls require to Yelgun Commendation / Planning Institute of Australia

For over 10 years now Roads and Maritime internal project teams as well as consulting used to both inform the project’s concept ways to achieve this, but strong visual cues a strong justification as they are expensive 2008 North–West Bus T-way, Sydney Services (RMS), formerly the Roads and Traffic urban design and civil engineering companies. design and be included in the environmental come from the design of walls and boundary and can be prone to graffiti vandalism), a Bronze Award / NSW Premier’s Awards Authority (RTA), has adopted an urban design It is also an important reference, setting down assessment used to gain project approval. It treatments. well-designed wall — be it a retaining wall, a 2008 Liverpool to Parramatta Bus T-way, Sydney policy called Beyond the Pavement. Recently how RMS understands an area and its is essential that this work embraces all project For example, at Faulconbridge, each wall-type bridge pier, a rock cutting tunnel or Bronze Award / NSW Premier’s Awards updated, this policy won the Australia Award community values. disciplines so that all the elements of a project householder was able to choose one of a range noise barrier— can make a big difference to 2007 Spike Milligan Bridge, Woy Woy for Urban Design in 2010, and is featured in The Great Western Highway Urban are sound in engineering terms, but also of different property fences and wall types to a project. Walls can assist in creating a strong Earth Award / Civil Contractors Federation NSW the Federal Department of Infrastructure and Design Framework is one such example; it was integrated and contribute to a good urban allow individuality within a consistent palette image for a project, fitting with the local context 2007 Hinton Bridge, Paterson River Colin Crisp Transport’s urban design protocol, Creating prepared in 2006 in consultation with the Blue design outcome. to achieve a village feel. On the upgrade near and helping reinforce a sense of place. However, Award for engineering heritage / Institute of Engineers Places for People. It is a policy that requires Mountains City Council to guide the highway A good example of the RMS urban design Leura and Katoomba, stone pitching was used in all instances, they need to be designed as an 2006 M7 Motorway, Sydney Orbital an urban design approach to be applied to all upgrade and duplication between Lapstone approach is the Cross City Tunnel. Tunnelling to cover the unstable cuts, reclaimed heritage integrated part of the whole design outcome Bradfield Award, Engineering Excellence awards its infrastructure projects. This means that road and Katoomba. A prominent objective in the under William and Park Streets enabled better sandstone blocks were used in the median, and and respond to an urban design strategy 2006 Sea Cliff Bridge, Lawrence Hargrave Drive Highly commended / Engineering Excellence awards transport projects should fit sensitively with the framework was to differentiate the highway public transport and the creation of a more a brick pattern used on the overbridge at Shell developed at the earliest stage in the planning built, natural and community environments as it passed through towns, from the highway memorable city boulevard between Kings Corner, all pursuing this idea of diversity and process. 2004 Windsor Road upgrade, Western Sydney Planning in Landscape Architecture Award / AILA through which they pass; that road planning as it passed through bushland. This helps Cross and Darling Harbour. Bus lanes, cycle differentiation, as well as creating a distinctive and design should contribute to liveability; reinforce the cultural identity of each town, ways and widened footpaths with shade trees outcome for the community and road users. Gareth Collins (Manager, Centre for Urban 2003 Pacific Highway upgrade, Yelgun to Chinderah Award for environmental engineering / Engineers Australia and that projects should contribute to the and also contributes to road safety by clearly provide better pedestrian connections and a More recent Great Western Highway Design, RMS), Greg Jackson (Urban Designer, overall quality of the public domain. marking different speed zones. Other more amenable environment. The overall projects, such as the Lawson and Wentworth Centre for Urban Design, RMS) and Michael 2002 Great Western Highway upgrade, Leura to Katoomba / Excellence Award, AILA The RMS Centre for Urban Design is objectives included protecting the corridor’s form of William Street was improved by the Falls upgrades, have continued this approach Sheridan (Urban Designer, Centre for Urban 2000 Eastern Distributor, Sydney / Bradfield Award, responsible for implementing this policy. natural systems and ecology; respecting its reshaping of the road and footpath alignments with a range of wall types helping terrace the Design,RMS) Engineering Excellence awards As well as authoring Beyond the Pavement and heritage character; providing an interesting and by using materials and furniture consistent road corridor in the steep terrain, but also

28 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 2529 TOWN HALL SQUARE GEORGE STREET, CBD

DARLING QUARTER SYDNEY EXHIBITION CENTRE

CHINESE OXFORD SQUARE GARDEN Ultimo HYDE PARK Sydney’s ITAC

POWER HOUSE walk MUSEUM SICEC cycleways

ULTIMO Currently on the drawing CHINATOWN Not without controversy, The 10 routes being upgraded are: UTS • North Shore to Edgecliff board, the Ultimo Pedestrian UTS City of Sydney’s bicycle lane MARY ANN PARK • Anzac Bridge to Sydney Harbour Bridge BELMORE Network is set to link some of PARK network is proving popular • City to Green Square the city’s fringe communities, ABC with the people, according • ANZAC Bridge to ANZAC Parade S URRY HILLS key cultural and educational to its recent figures. • Sydney Park to Centennial Park RAILWAY UTS • Leichhardt to City South/Centre SQUARE CENTRAL STATION 1. precincts. It’s a small project UTS UTS • Sydney Harbour to Botany Bay with a progressive agenda. Transport congestion is the curse of modern • University of Sydney to University of NSW

FRASER GATEWAY BUILDING growing cities. Addressing this congestion, • Newtown towards Bondi Junction City of Sydney began building its network of • The Broadway Link (Darlington to Ultimo).

The perfunctorily named Ultimo Pedestrian CENTRAL PARK safe bicycle routes some years ago under Lord The Bridge to Bridge route is complete and Network (UPN) is a piece of urban cartilage Mayor Clover Moore. The goal is connectivity connects the inner west via the Anzac Bridge

that, when completed, will link the wider PRINCE ALFRED and choice — taking people where they want with Pyrmont, the city centre and North PARK catchments of Surry Hills, Redfern, Ultimo to go — and the network is slowly expanding Sydney. The City to Green Square route, once and Chippendale with Darling Harbour in through the city’s villages and fringe precincts complete, will help connect Sydney’s fastest– 1. a kind of city campus public space. TO CROWN STREET into some of its major destinations. growing residential area with the city centre. Its importance as a connective space, This is culture change for Sydneysiders, The Bourke Street route links Sydney Harbour 2. however, is heightened by the calibre of the connection for the visiting crowds to the soon- whether they drive, catch public transport or with Botany Bay, via cafes and shops in 1. Kent Street cycleway in the CBD. 2. Bourke Street, Surry Hills, south of Taylor Square. Photos: courtesy City of Sydney. neighbours (stakeholders) along its fringe. to-be designed 12-hectare Sydney ride a bike; and not just because of the health Alexandria, Surry Hills and Darlinghurst. These include some of Sydney’s key cultural International Convention, Exhibition and or community-building benefits of cycling, As new cyclists take to the roads, City and educational institutions: the University Entertainment Precinct (SICEEP), which, due but because every extra bike on the road of Sydney is working to improve safety for of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Sydney Institute to its sheer size, will completely transform the means less traffic and more available seats all road users with a number of bike safety Cycleway usage in city hotspots TAFE (SIT), the ABC and the Powerhouse western edge of Darling Harbour. on public transport. initiatives, including cycling confidence courses • K ing Street / Kent Street, Sydney 2,125 cyclists (busiest hour: 575) 30 % Museum, as well as Darling Harbour. The client is the Sydney Harbour The network of cycling routes combines which are free and open to all adults, and safe • Union Street cycleway, Pyrmont Occupying a disused rail corridor on the 2. Foreshore Authority, and the design team existing on-road bike lanes, shared paths and, cycling courses at the Community and Road 1,891 cyclists (busiest hour: 526) 17 % eastern shoulder of the Harris Street ridge in is Aspect Studios Landscape Architects where possible, new separated cycleways. The Education Scheme (CARES) facility in Sydney 1. Ultimo Pedestrian Network Connectivity plan. 2. Proposed • College Street / Park Street Ultimo, the UPN is an elevated strip of public new forecourt structure by Toland and Shigeru Ban Architects. in collaboration with architects Choi cycleways that separate motorists, pedestrians Park, which are open to all primary schools in 2,070 cyclists (busiest hour: 579) 26 % Image: courtesy the architects and the Powerhouse Museum. space, barely 500 metres long and, on average, Ropiha Fighera. The ambition is to create and bike riders are acknowledged both in the LGA. The StreetShare education program • Bourke Street / Campbell Street 20 metres wide. It is currently a convenient, if a public realm of spatial richness offering Australia and internationally as the preferred regularly visits schools and users of shared paths 1,147 cyclists (busiest hour: 284) 46 % neglected backdoor through-site link to the a sequence of experiences along the option for many reasons, but principally across the city to spread safety messages. • Bourke Street / Devonshire Street, Surry Hills ABC, UTS and SIT city campuses for many of providing entry to the Dr Chau Chak Wing length of this primary movement spine. Its safety. A Canadian study released last year Independent biannual bike counts 1,025 cyclists (busiest hour: 269)  86 % the purported 60,000 students travelling on building, and the Powerhouse Museum, overarching design narrative will trace how found bike riders in separated lanes have a continue to reveal a steady increase in the • Kent Street / Napoleon Street, Sydney 1,541 cyclists (busiest hour: 411)  28 % foot through the Devonshire Street Tunnel. with, eventually, a connection across Darling the site has developed along the rail line from 28 per cent lower injury rate than if they number of riders taking to the streets. The In 2002, the southern half of the UPN Drive to Hay Street. It will connect through a rich industrial history of ‘wheat and wealth’ were riding in a traffic lane. latest biannual count, done in March 2012, • Wilson Street / Burren Street 1,023 cyclists (busiest hour: 276) 13 % (UPN South), was upgraded and currently to Darling Harbour, the 14-kilometre foreshore to its current and future environment of City of Sydney is currently focused on showed an increase in the number of cyclists • Bourke Road/ Doody Street, Alexandria forms an existing rear lane address to the walk, and the City of Sydney’s bicycle network. learning and creative industries, innovation upgrading 10 major bike routes connecting of almost 82 per cent over 24 months. 406 cyclists (busiest hour: 105) 51 % UTS School of Design building, the ABC, The UPN will provide a new active and social interaction. major destinations. They include existing Bike counts are also conducted on a Percentage increases recorded since March 2011. Citigate Hotel, and the TransGrid Haymarket transport link for pedestrians and cyclists Among the communities and stakeholders well-used routes and have been chosen to monthly basis. In March 2012 bike counts The proposed regional bicycle network is pictured Substation (soon to house a commercial by knitting together a part of the city that’s involved, there is keen interest in the project’s maximise people’s connectivity to places conducted during the morning and afternoon on the front cover. Courtesy of City of Sydney. building on top of its existing structure). currently undergoing urban and economic potential to develop a ‘social infrastructure’ where they live, work and socialise. peak periods from 6–9am and 4–7pm show With its palette of asphalt and ready-made renewal. From the Frasers’ site at One alongside its role as a piece of ‘active transport increasing numbers of bike riders throughout benches placed in a predictable and somewhat Central Park, through to the design-led infrastructure’. It is our hope to see the the city. unsocial setting, the UPN is neither a place metamorphosis underway at the finished space evolve as somewhere for of comfort nor strategic connection. UTS campus, including Frank Gehry’s people to congregate both informally as a Graham Jahn AM The UPN North site, though relatively much publicised Dr Chau Chak Wing building, meeting point, and also as a destination for Director of City Planning, Development small in area (around 4,000 square metres), and on to the Powerhouse Museum with its programmed cultural events. and Transport, City of Sydney will be the enabler for this vital strategic planned new entry sequence (image 2) by linkage to occur. The site begins at the Toland and Shigeru Ban, and current interior Sacha Coles Ultimo Road rail bridge, and continues along remodelling, the UPN will finally provide a National Studios Director, Aspect Studios

30 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 31 redux

An innovative network of trams — sans cables — has been the catalyst for revitalising the World Heritage-listed city of Bordeaux, a jewel in the cultural crown of France.

Like many global cities, the world’s wine capital of Bordeaux, in the south-west of France, has observed a trend towards 1. urban spread and the excessive use of cars. To halt this worrying trend, the Urban Bordeaux was the first city to implement Along the tram tracks, the sidewalks have Community of Bordeaux (CUB) opted for a the in-ground central rail system. The been refurbished with inserts of cast steel, public transport program based on installing construction period of the tramway was also paving blocks, slabs and granite borders, lawns state-of-the-art trams along an exclusive utilised to carry out other urban renewal and landscaping. Simple, aesthetic and right-of-way network. works and breathe new life into the city. resilient street furniture — shelters, When Quality Matters... Not only more financially viable and Buildings were cleaned and refurbished, and lampposts, benches, bins — have been made Model-Tech 3D appealing than the underground railways, many public areas rebuilt. Quays were from alloy cast iron, glass and wood: light, specialises in the highest the idea of a tramway was adopted because transformed into promenades, and urban semi-transparent elements that fit perfectly quality models for presentation, marketing it provided an opportunity to redesign and features, including the Water Mirror and the with the built heritage of the city. and DA. We utilise redevelop the entire metropolitan area, Garden of Light, were created. So, when the Together with the regenerated public advanced techniques, making the city centre more attractive while Bordeaux inhabitants received their new areas, the tramway has given the city and its colour and texture offering a fairer share of the urban space to tramway, it was unveiled to them in a lovelier, inhabitants a renewed sense of identity and matching, and a pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. more charming city. It is not without reason civic pride, not to mention the sheer ease and computer controlled cutting system to ensure our models are clean, precise and In December 2003, Bordeaux installed that Bordeaux was inscribed on UNESCO’S pleasure of moving around the city. visually exciting. To view our portfolio of the CITADIS model tram from ALSTOM. It World Heritage List in 2007. It is nearly 10 years since the tramway was completed projects or discuss your options runs with APS, a ground-level power supply The redevelopments attracted the talents built, and the Urban Community of Bordeaux and possibilities, please call Russell Pearse. system using a third rail that’s only powered of many creative design teams including the is now looking to extend the network. Figures when completely covered by a tram, thus architects Pike Agency/Brochet Lajus Pueyo, over the past eight years show car traffic in the MODEL-TECH 3D avoiding the unsightly overhead cables the designer Elizabeth de Portzamparc and city centre is down 18 per cent, while use of the Level 6 / 2 Foveaux Street associated with this type of transport. landscapers, Signes. public transport network has risen sharply to Surry Hills NSW 2010 more than 64 per cent. T: 02 9281 2711 F: 02 9212 5556 In addition to the existing 44 kilometre E: [email protected] track, the extension project proposes a further www.modeltech3d.com.au 33 kilometres of light rail (including around 7 kilometres of tram/train tracks on the city’s outskirts), servicing a target of 200 million passengers by 2020. The community continues to invest in this ambitious project, hoping to make the city of Bordeaux exceptional not only for its ancient viniculture, but as a model of urban mobility.

Leo Terrando Senior Interior Designer, SJB Interiors

Wiki quickie ARCHITECTURAL MODELMAKERS Bordeaux is the sixth-largest urban area in France; its metropolitan area is home to more than 1.1 million people. The historic part of the city is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List as ‘an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble’ of the 18th century. Wine has been made in the region since the 8th century, and today 2. Bordeaux is the wine capital of the world, with the wine Steve Mosley Matt Scott Rob Flowers 1. & 2. Cable-less tracks allow the new trams an appealing fit within the venercity of Bordeaux.Photos : Simon McPherson. economy worth €14.5 billion annually to the city. phone: 9565 4518 email: [email protected] www.modelcraft.com.au 32 Architecture Bulletin May / June 2012 OUR MARINE GRADE STAINLESS STEEL MESH IS UNIQUE TO US. AND OUR CLIENTS.

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