How should Sydney’s parks greet the
next century? Before the 1970s, they were
often embellished with then-popular public
facilities like art galleries, cenotaphs, bowling
clubs and swimming pools. Now there is
opposition to new buildings said to ‘alienate’
publicly owned green spaces. That concern
underlies current controversies about three
schemes for parks on the perimeter of
Sydney’s business district: Above Concept model by the government Architect’s Branch of additions to the Conservatorium of Music.
Debate 1: Conservatorium
The Conservatorium of Music is extending its
occupancy of Francis Greenway’s Governor’s
Stables on the Macquarie Street (west) edge
of the Royal Botanic Gardens. The National
Trust and Friends of the Gardens attacked
the ‘over-development’ before a DA was
granted in December. Calls to move out the
Conservatorium did not gain support with
music groups wanting to keep students in
touch with international performers
appearing at the Opera House. However,
lobbyists did force substantial trimming and
revisions of the initial envelope concept from
the Government Architect’s Branch.
New works at the back of the Greenway building
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will be largely buried below grass roofs and
concealed from the gardens by existing
trees. Earlier additions to the stables will be demolished. On Macquarie Street, a new
shoebox building was reduced in height, to diminish its dominance of the stables facade
and preserve views from apartments in the nearby Astor building (some owned by talkback host John Laws). There was much discussion about how a large glazed canopy would relate to the south side of the stables.
At press time, four teams of architects were
being interviewed to document the scheme.would relate to the south side of the stables.
At press time, four teams of architects were
being interviewed to document the scheme. Debate 2: Cook and Phillip Parks
East of Hyde Park, the City of Sydney has
begun merging and developing two road-divided triangles
known as Cook and Phillip Parks—bulldozing despite bitter opposition from Sydney Morning Herald columnist Leo Schofield and prominent architects (some
personally concerned about views from an
apartment tower overlooking the site).
They object to the council’s decision to tuck a
swimming centre along the College Street ridge between St Mary’s cathedral and the Australian Museum (replacing an obsolete
bowling club). The pool complex, designed
by Lawrence Nield & Partners with
landscape architects Spackman Mossop, will
have its roof landscaped as a palm-lined
boulevard and plaza, including a long
reflection pool at
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the museum end and a café pavilion facing College Street. The east facade will be
glass-louvred to allow
ventilation and expansive views downhill to Wooloomooloo Bay. The landscape plan has
two strong diagonal axes—landscaped
ramps—acknowledging desire lines towards the Domain carpark (north-east) and the
Stanley Street cafés and William Street
offices (south-east). Debate 3: Belmore Park
Debate on a revamp of Belmore Park, next to
Central Station at Haymarket, is occurring
within the City of Sydney council rather than
in public. Melbourne architects Ashton
Raggatt McDougall and Sydney landscape
guru Tom Sitta have prepared a concept
based on ARM’s familiar wandering yellow
ribbon—a canopy looping through the site
at heights from three to 20 metres. This
relates to a coiling footpath which cuts the
park into various curved plots that could be
paved and planted as gardens representing
different neighbourhood migrant cultures.
Small trees along a light rail ramp to the east
would be removed to encourage passengers
to disembark from a new stop. A café is
proposed for Eddy Avenue. Nineteenth
century plane trees would be retained, and
scattered palms gathered as a grove. The
design generated little public comment
during the DA period. However, the city
hasn’t allocated funds because councillors
haven’t agreed to support a design which
lays down a funky, capricious pulse that is
not familiar to the DJs of Sydney’s
development —Davina Jackson. |