2010 AILA National Landscape Architecture Award: Planning

The Former Water Police Site/PirramaPark Master Plan by ASPECT Studios, Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects with City of Sydney

Client: City of Sydney

Jury comment

The masterplan for this new harbourfront park was born out of extensive community consultation and established the principles for developing a new public parkland on ground that had originally been earmarked for residential development. The site knits together two previously developed park spaces on the peninsula – Gibba Park and Pyrmont Point Park – and is in a strategic location for providing a link in the fourteen-kilometre network of waterfront open space. Close study of the history of the harbour shoreline, overlaying historic drawings on contemporary survey plans, was the working methodology for generating the plan’s spatial definition.

The masterplan works with many layers of site history, peeling back and interpreting multiple narratives within a contemporary context. It sets the framework for a robust design response that speaks to sustainable design principles and incorporates subtly integrated water sensitive urban design systems, alternative energy supply, reused materials and elements and over 150 new trees endemic to Pyrmont Peninsula.

For further coverage see Landscape Architecture Australia 124, November 2009.