After slating designs for the Garvan Cancer Centre last week, the Mayor of Sydney has stirred matters more by submitting her own plans to the Department of Planning that crop BVN Architecture’s 11-storey tower.
Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore has “major” objections to the height of the proposed building arguing that the tower will overshadow and over look residential areas east of West Street. The current analysis on overshadowing “lacks credibility”, she said.
The City of Sydney has put forward an alternative design that cuts off the top of BVN Architecture’s design. Under the alternative design, buildings “step” up in height to a maximum prescribed by the existing Victor Chang building.
The new proposal also involves locating the proposed UNSW Virology Centre on the existing UNSW campus in Kensington. This would allow the Garvan Cancer Centre to operate on the new Darlinghurst site on its own in the two new proposed buildings.
“The area simply can't handle the scale of development proposed by having both centres on the same site without destroying Darlinghurst's amenity and character," Moore said.
"As the Virology Centre is a research centre, it does not need to be located within the hospital precinct on the same site as the cancer centre,” she said.
The alternate proposal includes maintaining access to the site via Liverpool Street, not West Avenue, which would discourage congestion and dangerous traffic flows. The plan also reduces car parking and includes sustainability measures, which the Mayor claims are “inadequate overall” and “deficient” in the current proposal.
"Climate change is a critical issue and every new development has to include measures to limit energy consumption, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. “We would be pleased to work with St Vincent's to achieve a workable solution and to consult with affected residents."
