The New South Wales government is rushing ahead with plans to bulldoze the buildings opposite Sydney’s Town Hall and build a major public square, as part of the Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan.
Transport minister David Campbell confirmed that the impetus behind the project is the CBD Metro rail line. While the plan to knock down the buildings opposite Sydney Town Hall has been circulating for years, Cambell said the construction of the metro rail line has provided the opportunity for the project to finally go ahead.
“Currently that part of Sydney’s CBD is dominated by traffic, it’s not a place of pedestrian priority,” Tony Caro told Architecture & Design. “[The Town Hall square] is an unprecedented opportunity for the city, it’s exceedingly important for the city. Is the prime space in the city better occupied by the public or by a big insurance company?”
Having won an international design competition in 2000 for the Town Hall Precinct, Tony Caro Architects was invited by the City of Sydney to update its plans as part of the Sydney 2030 Urban Design strategy around 18 months ago.
The firm has signed a confidentiality agreement but it told Architecture & Design that it is currently undertaking further concept design work as part of the City’s desire to implement some of the key projects of the 2030 proposals.
The state government is on a “very fast track” to construct the city metro line from central to Rozelle, with a station at Town Hall in Pitt St, which has “a number of significant consequences for the design of a new public square”, Caro said.
“We’re trying to understand the impacts of that and to try and get an integrated solution,” Caro said. “Sydney desperately needs a proper integrated public transport strategy and anything that is working towards that objective is a positive thing.”
The square will be built by the City of Sydney Council once construction of the metro station has finished.
