A collaboration of three architectural practices – SJB, Durbach Block Jaggers and Curious Practice – has won the design competition for the final stages of the Newcastle East End redevelopment project.
Unveiled recently by the City of Newcastle, together with Iris Capital, the winning designs will complete the $880 million East End redevelopment. The latest designs are for stages three and four of Iris Capital’s development of 3 Morgan Street and 22 Newcomen Street.
The winning designs feature 235 dwellings across five buildings, as well as 1,731 square metres of retail floorspace and approximately 300 parking spaces, with an estimated overall construction cost in excess of $150 million. The competition jury’s selection was based on strong design elements including a Market Square public space concept and perimeter colonnade, multiple public viewing corridors to the harbour, integration of green spaces, and a distinct character for each building.
“Since 2013, SJB has been investigating the unique community of Newcastle – having worked on the original masterplan for East End and (as) architect and collaborator for the Stage 1 development. We are over the moon to have the opportunity to again collaborate with our peers – this time Sydney based Durbach Block Jaggers and Novocastrians Curious Practice, to deliver the final stage of this once-in-a-lifetime project,” SJB director Adam Haddow said.
“We have divided the site based on experience, expertise, and scale, while concurrently forming a joint urban design strategy to realise the City of Newcastle’s Harbour to Cathedral Park ambition.
“Our vision for the East End is rooted in a fine grain response that reimagines the retail offering and pedestrian activity of Hunter Street. The new public ‘market square’ has great potential to connect into Council land creating the link with Newcastle Christ Church Cathedral and the harbour – to become the centre of the East End. We truly hope that this new connection will enable Indigenous planting to thrive along the north-facing slope of East End, once again cradling the silhouette of the cathedral in a green skirt when seen from the harbour,” Haddow added.
Describing the site as complex, sensitive and the most prominent in Newcastle, Iris Capital chief executive officer Sam Arnaout said that the critically important and significant development will bring to life across Iris’ land, a long-held vision of a public domain connecting Newcastle Harbour to Cathedral Park.
“The winning SJB, DBJ and Curious Practice design unquestionably delivered in its purpose to achieve design excellence and has maintained the Cathedral as the city’s prominent landmark structure with a family of beautiful buildings that follow the topography and mesh with the built form of the hill. The winning design also was considered as the best outcome to incorporate the numerous heritage elements and considerable level changes across the site,” Arnaout said.
“Like Stage 1, which has been embraced by the community and critically acclaimed, the final stages of the project will similarly be instantly recognisable through the adaptation of designs that draw inspiration from existing Newcastle architecture and retention of key heritage buildings,” he added.
Stage 3 and 4 of the East End revitalisation project will see three buildings establish the marketplace, each following an archetypal form: The ‘block’ of the heritage Municipal building, the ‘tower’ behind it and the ‘stoa’ forming the western edge, with the structures serving as companions to the Cathedral.
The revitalisation of Newcastle’s East End began in 2013 when SJB was awarded the masterplan for the Newcastle CBD with then owners of the site, UrbanGrowth and GPT. In 2016, the site was purchased by Iris Capital, and SJB was appointed Executive Architect of Stage 1, working in collaboration with Durbach Block Jaggers and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer.
Working collaboratively with the Newcastle City Council’s Urban Design Consultative Group and Government Architects, a number of arbitrary planning constraints were made flexible, facilitating greater potential for a built outcome appropriate to the site, the city and the community.
A consistent design approach across the development based on extensive research into the built fabric of Newcastle has resulted in four exceptional buildings that reflect a shared agenda to retain historical fabric while referencing the nuances of the city surrounds.
Image credit: Visualisations by SJB
