Most of us are very aware of the Barangaroo development site that is currently taking shape along the western side of the Sydney CBD harbour front. Our office on Jones Bay Wharf affords my colleagues and I a pretty good view of its recent progress. Naturally when AILA recently organised a ‘sneak peek’ of the much anticipated ‘Headland Park’, the tickets were snapped up pretty quickly by its members. Fortunately that included several of us here at Arcadia.
On the day, things got started with presentations from the design, development and construction team. At first the idea of 2hrs of talking prior to setting foot in the park didn’t seem that appealing but hearing from the lead Landscape Architect Peter Walker (from the USA) got things off to a good start. Peter’s presentation gave a good background to the current design intent which, in short was to re-create the natural headland that was taken from the harbour. Presentations followed from the local Landscape Architect, Soft Landscape specialist, Soil Scientist, developer Lend Lease, plant supplier Andreasens, and a curious presentation from the landscape contractor. All together it was a bit of a marathon but given the chequered history of the site, proposals, and the complexity of the build, it was absolutely what a bunch of (critically minded) landscape architects needed to hear before passing judgement.
Through all of this, what struck me the most was the level of complexity and thought that had gone into recreating an accurate representation of the natural Sydney Harbour vegetation communities. It’s fair to say that I had been watching the development of the site via various aerial mapping websites and up until this point the most fascinating aspect to me was the way thousands of sandstone blocks had been meticulously placed to recreate the original sandstone rock shelves around the headland. Don’t get me wrong, this was still pretty impressive but I just didn’t expect to be so engaged in the thought that had gone into the planting and particularly the soil science.
Out on site it was clear that the vantage point the park holds is the big selling point: panoramic views of the harbour from a point that no one is used to seeing it from (at least not for the last several decades). The planting is taking hold and doing especially well in some areas, and the stacked sandstone blocks along the shore look pretty amazing. Walking through the park and down to the foreshore it becomes evident that the visual impact of the many retaining walls required to recreate an accurate landform profile is far from hidden. The retaining walls are a concrete finish so don’t have the natural aesthetic of the sandstone along the foreshore. With time though, the walls will disappear behind the vegetation and the headland will look altogether more natural.
Under the new park is hidden a massive buried building. There is space here for car parking but also a huge hall like space that can accommodate a ‘Cultural Centre’. It came as a bit of a surprise to me that the details of what would go in this space hadn’t yet been finalised, but no doubt we will all hear more about this in the future.
I guess the true test for the park will be when it opens to the public later this winter. It’s clear that it’s going to be a hugely popular place for local Sydneysiders and tourists. What I’ll take particular interest in, especially given our vantage point from Jones Bay Wharf, will be how/if the effort put into the planting pays off and the engineering gives way to a natural (looking) headland. Maybe I’ll take the photo below from the same position in a year …
