VISION 31—RISING STAR
Sydney’s Barangaroo parkland
spears north and folds into its
Harbour promising to become the
project’s crowning glory. It’s already
the parkland that is a songline of
rich rhythms rather than the cluster
of concrete and marble, closer to the
commercial hustle of Darling Harbour.
I
n an age of intense commercial imperatives, it will surprise
some that the most precious of urban resources—green
open space—should deliver redemption. And ironically it’s
the North American landscape design stars, PWP Landscape
Architecture in association with Sydney’s Johnson Pilton
Walker who deliver a contemporary park as garden that is so
convincing and true to place.
If the southern end of the $6 billion development is
contentious in some circles, the 6 hectare, re-created
headland park, is quietly stupendous. Responsible for the
Sydney Olympic’s Millennium Parklands, among a host of
global landscaping treasures, Peter Walker’s Barangaroo
Reserve for the Barangaroo Delivery Authority—opened in
August last year—is well on the way to ripening into the
grandest of civic gardens.
Sydney’s WMK Architects is a local architecture practice
which contributed directly towards this parkland precinct
with a glass sheathed, steel rimmed and sandstone
edged lift-shaft, leading to a multi-event space and a
300 vehicle car-park sitting directly underneath Peter
Walker’s landscaping masterwork. What could have easily
projected as over-wrought structure and eye-sore, dissolves
into a quietly totemic gesture, highly respectful of the
landscape fluency.
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