Projects
Central Precinct Renewal
Design Framework
Restitching the fabric of the city
Connecting a city landmark
This state significant project re-imagines Sydney’s Central Station for the first time in over one hundred years. Our public domain design seeks to connect the city through a network of new public spaces that links Surry Hills to Chippendale and allows the CBD to expand south to Redfern. Historic buildings and structures create landmarks at key junctions in the public domain, while surrounding parks help to anchor the new development with the city.
The proposed renewal of Central Precinct will create a network of new and enhanced open spaces linked by green streets.
Remnants of Country
Central Precinct is built over a series of ancient dunes, ridges and creek lines that drain to Sydney Harbour. A landmark for the Gadigal, these sand dunes hold the deep time and memory of Country beneath the bustle of today’s global city. Echoes of the dunes underpin the design including mounded landforms, deep soil, improved biodiversity and Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub plant communities. The physical healing of Country is key to establishing connection and a tangible link to place.
c1900-1925 photograph of the sand dune on the site of Central Station with Surry Hills behind. Source: State Library NSW ON260/399
Visualisation looking north-east over Central Square towards Central Station Sydney Terminal Building.
Sectional visualisation looking east, showing the Grand Concourse, Central Green, Central Avenue, and Devonshire Square.
Remnants of ecology
We proposed a system of high performing green infrastructure to be seamlessly integrated with the grey infrastructure of the development. This strategy develops the over station development ‘deck’ into a high performing piece of green infrastructure, providing the conditions for extensive urban canopy, deep soil and generous planted areas for cool green cover and increased biodiversity. This new blue green infrastructure and the extensive public space network we proposed, will transform what is currently a vast rail corridor splitting the city and offering no ecological value. Developing this extensive green infrastructure proposal above Sydney’s largest rail interchange will bring social, economic, and environmental benefits both to the precinct, and the wider city.
Improving biodiversity and creating urban habitat will connect the precinct to the wider ecological network of the city, supporting microbats, small birds, insects, frogs and lizards.
Improving biodiversity and creating urban habitat will connect the precinct to the wider ecological network of the city, supporting microbats, small birds, insects, frogs and lizards.
The Over Station Development establishes a continuous soil volume spanning from the Central Green to the south deck, as well as connecting to existing soil volumes of Prince Alfred Park via the George Street Bridge.
Our planting strategy draws from the history of the site and a consideration of environmental growing conditions.
Concept section through the OSD structure showing minimum 1000mm allowance for soil depth and large connected horizontal soil volumes ensuring tree health.
A rolling land form references the historic sand dunes that were a landmark of Country and provides additional soil volume for planting.
Sectional visualisation looking west, showing the Devonshire Bridge linking to Devonshire Square, Central Green and the Grand Concourse.
Sectional visualisation looking north-east, showing Devonshire Square intersecting with the Central Avenue and Devonshire Link, and platforms below.
Illustrative section through Southern Plaza and the Goods Line showing level changes.
An iconic public landscape
The Sydney Terminal Building will be set in an iconic public landscape consisting of major new CBD spaces including Central Square and Central Green.
The proposed public domain provides a high quality network of new and revitalised public open spaces, pedestrian streets and laneways. Major new north-south and east-west connections will unite the city around a remade Sydney Terminal Building.
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