East Darling Harbour 2010

Looks like Mr Keating got what he was after. The winning EOI to design and build Barangaroo Stage 1 (East Darling Harbour) goes to Lend Lease (for $6B). It looks a lot like we thought it would, with the Hill Thalis scheme fading into the background as megatowers strut out into the harbour, adding another 15% in leasable area to the previous scheme. The distinctive 1.2 km line along the western edge of the East Darling Harbour site is relegated to history as a make believe natural coastline takes its place.

Phillip Thalis, on Fairfax Video is furious. “This is Sydney at its worst, at its most typical… they’ve sold out the public interest.”

The EOIs were ranked using the following evaluation criteria:
Design 35%, Financial Return and Risk 35%, Sustainability 10%, Delivery and Planning 10%, Marketing and Promotions 5%, Capability 5%.

The intensively used park area is dominated by an oval covered in a framework that bears some resemblance to Gehry’s Priztker Park in Chicago.

Barangaraoo:

Chicago:

Lastly, a typical view away from the water.

Gotta say, while I don’t have much time for the new Barangaroo, those renders are pretty incredible. Wonder how much they were? The movie file is bloody huge, beware.

Hon. Paul Keating, chair of the Design Excellence Review Panel (centre)

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Just found this at ADR .

Richard Rogers on his masterplan for Lend Lease: “The composed architectural massing of Barangaroo’s contemporary and inclusive buildings will be juxtaposed with the adjacent natural headland and Northern Cove. The natural landscape of Sydney Harbour will be complemented by these dynamic and sculptural forms on the city’s western corner, and together with the public waterfront places and promenade will all form a new landmark for the city.”

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Phillip Thalis has questioned the State Government’s claim that 50% of Barangaroo will remain “public”. Barangaroo advisor Chris Johnstone has returned fire by calling Thalis’ idea of defined public space “almost naive” and “simplistic”. The SMH then writes, “And by rigidly defining public space, public areas such as cafe seating, hotel foyers and even supermarkets were excluded.” As you’d hope? It’s hard to tell whether the SMH attributes these last comments to Chris Johnstone, or has extrapolated away from them. Is the Barangaroo Authorty including retail floor area in its public space calculations? At the moment it is hard to tell – detailed plans are not available. Be bloody cheeky if they were.

One of the reasons the (traditionally defined) public space has decreased so much is that it is being carted off in trucks to who knows where, so that water can reclaim the site. Maybe they could try calling the new areas of water public space too.
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I got that wrong. According to Thalis, that is exactly what they are doing already – its called “water public domain”.

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Posted by Peter on 24.12.09 in buildings