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The City of Sydney is forging ahead with plans to bulldoze seven buildings opposite Town Hall to create a $150 million civic square featuring native trees and water fountains, new designs reveal, despite a backlash over the project’s cost and scale.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s council in February voted to accelerate demolition of the buildings, including Woolworths supermarket, to make way for the long-promised public plaza at the corner of George, Park and Pitt streets in the heart of the central business district in about six years.
Moore said the designs for the square, prepared by Sydney design practice JPW and landscape architects ASPECT Studios and to be published today, would mitigate rising urban heat.
“The trees and the water element will create a cooling environment for people to meet and greet or come to celebrations we might hold there,” Moore said. “I’m really thrilled that it’s very Sydney.
“It’s another change that will be fantastic for the city, and I think when people see it they will fall in love with it.”
Moore said the 4200-square-metre plaza would feature eucalypts, moving water, seating and circular paving patterns to provide an outdoor venue for large events and celebrations including markets, festivals, concerts and sporting event live-sites. The square will have an Aboriginal name.
“We’ve reached a point where we’ve acquired the buildings, we’ve saved the money, we’re ready to go.”
JPW director Matthew Morel said the “uniquely Sydney” square would “provide generous, flexible civic space found in the world’s great cities”. ASPECT Studios global design director Sacha Coles said night lighting would boost safety, and the square would be “a stage for Sydney’s civic life”.
The City of Sydney has been planning for more than 40 years to demolish the Woolworths block and six other buildings to create a new public domain.
In February, Moore signalled her ambition to start demolition work for the square – which had previously been delayed for another decade – before the council term ends in 2028.
Between 1985 and 2019, the council acquired six of the seven properties required for the project, starting with the Woolworths building on the corner of George and Park streets. Negotiations are under way for the council to compulsorily acquire the final building, home to a Foot Locker shoe store, on George Street.
Councillors endorsed the proposed scope of works for the project, allowing it to proceed to the next stage of concept design, planning approvals and construction. When the development application is submitted next month, there will be an opportunity for public comment on the draft designs.
The Central Sydney Planning Committee will decide the application. The square is due to be completed in 2031.
Labor councillor Yvonne Weldon has opposed the project due to its steep cost, telling a council meeting earlier this year the project was putting the organisation under “serious financial stress”, and the public plaza would “come at the cost of other projects and programs”.
“I’m all about improving and expanding our public spaces, but to me, this just doesn’t stack up.”
Business Sydney executive director Paul Nicolaou, a staunch critic, has also warned the project would weaken the city’s economic core when it needed more investment and jobs.
“The proposal would require the demolition of an active commercial building at significant cost, followed by the further expense of constructing and maintaining a new civic plaza. At a time when governments and cities face competing infrastructure, transport, housing and safety priorities, it is difficult to justify such expenditure, particularly when the city already has substantial public open space,” Nicolaou has said.
The council says it has allocated $150 million for design, demolition and construction. All costs for the square, including those associated with the termination of existing leases and funds to acquire the final property, have been factored into long-term financial plans.
Moore said the council would need to invest more than $200 million to upgrade the existing buildings to modern office standards so they could be rented – a spend she said would be “crazy”.
“It was the same when we pedestrianised George Street – [critics said] it was too costly, it shouldn’t happen,” she said.
“Private investment in George Street [since then] has been $8 billion; we anticipate this square will be an enhancement for people wanting to visit, work and invest.”
Woolworths has said the Town Hall outlet is its most visited supermarket nationally, drawing 6.5 million customers a year.
Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said the council’s “once-in-a-generation” project would create a landmark, attracting investment and visitors and potentially changing “the way people experience this part of the city”.
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