First, remove the ugly enclosing transport ramparts that create such cramped spaces. With lessons from underground metros, we could bury infrastructure rather than political ambition. With the railway underground, now we can remove the Cahill Expressway. The Sydney Harbour tunnel, and the volume of car traffic it delivers, renders the upper-level road, and its reduced traffic, unnecessary.
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The deceptively huge area between the wharves and the buildings could be a magnificent urban space. The dynamics of throngs entering and exiting the city by bus and ferry have always been exciting. My memories as a teenager arriving from the dull north shore, past the Opera House under construction, through the city gateway, spurred my long love of cities and architecture. The space is perfect for that dynamism, with a backdrop of the heritage Customs House and the gorgeously revamped AMP building, Sydney’s first skyscraper, and museums and cultural buildings on the flanks.
Imagine the shade and sounds of a wild grove of trees, maybe recalling the original landscape, that filters the air, and people to the water. Also perfect for large gatherings, this space has everything the police identified as a problem for the Palestinian protest at the Opera House, our other great public space. It’s big and accessible.
The Maritime Union of Australia says architects are to blame for not being practical. Au contraire, I say. Architects have always had grand visions for what Circular Quay could be, should be.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore has long advocated for an urban square at Town Hall, demolishing the current Woolworths and other buildings. But that would have nothing of the qualities of a sun-filled, open-air space with magnificent finger wharves reaching out into the “wet piazza” at Circular Quay.
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It’s the front door, and departure point, for Sydney. Finally, we could have something as a worthy next-door neighbour to our magnificent Opera House.
Tone Wheeler is president of the Australian Architecture Association and the design director of environa studio, which specialises in social and sustainable architecture.
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