East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): East Circular Quay 'Ideas Quest' (1992)

Source: Sydney City Council. 1992. "East Circular Quay 'Ideas Quest'" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph Mirror, January 6: 12.   

A fortnight ago, I posted Colonial Mutual Limited's (CML) proposal to build a $700 million commercial development at East Circular Quay in 1991. Sydney City Council rejected the proposal because it did not comply with the site's planning guidelines.

This led to Sydney City Council reviewing the site's planning guidelines. In January 1992, it invited the public to submit ideas on how the site should be developed. Architect Ken Woolley assessed the submissions. 

In March 1992, the submissions were placed on public exhibition. 

Source: Sydney City Council. 1992. "Exhibition of the East Circular Quay Ideas Quest". The Daily Telegraph Mirror, February 29: 23. 

Below is a feature article from The Daily Telegraph Mirror featuring some of the submissions.

Source: Bye, C. 1992. "Quay shapes up for the future". The Daily Telegraph Mirror, March 4: page unknown.

Following the exhibition, new guidelines were drawn by the panel led by Ken Woolley. For the site owned by Colonial Mutual Limited (CML), a maximum height limit of 42.5 metres was set, which was lower than four of the buildings that either occupied the site or had been demolished. South of Moore Steps, future development would be capped at a maximum of 65 metres. 

Source: O'Brien, G. 1992. "No great heights at Quay site". The Sydney Morning Herald, June 10: 4. 

The guidelines also recommended:

• Provision of a cultural facility
• Utilise part of the existing roadway for pedestrian use
• Ground and lower floors to accommodate restaurants, retail, entertainment and tourist facilites.
• Possible use of land under Macquarie Street for public use. 

The National Institute of Architects objected to the new guidelines.

Source: Anon. 1992. "Architects call for new Quay design". The Sydney Morning Herald, June 11: 8. 

As I will be away during the school holiday period, I will have two Remember This? entries for the next two Mondays and will resume this series on May 6.

Entries in this series

1. East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): The first apartment block proposal (1979)
2. East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): Opera Garden Centre Scheme (1984)
3. East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): Unilever House Hotel Conversion (1986)
4. East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): Opera Garden Centre Scheme Revisited (1986)
5. East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): Unilever House Hotel Conversion (1987)
6. East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): CML's 1990 Scheme
7. East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): CML's Bennelong Centre (1991)
8. East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): East Circular Quay Redevelopment (Series): The Revolving Office Tower Scheme (1991)

VISIONS OF SYDNEY: Sydney, 2001 as envisioned by Jeremy Bingham (1989)

For the next five weeks, I will run another Visions of Sydney series,  posting entries our planners or leaders had in mind for our city, whether it involved widespread redevelopment within the Sydney CBD and surrounds or new developments in our suburbs.

The first entry focuses on a vision by Lord Mayor Jeremy Bingham (1988-1991). In 1989 he revealed to The Daily Mirror what he wanted to see in Sydney by 2001.

 

Firstly, he envisioned what has become the Cross City Tunnel. His plan was featured in a blog entry last year. It was not until 2005 that the tunnel became reality. It has not necessarily seen the removal of traffic from Bathurst Street and Park Street or William Street.

The Capitol Theatre was restored during the 1990's and his vision for wider footpaths has been fulfilled.in recent decades along with more garden settings i.e. plant boxes, though not all of it was undertaken by 2001.

Another vision was the tram revival. Unfortuantely, there was no tram service between Central and Circular Quay until 2019, but it was possible to travel from Darling Harbour to Central from 1997 which used most of the former goods line running along the rear of Darling Harbour and Pyrmont. 

However the electric bus loop and fast inner-city loop services were not fulfilled. 

1995: McDonald's proposal for Moore Park

In the mid-1990's McDonalds wanted to build a store at Moore Park (Corner of Anzac Parade & Lang Park). South Sydney council refused their development application and the burger giant took them to the NSW Land and Environment Court. This had the support of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust.

Source: Skelsey, Michael. 1995. "Council bites back at burger giant." The Daily Telegraph Mirror, July 7: 18.

There was opposition to the outlet by locals and local state MP Clover Moore (Bligh). But what happened next? It ended up going to the NSW Court of Appeal and council was reordered to assess the application because it was a park "refreshment room" (Doesn't really look like one). By 2002 no new application had been made and since then nothing.

Clover Moore who was the member for Bligh (later renamed Sydney) and current Lord Mayor of Sydney has kept a webpage with an overview of the plans if you want to read a little more. One person mentioned has landed himself in some strife lately with businessmen.

2000: Hiding Sydney's "Holes in the Ground"

The collapse of the property market in the early 1990s led to the shelving of construction projects in central Sydney. Many of the sites had been excavated with no major construction. World Square was lucky to have parts of the basement built and a section of one of the four proposed towers.

Obviously, this led to the streetscape in sections of the city looking unappealing. However the Olympics led to a building boom during the late 1990s and still some sites were left empty.

Sydney City Council felt that the swarms of tourists descending on Sydney would be embarrassed by this sight and came up with a plan to erect temporary shops at street level at those sites as part of preparing the city for the Olympics.

One such site was the former site of the Regent Theatre (now Lumiere Residences). Seven temporary shops were constructed and lasted until 2004 when Frasers were able to commence construction on the site of a residential high-rise tower and a serviced apartment tower.

Here is a photo I took of the temporary shops in early 2003. Bookstores eventually moved to Railway Square. It is no longer there but Basement Books ensures that you can still get yourselves a cheap read.

Photo was taken by the Author. 

1972: Wynyard's Double Decker Walkways

As Sydneysiders know, Wynyard is one of Sydney's busiest railway stations and has been getting busier by the year. In the early 1970's, the footpaths in streets around the station were getting congested and it was proposed that double-decker walkways could be the answer.

Source: Anonymous. 1972. "Threat to Million Dollar Plan For Wynyard". The Daily Telegraph, August 19: 17. 

There were also plans to provide underground retail complexes that would link the station. The Hunter Connection when completed about a decade later, would include a link along with the Metcentre. The render above shows an artists impression of the retail complex that would be above the concourse of the station. That did not eventuate for two decades.

Also, it is mentioned that the scheme could be "wrecked" due to plans for a Telephone Exchange in the block bounded by Erskine, Kent, Margaret & Clarence Streets. The Exchange did get built, closer to Erskine Street and a walkway was built through to Kent Street, minus the retail (apart from one shopfront at the Kent Street end, and one small space under Clarence Street.

That is now forming the new Wynyard Walk which will link the station with Barangaroo.

NEVER BUILT SYDNEY: The never ending saga of 33 Bligh Street (Kindersley House) - 1989

I walk past a vacant 33 Bligh Street in central Sydney, and I eagerly await the construction of the new electricity substation plus a new office tower.

Above: 33 Bligh Street as of June 2014. 

Photos were taken by the Author.

It has been a long saga and it goes all the way back to 1989 when a $110 million office tower was proposed and approved. It never got off the ground.

Source: Mossop, J. 1989. "$110m office tower," The Daily Telegraph, June 23: page unknown.

As the 1990s progressed, the proposals evolved and we ended up with a 235 metre, 52 storey tower proposed for the site. I took this photo back in 2002 at the City of Sydney Model Room at Town Hall. To achieve the height, a 12 storey atrium was created that allowed the apartments to be built higher. Without this atrium, the tower would have had to be shorter in order to comply with Sydney City Council's planning guidelines.

Above: The 52 level, 235 metre tower proposed for the site from the late 1990's/early 2000's. The model also shows the 12 storey atrium.

Photo taken by the Author.

It would have been an apartment tower and the tallest such tower in Sydney, beating the current tallest World Tower by five metres. The unique feature of the tower was that the apartments were to be located on silts stretching fifty metres high above Bligh Street.

Despite being approved by council, that fell through.

A few other proposals came and went like this one from 2007...

Source: skyscrapercity.com forum

In 2009, the State Government under Nathan Rees bought out the site for a proposed CBD metro rail line as it wanted to act as an entrance to a proposed Hunter Street metro station. This fell through. With the site in state hands, it was then decided to build an electricity substation to serve the electricity demands of the Sydney CBD. This has led to our current proposal. It will be 30 levels or 165 metres tall. The electricity substation will form the podium. The building is designed by Kannfinch.

Source: skyscrapercity.com forum.

What disappoints me about the proposal is that they could have allowed for even more space, but the tower needs to reflect Sydney City Council planning guidelines which have restricted the current proposal to its height. As mentioned, Bligh Apartments managed to get approved at the higher height because of the "stilts". I think the approach to the design would have worked more effectively with the additional height.

The Government and Council have in my view squandered a potential opportunity to utilise a city site to its full potential.

Above: Awaiting the rise of a tower.

Photo taken by the Author.

1988: Alan Bond's flamboyant demolition plan

In Sydney, implosions of major city skyscrapers are not permitted, but Alan Bond wanted to "blow up" the Commonwealth Office Building at Chifley Square, now home to Chifley Tower.

Never happened of course, but obviously he wanted it to be a spectacle.

I'm glad it never happened. I question the safety of implosions of such buildings, and the potential dangers they irk.

And to watch it come down, that would have been very hard to see given how built up that part of the city is.

Source: Bita, N. 1988. "Bond in bid to blast building," The Daily Telegraph, August 24:5.