BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Crown Towers, at 75 storeys, is now Sydney’s tallest building. As Dallas Rogers and Chris Gibson discuss, it should not exist, and certainly not where it is — in prime location on the harbour.
he redevelopment of the 22-hectare Barangaroo precinct was supposed to transform the former docklands into a worldclass example of architectural and public domain design. But giving Crown Resorts the goahead to build its skyscraper — containing a casino, hotel and luxury apartments — diminished the space set aside for parkland in the original concept plan and broke height limits. In June, ABC’s Four Corners program shed light on how the tower got approved, beginning with a 2012 lunch facilitated by radio celebrity Alan Jones between Crown Resorts’ majority shareholder James Packer and then
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NSW premier Barry O'Farrell. It is a familiar story of a culture of wealthy mates and backroom deals. It is also a story about the novel use of an obscure infrastructure approvals mechanism called ‘unsolicited proposals’ — or USPs for short — that circumvented established processes intended to protect the public interest. The Barangaroo tower has not just changed Sydney’s skyline. It has changed the whole planning system. As Four Corners related, in February 2012 Packer (one of Australia’s ten wealthiest individuals) asked his friend Jones to organise a meeting with O’Farrell. In Jones’s penthouse suite overlooking Sydney’s Circular Quay, they ate pies and mash while Packer outlined his vision for a $1 billion-plus
18 | Inner Sydney Voice | Spring 2021 | innersydneyvoice.org.au
hotel, casino and entertainment complex. How did Packer’s plan fit into the concept that won Hill Thalis Architecture the international design competition for Barangaroo? It didn’t. O'Farrell, pointed to the rigours of NSW’s urban planning process as a barrier to Packer’s idea. The premier “made the point that it wouldn’t be all that easy, but he embraced the vision”. Packer went public with his vision shortly after. Many objected. Then: With Packer’s project still facing significant opposition, premier Barry O’Farrell came up with a novel solution which he proposed at another private meeting in his office. The solution was to use an obscure
