MUDD 21 - City Visions II

Bathurst Street Cross Axis Urban Design Framework

The study identified four redevelopment sites and proposed four related public domain upgrades connected to the future multi-modal transit hub at Town Hall. Although each urban design framework was conceived as a ‘stand alone’ guide to a new level of development intensity and a new public domain in their respective study areas, it is recommended that the proposals be considered simultaneously as an integrated development of the overall Town Hall precinct. Given the nature of the sites, their development potential, potential to enhance pedestrian connectivity east-west and north-south, and potential to increase the civic space around Town Hall, an integrated development linked to the big infrastructure moves of the Light Rail and Sydney Metro would dramatically transform the civic heart of Sydney.

Urban design framework

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It was found that in combination, these proposals would add 3,642 residents, 1,821 apartments, 7,730 employees, 93,141sqm of commercial floor space, 52,833sqm of retail floor space and 1,940 hotel rooms to the Town Hall precinct, creating a new ‘Midtown’ of diversity and interest between the Queen Victoria Building and Chinatown. Compared to the northern sector of Central Sydney above Park Street, the Bathurst Street Cross Axis was found to be deficient in pedestrian space, hotels, high-quality arts and entertainment facilities and high quality retail uses. The Studio proposals have addressed these deficiencies through an inter-related set of development scenarios that envision a Grand Central/Midtown level of commercial and cultural development, New York-style around a grand transit concourse.