PARRAMATTA QUAY WINS AWARD
02 Jul 2012
The 2012 Australia Award for Urban Design has been awarded to McGregor Coxall for its Parramatta River Urban Design Strategy.
The Prime Ministers Australia Awards for urban design were announced June 26 at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, with urban design and landscape architecture practice, McGregor Coxall, announced as a winner.
The company received the Australia Award for Urban Design 2012 - Policies, Programs and Concepts - Small Scale’ category for its highly acclaimed Parramatta River Urban Design Strategy in Sydney.
According to Adrian McGregor, “The strategy proposes to create ‘Parramatta Quay’ as the sister to ‘Circular Quay’, revitalising the western most point of Sydney Harbour and creating a vibrant riverfront urban quarter for living, working, dining and entertainment.”
“Australian cities need to make much greater use of their wonderful waterfronts citing Oslo and Hamburg as good examples for waterfront regeneration,” said Adrian.
McGregor Coxall was commissioned by Parramatta Council to prepare an urban regeneration plan in 2011 for a kilometre of CBD riverfront, encompassing a 31 ha site. The strategy re-orientates the city back to the river and establishes four new vibrant mixed use River Quarters that bring urban activity back to the banks of the River. The plan proposes to move the existing ferry terminal 500m upstream into the heart of the CBD to create “Parramatta Quay”, the sister to Circular Quay. Serviced by a fleet of small fast ferries the Quay would become a major water based transport and civic hub for Western Sydney. The ecological functions of the river would also be repaired in the plan.
The Australia Award for Urban Design was created by Prime Minister Paul Keating’s Urban Design Taskforce and was first awarded in 1996. Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard MP, is the patron of the Australia Award for Urban Design. The award recognises urban design projects of high quality in Australia and encourages cities, towns and emerging settlements to strive for improvement. It acknowledges the critical role of good urban design in the efficient and effective development of our cities and towns.
McGregor Coxall’s success at the Planning Institute of Australia awards is the 54th award in Urban Design and Landscape Architecture the company has won in 10 years.
For more information visit: www.mcgregorcoxall.com
