Development of Sydney Barangaroo

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Physical features
Design
Sustainability
Risks and delays
Financial Aspects
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Barangaroo is reckoned to be the last development of its size that forms the natural extension to the development of Sydney. Barangaroo has all the essential elements, which include scale, size and significance, to see Sydney stand tall as a global city. Sydney is a vital city in Australia, serving as the headquarters of many foreign and domestic banks, which employ a god fraction of their citizens. Approval of the Barangaroo project would help to enhance the standing of Sydney and Australia in their endeavour to acquire international and domestic investment, capital and leaders. This can only be achieved through the continued supply of premium office space with high sustainability standards (Barangaroo Concept Plan Modification 7 ).

Physical features

The Barangaroo development has taken into consideration the world-class sustainable standards, namely the carbon neutral, waste and water positive aspects. The leading sustainable practices put in place during Barangaroo’s development will benefit future sustainable developments across Sydney and the country. Barangaroo is capable of delivering about 100,000 square metres of mixed residential space that can offer around 800 new dwellings in the precinct. The accommodation of this significant residential population will work to activate the precinct beyond the working week. The inclusion of cultural space throughout the three precincts of Barangaroo can potentially help to activate Barangaroo and enrich the area for all dwellers. If approved and properly facilitated, Barangaroo also presents the city with a new western gateway to the CBD at West Quay. The ferry, bus and cycling links that are proposed will help connect Barangaroo with the CBD – and improve accessibility to the grounds. The new light rail links connecting Barangaroo directly with the Inner West are essential in servicing the potential workforce/ as well as other visitors to the site (Barangaroo Concept Plan Modification 33). Since the land is community based, the Barangaroo development project aims at ensuring a minimum of 10% affordable residential for the city workers.

Design

Barangaroo development will transform an unoccupied 22 hectare industrial site into a new arcade for Sydney with a new public Headland Park on the harbour and a thriving community, residential and commercial heart. On its completion, Barangaroo will significantly enhance the city’s economic, cultural and open space recreational qualities. The development is approximated to cost $6 billion, whose main role will be to augment Sydney’s standing as an Asia Pacific financial services hub. A prestige hotel, other visitor accommodation, extensive ground level retail and secondary services, together with an increased residential proportion including an affordable housing sub-proportion) of a total floor area is also supported in principle (Barangaroo Concept Plan Modification 35).

The concept plan incorporated an additional 120,000 square metres of glass floor area, intended for the predicted high population owing to improvements made on public transport via rail capacity, such as the CBD Metro and new connections such as the Kent Street pedestrian tunnel link to Wynyard, in addition to the ferry hub and light rail. Distribution of the commercial floor plates is such that the largest floor plates are located on the low-rise and gradually reducing in size towards the upper levels. The heights of the buildings are adjusted such that there is minimal negative impact such as over shadowing, wind impacts, active edges, and envelope bulk, by having the bulky commercial towers transition in height rising upwards from south to north and in reducing form factor from east to west (Barangaroo Concept Plan Modification 40).

Sustainability

The City seeks a commitment from the State Government and the Proponent to work with the City, and potential partnering organisations, to deliver Economically Sustainable Development (ESD) outcomes. Given that Barangaroo presents a key opportunity to become an international example of Sydney’s commitment to environmental sustainability, and the limited potential of current officer level Technical Working Groups to deliver required outcomes, it is recommended that a leadership group be convened comprising representatives of the City, energy, water and waste authorities and the Department of Premier and Cabinet to deliver sustainability as a key outcome of the Barangaroo redevelopment. Barangaroo is integral to the proposed low carbon zone in the City’s northern CBD and should therefore have the ability to interconnect with any nearby city based decentralised utility scheme. The City requires the Proponent’s commitment to provide an appropriate area in a basement location as district hub or base for green infrastructure including tri-generation, evacuated waste and water related infrastructure, and the commitment must be documented at the Concept Plan stage through approval conditions or other means (Barangaroo 1).

Risks and delays

A concept plan was approved after the design competition for the site in 2005, by the then Minister for Planning on 9 February 2007. That Concept Plan was later modified and approved in September 2007, and again in February 2009 and November 2009. These modifications have been controversial. Since September 2006 there has been a push to “redesign” Hills Thallis’ winning scheme and to exclude them from the Concept Plan development. In a way, the challenges with the Barangaroo site mirror the problems the community has faced generally with the introduction of part 3A, the major projects section. The idea behind the move was to fast track major State projects in an effort to promote economic growth (Barangaroo Concept Plan Modification 43).

The main effect was the removal of key projects and critical infrastructure projects from assessment and approval under EP&A Act, and give control of these projects to the Minister (Barangaroo Concept Plan Modification 43).

Financial Aspects

The Australians for Sustainable Development, AfSD specified the inadequacies and flaws in the current plans for Barangaroo, exposing the gross overdevelopment of the southern section, and the negative consequences that arise from it. A submission made by Dr Campbell argued that: the cumulative effect of the Concept Plan modifications led to significant additional profits for the developer, but eroded the expected financial return to the NSW Government and created serious contamination and transport costs that could transform the project into a financial disaster for the Government (AfSD 32).

As a result, there were amendments made to the concept plan, which added significant costs to the Government, in providing the necessary infrastructure. Estimates made by AfSD indicated that extra costs to the Government of constructing Keating’s cove and headland, relocating the cruise ship terminal and attempting to provide transport infrastructure would be more than $700 million. In seeking to recoup some of these costs, the Government approved an additional 180,000 square metres of GFA, which will yield the Government an increase in virtual profit of $810 million, assuming a profit rate of $4,500 per square metre, deferred for many years (AfSD 34).

Conclusion

It is important for the Government to ensure that sufficient funding is available and procurement mechanisms are in place to deliver on the required infrastructure. The Government needs to deliver on key infrastructure links to the precinct if Barangaroo is to truly fulfil the mandate and vision established by Government.

Barangaroo remains an essential element of Sydney’s development into a world class city (Barangaroo 1).

Works Cited

AfSD. “AfSD Submission to the Independent Review of Barangaroo.” Australians for Sustainable Development (2011): 6-37. Print.

Barangaroo. Barangaroo Review. 2012. Web.

“Barangaroo Concept Plan Modification.” City of Sydney (2010): 8-86. Print.

Click Here To Order Now!