Our work in the infrastructure field started in 1975 with a visual impact study of the proposed Geelong Freeway, involving the hand drawn depiction of the journey along two alternate routes, carefully illustrated by perspective drawings every 100 meters of the journey. This was ground-breaking at the time and helped all involved to visualize the impact each proposal may have. How different to the techniques employed today.
With NorthConnex due to open mid 2020 we are reaching a milestone with the design of this major piece of city infrastructure, enabling travel between Newcastle and Melbourne without having to stop at a single traffic light. Not only will it have a significant impact on travel times north of Sydney, but through the design of buildings, landscapes and tunnel interiors it will make a huge contribution to the perception of the city.
We are also excited that the Urban Design and Landscape Plan (UDLP) for WestConnex M4-M5 Link Mainline Tunnels is also out on display from early December, which epitomises an amazing collaboration between art, architecture and engineering to create a new legacy on how infrastructure urban design projects are perceived.
On the NSW south coast, Bateman’s Bay Bridge across the Clyde River is under construction and is due for completion in 2023. The bridge replaces the old steel, opening bridge, improving traffic flow in peak times and providing new parks and access to the river’s foreshores.
It was pleasing to see our work on heritage adaptation of the Scottish Hospital win the 2019 Urban Developer’s Industry Excellence Award for Development of the Year – Retirement, Aged Care and Seniors Living, part of the redevelopment of The Terraces in Paddington. The original Terraces Villa, built by for John Kinchella (1777 – 1835) an early Attorney General and Judge, was later expanded to become the Scottish Hospital and has been adapted as independent living units as part of the overall development by Presbyterian Aged Care.
Our Urban Design of metropolitan cities and regional centres continues with the preparation of the North Sydney Civic Precinct and Surrounds Planning Study, the Armidale Plan 2040 strategic plan and the preparation of designs for Town Gateways and Wayfinding Signs for the Parkes Bypass for Transport for NSW. We continue to provide Urban Design support for The Northern Road upgrade, currently under construction, an important feeder road for Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport.
We continued to strike new territory with our contributions to Vivid 2019, with three installations, designed by our young team and executed with the assistance of our associate company, Street Furniture Australia. Harmony, Nostalgia Above and Let it Snow were recognized as outstanding contributions to this world wide lighting spectacle, with Harmony and Nostalgia Above winning IES Lighting Awards. So congratulations to our team.
On a similar note of collaboration we assisted Street Furniture Australia in the preparation of ChillOUT, an Australian Government Smart Cities project undertaken in partnership with the University of New South Wales, with three prototype hubs being installed for the George’s River Council. The innovative hubs are smart open air community spaces, offering solar power, WiFi and power connections together with a smart asset management dashboard all contained within a contemporary, urban shade structure.
With the evolution of the practice over the past 12 months we are pleased to celebrate a number of key promotions within our staff structure including Dick Nugent as Design Director, Ranti Ng as Financial Director, Weston Willard as Commercial Manager, Will Wang and Martin Virveste as Associates and Stephanie Qiu as Senior Urban Designer.
Director of CM+, Bill looks back at some of the projects the practice have worked on in 2019.