We’ve been waiting 30 years; we can wait a little longer to make sure it absolutely sings.
Urban squares are rarely memorable for what they intend or contain; more for what they allow.
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What surrounds squares is key to their meaning; squares are defined by their edges, and surrounding uses animate them.
Let’s consider two examples.
No doubt in the minds of its dedicators, Russia’s victory in “the Great Patriotic War” deserved the vast open space commemoration of Park Pobedy (see title image).
Park Pobedy offers horizons that extend to Siberia, its edges defined by a motorway. Its icy windswept desolation (stifling in summer), repels any authentic patriotic occupation and, instead, unintentionally yet appropriately conveys the utter bleakness and futility of war
Now consider St Mark’s Square in Venice, which also celebrates conquest, though of a different kind.
Its intricate paving patterns are the set-out markers for regular market stalls. Complemented by the extensive arcades framing more permanent commerce on three sides, together they express the mercantile success of the city.
The two columns at the Grand Canal frontage are handy war-booty entrance markers to the square from the water – and for staging executions, a feature fortunately no longer necessary in Sydney.
The Doges’ Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica – literal earthly and heavenly seats – express the maritime power of the Venetian state, which endured for over 1000 years.
What is the conceptual context of Town Hall Square?
Carlo Ratti reminds us that public squares are, fundamentally, “civic instruments”. Debates about the nature of public urbanity are as important as the final physical form of squares.
The proposed completion date – 2031 – is significant because it marks the end of the City’s inspirational 25-year plan, originally called Sustainable Sydney 2030.
That plan fundamentally claimed that central city municipalities – frequently dismissed as the lowest formal tier of government in Australia – play outsized roles in the economic success of our cities.
Because they manage and shape the public realm, councils (not state or national governments) are pivotal to making our cities attractive, well functioning spaces that appeal to and retain the fickle expert talent essential to successful high value service economies like Sydney’s.
To illustrate, the City of Sydney local government area accounts for around 6-7 per cent of our national – yes, national – economy.
So, the idea that this role deserves some form of spatial commemoration makes sense as a celebration of the role of “good governance” in our economic wellbeing – currently a rather contested notion, what with current ICAC reports and America’s wobbles.
The location also makes sense. Sydney’s seat of local government is close to the geometric centre of a “CBD” that now extends from Central Station to Circular Quay.
Well, what is proposed?
However, the merit of the current proposal starts to crumble on closer examination, as the following promotional image reveals.
This view looking eastwards shows the proposed square behind Town Hall, its clock tower centred over the square.
The promotional text claims that this open space edged by vegetation and cooling fountains will provide a new central meeting space in Sydney, axially centred on the Town Hall – a common compositional device to project and amplify gravitas and power.
Yet, the most striking feature within this image is the sheer scale and height of the surrounding city, which utterly overwhelms the existing and proposed civic assets.
Further, the gift of its “green” and “space” barely registers against the surrounding buildings, nor even rivals that alongside Town Hall (admittedly a consequence of the perspective of this image).
Worse, the diminutive copse of trees looks more like the virtue-signalling of “plop art” fronting those bland office buildings keen to project public mindedness.
Yet and most tellingly, the symmetrical design of this mini-forest and open space is obviously truncated by the through-road of Park Street (left side in this image), unintentionally confirming that road traffic remains the overriding determinant of Sydney’s urban form.
So, Malcom Knox has a point. What is it about full-frontal views of Town Hall that would durably enthral passers-by? If landscape is the draw, Hyde Park offers larger more generously vegetated open spaces, just around the corner.
Though nice, the proposed new Town Hall Square risks rapidly becoming a pointless mediocre left-over, its spatial generosity soon ceded to the pigeons.
Well, what should it be?
Since the publication of Sustainable Sydney 2030, the George Street light rail extension was constructed (visible in the foreground of the above image).
Originally conceived as part of a study commissioned by Council from Denmark’s Jan Gehl, the purpose was to provide a pedestrian-oriented axis running from Central Station to Circular Quay, with the not-so-hidden intention of severing disruptive cross-peninsula traffic.
Likewise, the Sydney metro has been installed through Sydney. High-density development above the stations is underway or complete.
The proposed square would sit between the persistently overcrowded Town Hall suburban rail station – which hosts all the lines that pass through Central Station – and the new Gadigal metro station, yet unlike Central, there is no direct interchange link between these services.
A clear opportunity therefore exists for Town Hall Square to host excavation to link the two below Pitt Street and also aid decongestion at Town Hall station.
Opportunities are not confined to rail.
The Park Street traffic deformation actually hints at a greater opportunity for Town Hall Square.
Opened more than two decades ago, Sydney’s Cross City Tunnel originated in a promise to ease cross-city traffic congestion along the William and Park Streets axis.
Yet the urban improvements promised by the tunnel were never delivered, presaging a similar betrayal of unfulfilled WestConnex assurances for Paramatta Road.
The two Cross City tunnels run about 21 metres below the proposed Town Hall Square surface – the west bound route along the Park Street alignment; the east bound beneath Bathurst Street.
Any excavation to improve Metro and suburban rail connectivity would, if deepened, provide opportunity for enlargement to accommodate bus interchanges for those longer distance routes that crossed the peninsula.
Likewise, cross city road traffic would not be disadvantaged if the surface routes were closed at Pitt and York Streets and the original benefits of the Cross City Tunnel were finally delivered.
Thus, an enlarged Town Hall Square could then be bounded by the southern end of the Queen Victoria Building, Town Hall, Sydney Square (that area between Town Hall and St Andrews Cathedral), and The Galleries shopping centre. Town Hall Station exits could then emerge safely within this space.
Town Hall Square could thus become a valuable and useful interchange point for light rail, metro rail, and suburban rail.
Plainly, this could only be achieved in partnership with the State government. However, this kind of cooperation underpinned the whole Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision and was essential to the delivery of projects like the George Street light rail extension.
So, what should the square itself contain?
Though well designed and no doubt very nice, not a mini-forest!!!
Unlike other cities, Sydney’s developable area is tightly constrained on three sides by parks and the harbour and the fourth by rail infrastructure. Land scarcity is a constant in the city’s development.
Benefiting from Sydney’s maximum allowed building heights, the land for Town Hall Square is amongst the city’s most valuable – and is owned by ratepayers.
As a demonstration of the goals it championed, the Sustainable Sydney 2030 good governance and building sustainability principles should be applied to Town Hall Square itself.
The project should be subject to stringent economic appraisal before any decision to convert it into a park; we would expect the same economic discipline from other government agencies.
As to its physical form, let’s consider another example.
Recalling Malcom Knox’s admiration of small cities, Paul Veerhoven’s raunchy medieval nun-romp, “Benedetta” was set in Bevagna, Italy.
When not overrun by film crews, its town square is utterly memorable, bounded by two ancient churches and a theatre. Not a blade of greenery pokes through its rough paving. Its only furnishings are a stone well and a small broken column next to cafe.
How could these lessons be applied to Town Hall Square?
Rather than petering out facing the backs of neighbouring buildings, Town Hall Square is emphatically urban and needs well defined edges accommodating meaningful uses, so here’s a suggestion.
Council should finish the southern edge of Town Hall Square with a slender building of similar height to the tower above The Galleries, with the open square extending between them.
Targeted with tenancies for local, state, and national government agencies, it could become a symbol of democratic government services at the literal and symbolic centre of the city.
Bounded by existing heritage buildings, the resultant larger square between the two towers would literally be at Sydney’s urban crossroads and have genuine access, purpose and definition, thus becoming the genuine meeting place that recent announcements have in mind.
Further, built to current sustainability standards – think of Atlassian’s “plyscraper” nearing completion at Central Station, the Alex Tzannes designed ground-scraper at Barangaroo and Melbourne’s Council House 2 – the building would emphatically express Council’s sustainability ambitions.
With traffic diverted below grande and a genuine central city transport interchange, the mental image of a Town Hall Square so configured would comprise a positive permanent urban legacy extending well beyond its immediate location, much like Melbourne’s Federation Square.
It would be truly memorable.
Yeah … but nah
Donald Horne’s “The lucky country” and Juliette Schultze’s “The idea of Australia” both lament the lack of ambition in many of this nation’s affairs, including the form of our cities.
Half-hearted fulfilment of our many golden opportunities is the dark side to our notorious “she’ll be right, mate” attitude. Sadly, this it too often true for Sydney.
If built as proposed, Town Hall Square would memorialise a failure of aspiration and venerate instead the real urban government of Sydney, the motor vehicle. The “tail” of Sydney’s roads would again wag the Sydney “dog”.
The Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision would thus not conclude with a gloriously emphatic exclamation mark, just a desultory full stop.
