Minister for Cities Rob Stokes has announced that Sydney Central is to be re-vamped, with glass roof-lights to the Grand Concourse, pop-up retail, hospitality and events, and landscaping and outdoor furniture.

TAHE CEO Benedicte Colin says Sydney Terminal Building Revitalisation project will "turn the station into a global, modern destination with exciting retail, bar and dining options, better outdoor spaces for travellers to unwind while improving accessibility options to the station.”

The revamp is part of the Central Precinct Renewal Program, the new precinct over the rail yards at Sydney's Central Station, as seen in an enticing flythrough that reveals the vision for a bold, new neighbourhood to the south of the CBD.

Whilst there’s much to like about the master plan and the proposed station activation, this is a missed opportunity to leverage Central Station as a vital ingredient of place-making. It fails the historic station by diminishing its inherent value.

Central Station is the catalyst for the new over-rail development and should be its beating heart. One of the world’s busiest stations, it delivers millions of people from the country and suburbs alike to the doorstep of the city. Its historic buildings are rich in social heritage and deeply embedded in the communal memory of our city. Physically, the station’s scale, materials and architecture create a unique sense of place. Central is what gives this pocket of Sydney its identity.

Yet the master plan pushes the proposed over rail deck hard up against Central’s southern perimeter, taking away its breathing space and showing it little regard. The dramatic level change between the station and the proposal is addressed by steep banks of stairs which lead up from the Grand Concourse, visually and physically disconnecting the station from the new precinct. The station is effectively reduced to a funnel for people.

This lack of acknowledgement for the station and its role over time means the over-rail development simply overrides it, in some places literally.

A more careful understanding of Walter Liberty Vernon’s nineteenth-century original masterplan and terminus hints at other solutions. The objective must be to enhance the station as a connected - not isolated - destination, connecting neighbourhoods across the station, Surry Hills to Chippendale and Ultimo, Haymarket to Redfern, and presenting the station as an attractor that will anchor this new place to the city.

Our vision would look to connect more broadly to the landscape, creating a natural sequence of terraces, spaces and places that merge the station and its neighbourhood into the new precinct rather than the station being disconnected from the over rail deck above.

It should be a contemporary extension of the station, creating places to pause, connect, dine, and recharge, capitalising on what exists and respecting the station's scale, materials and history. The people of Sydney have been using the station in this way for more than a century. Central Station should be invited to the party, not left at the door.

The model for this is Kings Cross in London, where John McAslan + Partners was responsible for the design of a striking steel canopy described as one of London’s most successful place-making initiatives. Forming an iconic gateway to an adjacent, large-scale urban redevelopment, Kings Cross demonstrates the value of rail stations as more than just places to move people from A to B. They are equitable, public spaces that should benefit and connect the community and be given their rightful role within the city's social fabric.

We are excited by the potential of the over-rail development to contribute to the future urban grain of Sydney and connect east and west. Let’s be mindful of creating places where people want to be and think carefully about how these places feel on the ground at a human scale; how they connect more broadly; and what they give back to the city over time. Working with and enhancing what exists is not only more sustainable, it will also go a long way to retaining what is 'uniquely Sydney' and ensuring that the new precinct will truly benefit the city's people.

Image: Supplied

By Troy Uleman of John McAslan + Partners

Branko Miletic

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