Grimshaw Architects has proposed a revolutionary development on the site of Sydney’s Domain car park, which would see four new performance halls built to cement Sydney’s place as the arts capital of the country.

The proposal would additionally see the renewal of Woolloomooloo as well as additional hospitality, commercial and housing developments. Floated by Grimshaw, the blueprint includes a lyric theatre, Indigenous cultural centre and a rehearsal space, which were all identified as major needs in Infrastructure NSW’s 2016 Cultural Infrastructure Strategy.

Grimshaw believes that Sydney requires a reinvigoration of its cultural output, and that key personnel lack “an understanding of how to animate public life through the integration of culture, commerce, community and civic places.”

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Grimshaw has made the proposal known to a number of government bodies and developers for many years, knowing it would take many years to plan and deliver. The practice hopes that the western and south-east Metro lines can be paired up in future years, with a new station in close proximity to the Domain sitting below the future precinct.

Committee for Sydney Chief Executive Gabriel Metcalf says the vision is exciting but the city must remediate past mistakes in order to realise it.

“The Domain is part of the spiritual core of Sydney, so you have to always be really careful when you’re working in and around the Domain,” he tells the Sydney Morning Herald.

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“But previous generations of Sydneysiders already made the grave error of putting the motorway right through the middle of it. There are some mistakes from the past that need healing.”

The state government has been looking for potential theatre sites for sometime, with Grimshaw Grimshaw Managing Partner Andrew Cortese of the belief that the eastern suburbs site is ideal for development.

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“We can’t have an under-utilised part of our city within a 500-metre distance of the centre for the CBD,” he says.

Rezoning estimated at $2 billion would assist in paying for the development.

Jarrod Reedie

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