It seems Circular Quay is more political graveyard than grand urban space. It’s descended so far that now we can’t even get the dilapidated and decrepit wharves brought up to a decent standard, despite the government spending $171 million to date.

That’s a lot of money just for planning. Failing wharves are just a microcosm of the need for better design and upkeep of Sydney’s urban spaces.

Once there was a vision of Circular Quay being the major urban square of Sydney. In 1989, when Winston Barnett arrived from the UK as the new professor at the architecture school at Sydney’s University of Technology, he saw an opportunity to develop the space as a “wet piazza”.

In early 1995, the then Liberal government held a competition to reimagine the entire area, looking for grand visions that could retain the Cahill Expressway and railway line.

The winning schemes featured a giant veranda overhanging the water’s edge, with upgraded wharves, and a Ponte Vecchio on the expressway.

One month after congratulating the winners (including your third-placed columnist), premier John Fahey lost the election. The ideas were shelved and disappeared (see below*).

Every state government since has declared the importance of Circular Quay as a major urban and infrastructure space.

As The Sydney Morning Herald’s editorial noted this week, the Liberal government of Mike Baird pursued plans for a broader redevelopment in 2015, promising to sell $200 million of government-owned waterfront property to pay for the upgrade.

It made the sales but delayed the plans. During the 2023 election campaign, Labor promised a $716 million upgrade of the ferry wharves and promenade, then scaled back the vision when it won power.

In a city that prides itself on its world-class harbour – with great adornments from the Finger Wharves of Walsh Bay to the long wharf in Woolloomooloo Bay (which Paul Keating, happily, was unable to demolish) and many fine private marinas – it is deeply ironic that we cannot get the most important land and water intersection right.

The issue is not just repair. They should be redeveloped as the grand wharves of Sydney. Three airy storeys with viewing areas and cafes, restaurants and public facilities on the upper levels, while ferries come and go into accessible, comfortable and enjoyable wharves. The brilliant work at Walsh Bay is the template. It should be the job of government, but maybe in these market-driven days we would have to resort to the rentals that could pay for it.

But wait, there’s more. Taller, longer and better-designed wharves are only the beginning. We could now set about making that grand waterside meeting space that Sydney so richly deserves.

First, remove the ugly enclosing transport ramparts that create such cramped spaces. With lessons from underground metros, we could bury infrastructure rather than political ambition. With the railway underground, now we can remove the Cahill Expressway.

The Harbour Tunnel, and the volume of traffic it delivers cross harbour, renders the upper-level road, and its reduced traffic, unnecessary

The deceptively huge area between the wharves and the buildings could be a magnificent urban space. The dynamics of throngs crossing through, entering and exiting the city by bus and ferry have always been exciting.

My memories as a teenager arriving from the dull north shore, past the Opera House under construction, through the city gateway, spurred on my long love of cities and architecture.

The space is perfect for that dynamism, with a backdrop of the heritage Customs House and the gorgeously revamped AMP building, Sydney’s first skyscraper, and museums and cultural buildings on the flanks. Imagine the shade and sounds of a wild grove of trees, maybe recalling the original landscape, that filters the air and people to the water.

Also perfect for large gatherings. This space has everything the police identified as a problem for the Palestinian protest at the Opera House, our other great public space. It’s big and all accessible.

The Maritime Union of Australia says architects are to blame for not being practical. Au contraire, I say.

Architects have always had grand visions for what Circular Quay could be, should be.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore has long advocated for an urban square at Town Hall, demolishing the current Woolworths and other buildings. But that would have nothing of the qualities of a sun-filled, open-air space with magnificent finger wharves reaching out into the “wet piazza” at Circular Quay.

It’s the front door and departure point for Sydney. Finally, we could have something as worthy as a next-door neighbour to our magnificent Opera House.

*The 1995 competition.

NSW Public Works, through Chris Johnson, the assistant Government Architect, ran the Circular Quay Ideas competition in early 1995. One stipulation was that the railway, the station, and the Cahill Expressway above had to remain. A realistic constraint 30 years ago, pre–Harbour Tunnel and modern boring machines. The media release in part:

Sydney architect Furio Valich's idea to turn the Cahill Expressway into a modern Ponte Vecchio by building a glass cover over its top and filling it with shops and restaurants enjoying one of the greatest views in Australia was awarded equal first prize by the Premier in the Circular Quay Urban Design Ideas Competition.

Another idea to turn the Cahill Expressway into a grandstand on the Harbour with a large, delicate roof, by Victorian architects Nonda Katsalidis and Karl Fender, received the other first prize given by the Premier to the winners of the Competition at a ceremony in the Museum of Contemporary Art today.

According to jury chair, Chris Johnson, both winning schemes open views to the water at street level by clearing out the clutter below the expressway and also widening the waterfront promenade area, providing a grand new place unifying the ground-level spaces.

The five-member jury selected 5 winners and 4 commendations from the 86 entries received in the Competition. Second prize went to Stephen Varady for a different futuristic idea which proposed filling up the space between the Cahill and Alfred Street with studios and small workshops.

Third prize was awarded to Tone Wheeler for a proposal which lessened clutter and also improved transport connections by altering the bus route, and another third prize to Queensland architects Matthew Stafford and Adrian Papi for a proposal to build more structure around and over the Cahill.

Four commendations were given to Tony Caro and Colin Still of Philip Cox Richardson Taylor & Partners;

Timothy Williams and a team of Victorian architects led by Annie Mcintyre.

Notes

The commentary, in a slightly varied version, was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 16 October 2025. The competition information comes from the Media Release (Stella de Vulder) on 22 February 1995, and the images are some faxed copies I still have in the files. My own submission was made with Russell Rodrigo and Melanie Zugai.

Cross-Sections are Friday musings from Tone Wheeler, following on from Tone on Tuesday columns. Remember: amateurs draw plans, professionals draw sections; never at cross purposes.

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