The thousand-acre site surrounding the 2000 Olympic Games was heavily degraded from nineteenth-century use as an abattoir and twentieth-century heavy-manufacturing facilities. A portion of the site served as a disintegrating storehouse for naval munitions. However, there were 15 miles of continuous waterfront; various historic buildings and landscapes; an almost unspoiled 124-acre aboriginal forest; major areas of mangrove swamp; bird sanctuaries; and a 70-acre historic limestone quarry. PWP’s program included excavating the contaminated soil and placing it in rolling hills and five dramatic 60-meter-high “ziggurats” that mark park entries; restoring Haslam’s Creek; building pools to harvest and clean run-off for irrigation; creating a major riparian wetland; devising a system of separate linear pedestrian and bicycle paths throughout the reforested parkland portions as well as a waterfront boardwalk-promenade; preserving the surreal lawn of the historic naval base, the quarry, the aboriginal forest area, and the mangrove swamps; transforming the huge central surface parking into a replanted park-arrival village; and replanting boulevards as native forests walls.
CLIENT
Sydney Olympic Park Authority
AWARDS
2001 The United Nations Environment Program’s Global 500 Award for Environmental Excellence
2000 Gold Banksia Award
2000 Banksia Award - Conservation of Flora and Fauna
2000 Rivercare 2000 Gold Award
2005 Energy Australia-National Trust Heritage Award - landscape conservation commendation - saltmarsh
2006 Energy Australia-National Trust Heritage Award – landscape conservation – Brickpit Ringwalk
http://www.pwpla.com/projects/millennium-parklands
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