Green Square Blog

The transformation of the Green Square area is well underway, but many Sydneysiders don’t know what it actually is.

Within 4km of both the CBD and the airport, Green Square is a huge urban renewal project, with $13 billion worth of construction, more than 30,000 new residential dwellings in the works and an expected population of 61,000 by 2030.

The City of Sydney has allocated $540 million worth of funding over the next decade and is making history by creating its first new town centre in more than 100 years. But whenever I ask someone what they know about Green Square, most of the time they shrug their shoulders.

Nine out of 10 would say Green Square is just a train station. Others wouldn't know that it's not a suburb. It has no postcode. Rather it's a little hub of its own. That hub actually includes five established suburbs: Alexandria, Zetland, Waterloo, Beaconsfield and Rosebery.

Right in the middle, the new 14 hectare town centre will feature a raft of family and community-friendly facilities.

The Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre will offer an outdoor Olympic-sized pool, with added space for casual swimming; plus indoor pools, a gym, a covered outdoor Yoga deck, café, crèche and more outdoor space for skateboarding, fitness training and barbecues. Construction is underway and completion is expected in early 2020.

Midway through this year Green Square will also have a new underground library and public plaza, featuring a six-storey glass tower housing community rooms, reading rooms and a tech suite, plus an acoustically-designed music room. The plaza will host various festivals and events.

More than 40 parks offering mixed sports facilities and playgrounds are also planned. The 6200 square metre central park will be called The Drying Green and will feature shade structures, barbecue and picnic areas and plenty of other green space.

Waranara Early Education Centre will open in mid-2018, boasting veggie gardens, fruit tree groves and extensive outdoor play areas, while the heritage listed buildings on the former South Sydney Hospital site are being transformed into a creative arts centre, with studios, a gallery and venues for hire.

It’s all an impressive vision, but not without hurdles, especially the appalling traffic and the hopeless parking situation. It’s only going to get harder as more people move into the area, so providing the infrastructure is going to be a massive challenge for Green Square.

So far, the City of Sydney’s answer to these concerns around traffic and parking is to reduce the number of cars on the road by providing cycleways, walkways, car sharing options and a plan to eventually link light rail to the area, but the jury is out on how readily this will be taken up by residents and whether it will be effective.

 

Published by Trevor Back

Principal, Raine & Horne Green Square

Phone: 0428 006 900

[email protected]

 

 

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