The proposed Sydney International Convention, Exhibition & Entertainment Precinct / Pic: Darling Harbour Live Source: The Daily Telegraph
THIS is the first glimpse of a major overhaul of Darling Harbour - with an iceberg-shaped international convention centre, a grass-covered exhibition centre and a new fan-shaped theatre to be finished by 2016.
Today the state government will lodge the blueprint with the Department of Planning, revealing details of the biggest transformation of Darling Harbour in 25 years to bring in boulevards, laneways, new public squares, 1400 apartments at Haymarket, a ballroom and 900-room hotel.
By 2016, it is expected to provide Sydney with the biggest and most advanced conference, meeting and exhibition space in the country, and a world class theatre.
The masterplan also reveals a redesign which aims to open the harbour to the city, moving the light rail and creating a new eucalypt-shaded 680m path called The Boulevard to draw people through the 20ha from the harbour edge to the south of the city.
The exhibition centre will be terraced for more open space and a new theatre, with room for 8000 people, will be slightly smaller but suitable for conferences, basketball games and concerts.
It will create a new Chinese Garden Square, as well as a Haymarket Square and expand Tumbalong Park by 3000sqm to 11,000sqm.
Hassell architect Ken Maher said he wanted the buildings to be "memorable" and with a "degree of variety" between the designs.
He said the new international convention centre had a mirrored surface, to reflect the fountain below as well as the harbour.
Infrastructure NSW project director Tim Parker said, aside from Vancouver, the Sydney exhibition centre was the only one in the world on the waterfront. "We wanted something that is not just another building in the city," he said.
Mr Maher said new address points would make it easier for people to get to Darling Harbour. "Darling Harbour is quite inaccessible at the moment," he said.
Under the schedule, the existing entertainment centre would remain open until 2015. Construction is expected to take three years.
"We are confident they can get it up and ready in three years," Mr Parker said.
Deputy premier Andrew Stoner said the development was the most exciting transformation of Darling Harbour in 25 years and would deliver $5 billion to the economy, providing 3700 construction jobs and ongoing employment for 4000.
"It is just 450m away from Central and 700m from Town Hall stations, yet the precinct has always felt as though as it was disconnected from its Haymarket, Ultimo and Pyrmont neighbours," he said.
"The masterplan creates strong pedestrian links with the north-south boulevard and five new east-west pedestrian connections through the precinct.
"It aligns the light rail stops with entrances to the new facilities to improve pedestrian flow."
A stakeholder briefing yesterday heard the inner west extension of the light rail meant the frequency of services would increase, with a tram stop at the front door of the theatre.
