Canadians to offer a new direction on Canberra's development?
Is the City to the Lake concept dead? Has Mr Fluffy taken the air out of the visionary project set to redefine Canberra’s CBD?
International visitors
This week, the ACT Government announced an impending visit of two world-leading urban designers, Larry Beasley and Gordon Harris. The pair will visit Canberra to see the potential of our planned city in the context of the work they have undertaken in their home country of Canada.
Gordon Harris
Gordon Harris is the CEO of the and had led the development of UniverCity, an experiment in urban planning which looks a lot like Canberra. Larry Beasley is the former Chief Planner for the City of Vancouver, and now runs a private consultancy.
How will this experience help to inform the strategic plan for Canberra?
Key Plans
The ACT Government, in conjunction with lobby groups and other external advisers, have two key plans in place: City to the Lake – under threat from the costs of the Mr Fluffy compensation payments – and The City Plan – an overarching plan that incorporates the City to the Lake concept in a broad, overarching document that examines six themes:
- Growth
- Land use & development
- Transport & movement
- Community infrastructure
- Public realm and design
- Strengthening character
Some of the activities of The City Plan are already underway (the Constitution Avenue upgrade, Capital Metro and the sale of Allawah, Bega and Currong flats). Many of the remainder are still open to public consultation and may develop in scope and style over time.
Larry Beasley
North v South tensions.
How will property owners and business respond to another slew of retail spaces in Canberra’s CBD? The city centre has some 95,200m2 of retail floorspace (including cafes, restaurants, vacant space, service areas and circulation space), equating to around 10% of Canberra’s total stock (source). That’s a huge amount of space in comparison to most other Australian capitals, and surely brings in question the level of demand.
Braddon has already seen foot traffic move north, with many of the city's food and beverage outlets feeling financially strained as a result. A new precinct down on the lake’s West Basin may only add to the problems of Canberra’s hospitality businesses.
Cohesive Developments
With the arrival of Beasley and Harris, there is opportunity to further shape the City Plan to maintain the aesthetics of Canberra in keeping with its history. In recent times, chief criticisms of major projects (Belconnen Town Centre and Kingston Foreshore) involve the low architectural value of the structures.
By strengthening the Plan to ensure that developments are of high quality, this new vision for the city can provide its population with highly-valued precincts that serve retail and residential requirements.
At the same time, they have potential to provide part of our public art catalogue, and therefore become tourism destinations in their own right. This will further serve the commercial needs and keeping high value for the the housing stock.
Hopefully, the whole city wins, and not just the highest bidder. Here’s hoping our Canadian guests can provide some input into how this can be achieved.
Larry Beasley and Gordon Harris will host a Lunchtime Address – Making Canberra’s Heart Sing on Tuesday 5 April 2016 from 12.30pm – 2.30pm at the National Museum of Australia, Peninsula Room.