AILA NSW Group presents

PARKS : PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE - Workshop

Wednesday 25 March, 8.45am to 2.00pm
Sydney Olympic Park

 The workshop explores the origins, current status, and possible future directions for metropolitan parks. 

PAST – performance review of the Millennium Parklands
Presentations will highlight the pivotal professional role played by landscape architects in shaping Sydney’s regional open space networks. We begin with a post-built evaluation of a key part of the 2000 Green Games Legacy, a decade on from the master planner’s vision of creating a ‘landscape of hope’ from an urban wasteland. 

PRESENT – update on the Western Sydney Parklands
Unlike Sydney Olympic Park, the Parklands as a concept, has its origins in post World War II English urban and regional planning theory and has been a work in progress for the 40 years since then.  The challenge for the Parklands Trust, it’s Board and it’s public and private partners, is how to adapt that legacy of the 50’s and 60’s  to the current context and to an unpredictable future.

FUTURE – future directions
a discussion of future directions in parkland planning / design / management   - using contemporary examples and recent literature that may suggest what some of those directions might be. 

The workshop concludes with an overview of a Foundation established to develop new models for engagement and investment in parklands through partnerships with business, researchers and park professionals to grow social capital for communities. 

Presenters

Tony McCormick, BLA FAILA ULI Foreign Associate ASLA RLA, Principal Hassell Sustainable Futures Unit

Tony is a landscape architect and was theProject Director for Millennium Parklands Concept Plan involving the transformation of a highly contaminated site into 450 hectares of parklands and wetlands that were the main setting for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Tony will provide an overview of the research project Millennium Parklands 10 Years On - A performance review of the 1997 Concept Plan and aspects of its implementation. The concept plan methodology pioneered the use of a programmatic concept as well as a physical concept for the parklands, which is now a mainstream approach. 

Suellen Fitzgerald, FAILA RLA, Director, Western Sydney Parklands Trust.

Although recent decisions of the NSW Government have concentrated action around the Parklands right now, the corridor itself has a long history. Unlike Sydney Olympic Park, the Parklands as a concept, has its origins in post World War II English urban and regional planning theory and has been a work in progress for the 40 years since then.  The challenge for the Parklands Trust, its Board and its public and private partners, is how to adapt that legacy of the 1950’s and 1960’s to the current context and to an unpredictable future.

Suellen will provide an update on the status of the establishment of the Parklands and how the Trust is approaching some of these challenges. 

Linda Corkery AILA RLA and Catherine Evans AILA RLA.

Catherine is a Senior Lecturer and Linda is an Associate Professor in the UNSW Landscape Architecture Program, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales.

Their areas of teaching and research expertise converge on issues related to the history, development and management of urban parklands and open space systems. Both have recently had international study tours – Catherine in the U.S. and Linda in Europe – allowing them the opportunity to benchmark Australian approaches to urban landscape planning and design with best practice from overseas.

Andrew Ferris, Director, Parklands and Environment, Sydney Olympic Park Authority and Acting Executive Manager, Parklands Foundation.

Diane Wilson of Andreasens Green Nurseries which has become one of the largest wholesale nurseries in Australia, with more than 150 acres of combined nurseries in NSW and Queensland.

from 8.00

why not treat yourself to a pre-event light breakfast for those early risers  - at Jacaranda Square, Corner of Park Street/Dawn Fraser Ave,
Sydney Olympic Park Station
 

Workshop Venue  

Eschelon Room, Pullman Hotel, Sydney Olympic Park, in the Town Centre, cnr Olympic Blvd/Herb Elliott Ave.

Program

  8.45 am     Registration – tea & coffee
  9.00            Welcome by Sacha Coles, President AILA NSW
  9.05            Welcome Alan Marsh CEO Sydney Olympic Park Authority
  9.15            Tony McCormick, Hassell
  9.50            Suellen Fitzgerald, Western Sydney Parklands Trust
10.25            morning coffee break
11.00            Linda Corkery and Catherine Evans, FBE UNSW
11.35            Andrew Ferris, Parklands Foundation
12.05 pm     Diane Wilson, Andreasens Green Nurseries
12.15            Discussion
12.30            Optional tours led by Sacha Coles, Aspect Studios,
                      to Jacaranda Square; Deb Eastment, Hassell,
                      to Wentworth Common
2.00 pm       Close

Chair : Sacha Coles, President AILA NSW Group
Discussion Convenor : David Martin AILA NSW Environment Committee

Please indicate your interest via email when you book, to Christina Bunbury, in undertaking site tour by bicycle at small extra cost.

WORKSHOP COST : $50.00 per person
BOOKINGS : Christina Bunbury, AILA NSW GROUP, eMail
PAYMENT : online at https://www.aila.org.au/pay/