New South Wales Sites
Glebe Foreshore Walk
introduction / overview / images / location / Projects
Landscape Architect: James Mather Delaney Design Pty Ltd
Location: Glebe Foreshore Walk, from Rozelle Bay to Blackwattle Bay
(easiest entrance via Bicentennial Park at the bottom of Glebe Point Road, Glebe)
Developer: The City of Sydney
Completed: November 2006
The Glebe Foreshore Walk introduces substantial marine habitats into a highly urbanised part of Sydney whilst responding to a rich industrial heritage context. It will form the western most segment (over two kilometres long) of the City of Sydney’s planned foreshore walk, stretching from Woolloomooloo to Rozelle Bay.
The Glebe Foreshore Walk connects existing and new foreshore open space by means of a subtly articulated path. The path connects newly formed spaces, access to the water, newly created ecological habitats, items of heritage and archaeological significance and WSUD bio swales.
The sea wall along the foreshore was in many places unstable and suffered from inundation and overtopping. In inserting a new walkway two technical requirements provided the overriding constraints, firstly NSW Maritime requirement that the pathway be some 400 mm above the existing sea wall level, and secondly Council’s requirement to provide maintenance vehicle access to the length of the walk.
The design aimed to maintain the integrity and character of the existing sandstone sea wall by stabilizing it and inserting new walls as necessary behind the existing wall. This solution created a seating edge along the shore and clearly added a contemporary layer to the historical ones.
Careful attention was paid to the site context at the detail level, design decisions were informed by material changes, inflections in walls, transitions in sea wall profiles and other subtle shifts in the natural and engineering features found on the site. New spaces were grafted into and around these points of difference. The new sea wall and path configuration, alignment, materiality, width and hierarchy shift in response to existing features and the technical requirements.
The Glebe Foreshore Walk provides pedestrian and cycle access through a varied landscape experience along the edge of Blackwattle Bay and Rozelle Bay. The walk incorporates a boat launching beach, a pontoon (currently at tender) and a newly created mangrove habitat at its western extremity.
Around the stormwater canal the existing salt marsh community, has been encouraged to expand through subtle levels modulation. In Bicentennial Park pathways have been refurbished, unhealthy growing conditions repaired, fig trees lifted and replaced. At the eastern end of Bi-Centennial park a 14 metre concrete stair allows access to the water.
This destination point nestled at the edge of the mature Moreton Bay Figs where the sea wall changes, forms the junction to several paths and the location of a stormwater bio-swale. To the east of the Moreton Bay Figs a lowered viewing area is inserted where the sandstone sea wall shifts from a battered arrangement to a vertical one, the area presents a variety of seating options and a vantage point to the Anzac Bridge.
At a formerly inaccessible section of the Walk known as the Anchorage a new small park is created comprising of two Figs, a lawn and a backdrop of endemic plantings. Here the path is deflected to make room for a stair that is cut through the existing sea wall to allow access to a build up of sand exposed at low tide and a set down area providing seating at the waters edge removed from the main pedestrian flow.
The Walk narrows as it moves east past the archaeological site of Stride’s Yard where new walls and stairs to the water have been carefully inserted to reveal an old slipway.
Around the headland upon which Bellevue House sits the new path has been raised by 400-600mm and set back from the old sandstone sea wall. Precast units support the new path whose alignment shifts in response to a narrow sandstone sea stair and existing trees. In front of the seaside villa, “Bellevue”, vegetation is cleared to re-establish a relationship between house and harbour, whilst massive sandstone walls retrace a mirrored version of the former water edge.
The path from the foreshore to the villa turns back upon itself as it climbs the embankment drawing the visitor’s attention to the breadth of the scenery. At the top of the stair a sandstone path circumscribes a lawn planted with a Hoop Pine. On the foreshore a stair provides access to a sandstone ledge exposed at low tide and a ramp leads to a pontoon (currently at tender). The arrangement of the new precast wall, the sea stair and new sandstone wall plays off the overlapping lines of the rock shelf, sandstone sea wall, and industrial concrete edge (pre 1970’s).
To the south of Bellevue, a bio-swale formed by tiered pre cast concrete wall units treats water from Leichhardt street. The Foreshore Walk continues through Blackwattle Bay Park passing a large linear bio-swales, it then traverses the development at the old incinerator site, from where, in future stages it will connect to Pyrmont Bridge Road and the Pyrmont Fish Markets.
The project expressly sought to conserve and bring to attention the many different types of concrete around the foreshore by exposing their aggregates and contrasting them with new materials. Aggregates in the old concrete ranges from large sandstone rubble to river pebble and large basalt, each of these tells a story of aggregate availability and concrete making practice and each imparts a particular character to the place.
A constant element in the project is the 600mmx 600mm x 4000mm precast wall, which serves the dual function of raising the path to the required height above sea level and retaining embankments, bio-swales and higher ground where necessary. Specially designed end pieces terminate in a taper thereby causing the front surface to twist along its length.. The second set of precast units are L-shaped capping pieces designed to sit over sandstone clad walls which line one side of the sea stairs, these units are wide enough to provide seating on the landward side.
In contrast, the second edge to the sea stair is a 150 mm wide in situ concrete wall. The precast concrete contains a quartz rich sand mix that gives the units a warm colour and a slight sparkle that sits particularly well with the existing sandstone. The concrete offers a durable and cost effective compliment to the high quality sandstone necessary in the intertidal zone.
introduction / overview / images / location / Projects
2008
