Six architects in Cockle Bay Wharf contest
Sydney’s $650 million Cockle Bay Wharf redevelopment has taken a step forward after a shortlist of six architecture groups was named in an international competition to design the office tower and retail project.
FJMT, Woods Bagot, Grimshaw Architects, Denmark’s Henning Larsen, Britain’s Wilkinson Eyre and a UN Studio-Cox Architecture joint venture will compete for the right to design the stretch of Darling Harbour between Pyrmont Bridge and the Western Distributor.
Matthew Faddy, a spokesman for the project, owned by GPT and AMP Capital, said a final design was likely to be chosen by the first quarter of next year at the latest. Construction would likely start in 2022 and completion was expected in 2025, he said.
“The planned redevelopment would create over 1 hectare of public space, vastly improved pedestrian connections between the Sydney CBD and Darling Harbour and a world-class retail, entertainment, dining and office precinct,” Mr Faddy told The Australian Financial Review.
The development at Cockle Bay has been given the green light by the NSW independent planning commission.
GPT and AMP Capital own the project. It was announced in 2016 and has suffered delays and opposition over concerns the proposed office tower would overshadow a future town hall square in the CBD as well as private homes. It got a green light from the NSW Independent Planning commission in May.
The commission set a maximum height of 183 metres for the tower, which will have 75,000-square-metre office space and 14,000 square metres of retail. The original proposal was for a 235 metre tower. The project entails demolition of the existing Cockle Bay Wharf buildings, the Crescent Garden-Cockle Bay Wharf enclosed pedestrian bridge and the former monorail structure.
The GPT Wholesale Office Fund owns 50 per cent of the project. GPT itself has a 25 per cent stake – which it bought from a previous partner on the project, Brookfield and AMP Capital owns the remaining 25 per cent stake.
