Greenland Australia and its joint-venture partner GH Australia are the developers behind Park Sydney, located at 165-175 Mitchell Road in Erskineville.
One of the key contributing elements to the project’s oasis feel is the amount of public space planned. Park Sydney will have 1.5 hectares of public open space, including a 7400-square-metre central parkland called McPherson Park, children’s play areas, amphitheatres, walkways, interpretive public art elements and barbecue areas.
Jeremy Bull, director with Alexander & Co, Park Sydney’s interior designers, says people choosing to live in a city need green space.
“But with Park Sydney it’s also about effective connectivity,” he explains. “With the design of the project’s residential apartments we needed to be aware of the outdoors and how it connected with the indoors. Our design reflects this throughout all the units.”
And just as a desert oasis is about sustaining weary travellers, sustainability is the driver behind everything that Park Sydney offers. Greenland Australia project director Peter O’Meagher says Park Sydney is committed to working with the City of Sydney to ensure it is sustainable and respectful of the character of the surrounding area.
“On the sustainability front, we’ve committed – through a strategy that we have put in place with the City of Sydney – to energy and water-saving targets that will exceed the NSW Government Building Sustainability Index (BASIX),” he says.
The developers are currently working with technical consultants on specific initiatives that will lead to these targets being met.
“There will be a range of energy and water-saving initiatives that feature in the engineering of the buildings,” O’Meagher says. “We’re very proud to be committing to the higher targets that will, particularly in relation to reducing greenhouse gas, be a significant improvement on BASIX.”
Some of the initiatives include energy efficient plant and equipment, some of which will be centralised along with the harvesting and re-use of rainwater.
“By investing more in the building, lighting and power system, carefully selecting plants and equipment, and specifying building insulation details early in the design process, we are able to confidently predict how the building will perform over the long term, well after we have finished the job,” O’Meagher says.
The City of Sydney’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 program was set up to achieve a place that is as green, global and connected as possible by 2030. Not only does the program work towards a more sustainable future, but it also aims to protect and preserve aspects of the city that are valued and which underpin Sydney’s medium to long-term potential.
These aims mirror those of Park Sydney, says Kang Xue, assistant managing director of Greenland Australia.
“Park Sydney is set to make a positive contribution to the City’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision and targets. For example, our design integrates with the area’s vital transport links, facilities, infrastructure and open spaces.”
Xue says Park Sydney’s McPherson Park and the public domain areas are a key attraction, which take in new streets created to bring about a more workable traffic environment. “It means this area is a much more permeable precinct for cars, people and bikes,” he says.
Another big part of the “green” strategy is the Kooka Walk spine, a landscaped pedestrian/cycle link that runs through the middle of the site.
“This creates a boulevard that effectively connects Coulson Street to Ashmore Road,” Xue says. “It is unusual to have a development where so much space is dedicated to the public and it’s a great way of bringing existing local residents into this space and helping Park Sydney integrate more fully into the community.”
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