Urban Design...

‘It’s time’: Four decades on, architect’s vision may finally see the light

Sydney Morning Herald Michael Koziol

SMH Archives Cahill Expressway circa 1960. Original concept John Bradfield.

Circular Quay Ideas Competition 1993
Sponsored by City of Sydney.
Together with fellow architect, Dr Anna Rubbo, and Viennese Architect Kurt Sattler, we proposed a concept design for Circular Quay that centred on a repurposed Cahill Expressway as a NEW ELEVATED AXIS that pedestrian and cycle linked Macquarie Street with Observatory Hill, and preempted the New York Highline by many years. (Link to Cahill Expressway photos & SMH article).

David Aitken Design Cahill 'high-line' vision colour pictures by Fang Xu

David Aitken’s vision for Circular Quay, submitted to a design competition in the 1980s.

David Aitken’s vision for Circular Quay, Sydney Harbor

‘It’s time’: Four decades on, architect’s vision may finally see the light
Sydney Morning Hearld Michael Koziol

When retired architect David Aitken read in last Saturday’s Herald that Cities Minister Rob Stokes wanted his colleagues to “be bold” in the upcoming state budget and commit to the full-blown transformation of Circular Quay, he was “blown away and so happy”.  Long before the current crop of politicians proposed turning the much-maligned Cahill Expressway into a pedestrianised “high line” - and well in advance of New York’s famous high line - Aitken, 74, foresaw the Cahill’s potential as a waterfront walkway.

In 1986, then roads minister Laurie Brereton promised the expressway would be demolished once the Sydney Harbour Tunnel opened in 1992. The architectural community and NSW chapter of the Royal Institute of Architects was, by and large, enthusiastic about the idea.  But not Aitken. “It’s nonsense,” he says. “There’s just so much energy in all this steel and concrete and everything else. I used to say, ‘Have you been up there? Have you seen the views?’ It’s magic.”

Aitken and two other architects, Anna Rubbo and Kurt Sattler, came up with an alternative; gutting the ground-level shops and cafes to open the city up to the harbour, but leaving the expressway structure intact and turning it into a pedestrian boulevard replete with cafes and markets.  “Everyone wins,” declared one of the drawings Aitken submitted to the design competition in the 1980s. As well as creating the ideal passageway for an Italian passeggiata or evening stroll, their concept included a 2000-seat theatre in the south-east corner of the cove.

“We really thought, ‘this is it’,” Aitken recalls. “Everybody’s going to jump on the boat and say, ‘just do it’.”  But they didn’t. Architects wanted the Cahill torn down entirely - as did Paul Keating, who as prime minister in the 1990s offered to pay then-premier John Fahey for its demolition. But the government ultimately never took up the option.

“It was just like we shat in the corner or something like that, the way everyone went quiet about it,” Aitken says of his alternative vision.  “This, of course, was long before the New York High Line, so people didn’t have such a trope to visualise the scheme with. And most of the judging panel lacked any creative vision and put it into the ‘too costly’ basket.

“I thought I might as well head back to Europe - there’s no future [here], no ideas, nothing. But anyway, I’m still here.”
So is his idea. Premier Dominic Perrottet is an enthusiast for the high line concept - as is Rob Stokes, who is now fighting for the government to commit funding as part of its Circular Quay renewal project.

It is generally accepted the freeway could not be converted until the completion of the Western Harbour Tunnel, the planned link between Cammeray and Rozelle, originally slated for 2026. But that project may yet be pushed back - a casualty of a review into the state’s major infrastructure commitments, currently underway.

Aitken understands the dilemma, but it sounds awfully similar to the promises made about the Cahill back in the 1980s.
“They have to commit to it because they never followed it up after putting the first harbour tunnel in,” he says.
“But at least somebody’s considering it. If we can get enough energy, there will be enough push for it. People will say, ‘It’s time’.”

David Aitken’s vision for Circular Quay Sydney City Metro Perspective

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