Honeysuckle Public Domain Design Concept

The Hunter Development Corporation has unveiled a conceptual vision for the design of the remaining public domain areas along the Honeysuckle harbour front between the Marina and Lee Wharf. The vision for the remaining Honeysuckle public domain is for harbourside public spaces that above all else are attractive to people, open up the harbour to the people, and are of a quality befitting a great city.

The Corporation engaged renowned Novocastrian company Terras Landscape Design to produce design concepts for the public open space to give the community a glimpse of what the harbourside public space may look like when complete in four to five years’ time. Terras was not asked to design any buildings. The design of future buildings in the area will follow a separate process as the lots are released to the market.

Questions and Answers

Q. What is the area in square metres covered by this landscaping vision?
The area covered by this vision is the public open space between the Marina and Lee Wharf. It comprises three distinct public domain park areas - the western half of Worth Place Park, Throsby/Cottage Creek and Fig Tree Park - linked by a section of the promenade around 1km in length. Together this space amounts to around 26,000m2 - or 2.6 hectares.

Q. How much will it cost to deliver?
It will be delivered in stages, but when complete the total amount will likely be in excess of $10M, but this cost would be factored into the remaining land releases.

Q. How will it be delivered?
Coordinated with the release of lots to the market, most likely in an east to west direction.

Q. When will work start?
The first stages identified by this plan to be delivered will most likely be eastern sections adjacent to the Lee Wharf development from 2009.

Q. When will it be finished?
The completion will obviously be timed to coincide with the final buildings in approximately four to five years or sooner if possible.

Q. Is this consistent with view corridors identified in the Newcastle City Centre LEP?
Yes ,these design concepts have taken into consideration the proposed view corridors at Wickham, Throsby and Worth Place and are designed to compliment the developments that occurs around them.

Q. When will designs for future buildings at Honeysuckle be released?
Over the next few years the Corporation will release the remaining lots to the market via several ‘Call for Proposals’ processes. This is consistent with previous land releases in the Honeysuckle project area. Under this process, the market is invited to put forward proposals for each land release which both adhere to the prevailing planning regulations and address key criteria put forward by the Corporation aimed at getting the best outcomes for the community. The Corporation is keen to promote the best possible building design and plans to incorporate design competitions where appropriate into future land releases with the Throsby site already earmarked for such a competition.

Q. Does this vision propose designs for any buildings?
No. The landscape architects were commissioned to provide design concepts for the public open spaces only. Specically, this means the types of landscaping treatments proposed. They were not asked to design any buildings.
The design of future buildings will depend on what uses the remaining lots are put to when they are released to the market via a number of 'Call for Proposals' processes. Under this process, the market is invited to put forward proposals that adhere to prevailing planning regulations while meeting market demand for various types of uses.

Q. What are the main features of the vision?
• Linking the promenade between the Marina
• A proposed water feature and public art incorporated into a plaza in the view corridor in the Throsby wharf area;
• Extension of Fig Tree Park with terraced turf areas, shade structures, playground and activity areas.
• Raised planter beds with shrubs, shade trees and grassed areas;
• Shade structures and ships’ masts to link in with a maritime theme;
• A timber platform stretching out into the harbour in Worth Place Park;
• High quality paving, edging, seating and lighting treatments including train tracks inlaid into paving as a reference to the industrial heritage of the area.

Q. Why doesn't this vision propose any building designs?
Because it refers to the public domain areas only. It was important to develop a vision for the remaining public domain areas to enable the Corporation to put the remaining land releases into a context, helping to ensure that future building design is sympathetic to the public domain.

Q. How does this relate to the Newcastle City Centre LEP?
All development activity in the Honeysuckle project area must comply with local and state planning regulations. A key document in this process is the recently gazetted Newcastle City Centre Local Environment Plan (LEP) which sets out zonings, floor space ratios, building heights and permissable uses.
The LEP was extensively consulted on, exhibited, workshopped and debated through the normal local and state planning processes which are outside the Corporation’s control or jurisdiction.
To produce their designs the landscape architects used the latest LEP maps of the city. So while the resultant vision does not propose designs for any buildings, it does reference the potential building envelopes permitted under the LEP. No attempt was made to conceptualise what any future buildings adjacent to these public spaces might look like – that was not what was asked of the landscape architects.
By referencing the LEP, the landscape architects were able to take into account view corridors at Throsby, Worth Place and Wickham and use the latest maps as a context for their designs.