SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK

Sydney, Australia
Sydney Olympic Park Authority, PWP, Hargreaves Jones

The site of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney formerly housed a slaughterhouse, as well as heavy industrial facilities and naval munitions storage. The land use legacy of the site left a heavily contaminated site with fragmented landscape and stream corridors. 65% of the soils on site needed to excavated and contained. The masterplan for the site, led by PWP Landscape Architecture, focused on five zones, with an Olympic Center, areas that were rebuilt, landscape preservation zones, a rebuilt water system, and areas that were regraded to link existing ecological features, including an intact aboriginal forest, with wetlands. A system of trails runs through the park, which is still used by city residents two decades after the Olympics. In addition to the landscape features, the park includes 15 miles of waterfront development. Two master plans were created for the site. The first located major venues for the game, while the second masterplan, led by Hargreaves, established an identity for the public realm by clustering all of the major buildings required, from stadiums to exhibition halls and rail terminals through a series of workshops with Olympic authorities, architects, consultants and specialists. The development of the public realm space focuses on the Olympic Plaza, which is sloped, with wetlands that collect water running down a pyramidal hill that was constructed using the excavated soil from the wetland restoration project. The project uses porous paving and structural soil to provide stormwater treatment, allowing the water to be reused for irrigation.

2000
1000 acres
62 feet above sea level

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