McGregor Coxall a leading Australian Urban Design and Landscape Architecture studio from Sydney was awarded the highest honour for their 2.5 hectare Ballast Point Park project in Birchgrove on Sydney Harbour. Director Philip Coxall of McGregor Coxalland the project client, Di Talty of the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority were presented the award in Baltimore.
The Annual International Waterfront Centre Award was announced in Baltimore USA on the 5th of November at the Urban Waterfronts International Conference on Waterfront Planning, Development and Culture. Benchmark waterfront projects from around the world including England, China, Canada and the USA were recognized for excellence.
The winning Ballast Point Park project, completed in 2009 is located on the former contaminated Caltex lubricant production facility site on the Birchgrove Peninsula in Sydney’s inner western harbour suburb of Balmain. Owned by Caltex from the 1920’s until 2002, the site has a rich history from aboriginal occupation, the privately owned gentleman’s residence ’Menevia’ of the 1860’s, to a quarry for ship ballast and finally an industrial lube oil facility.
The project is part of a broad global shift in redefining post-industrial waterfronts as rich assets for public life. The concept reconciles historical layers inside a framework of contemporary sustainability where recycled materials are used in innovative ways to create a low carbon park of unique quality. This environmental approach was further underpinned by a site-wide decontamination program and stormwater filtration through bioswales, rain gardens and wind turbines for on-site energy production.
