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Back in May, plans for Sydney's wildly impressive new town square were officially approved. Now, the City of Sydney has unveiled the designs for the $150-million project, and it’s looking leafy. Sydney isn’t short on beautiful outdoor spaces, but this one – right in the heart of the CBD – is being billed as something a little different: a modern urban plaza custom-built for our sunny city’s increasingly busy centre.
According to the plans, the square will be framed by a curved grove of native Australian trees, with plenty of seating, circular paving patterns and moving water features. The design is intended to create a softer, greener contrast to the historic buildings that frame the square – with carefully placed trees providing shade during summer and sunny spots through the winter months. The design team (led by architects JPW, with ASPECT Studios working as landscape architects) have been tasked with creating a flexible outdoor venue – ready to host big public events (everything from local markets to full-scale concerts) as well as everyday city-dweller rituals (aka: coffee and cinnamon scrolls).
For context, this mega project has been decades in the making. Under the guidance of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who has dedicated her time in office to making Sydney a more liveable city, the City of Sydney bought its first property with the intention of creating a square at Town Hall more than 40 years ago. The latest designs represent a major step towards finally making that long-held ambition a reality.
“Like other major cities around the world, we need large, lively, welcoming civic spaces for the growing number of people living in and visiting Sydney,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore explained.
As well as becoming an events centre, the new square is designed to provide some much-needed breathing room between transport – and serve as a leafy, free-to-access place to hang in the CBD. According to the City, around 200,000 people already travel through the Town Hall transport precinct every day, and with the number of people in Sydney’s CBD expected to double by 2050 (according to City of Sydney stats), the need for more public space in the city is on the up.
Currently referred to as Town Hall Square, the finished square will be given a First Nations name, using a local Aboriginal word (in line with the City’s naming policy). The City is also planning opportunities to recognise and practise First Nations cultures within the space, though more details on what that will look like in practice are yet to be confirmed.
From next year, the City will also begin upgrading the area between Sydney Town Hall and St Andrew’s Cathedral, adding new paving, seating and lighting to create a more cohesive public space across the precinct.
A development application is expected to be lodged in the coming months, giving the community an opportunity to have its say on the plans. Demolition is expected to begin in 2028, with the new Town Hall square slated for completion in 2031. You can learn more over here.