Darling Quarter

Darling Quarter

Darling Quarter is a true integration of urban design, architecture and landscape architecture to create a new public place within the city. The project revitalises and reconnects the former Sega World site, which was an underperforming entertainment and retail venue, isolated from the CBD and the harbour foreshore. The development mediates the scale and intensity of the CBD with the open promenades and parklands of Darling Harbour and ‘knits’ these two precincts together.
Darling Quarter provides a new east-west pedestrian street, which connects Darling Harbour South to the City, and a north-south pedestrian boulevard, which runs along the building’s western edge and features al fresco dining spaces, retail tenancies, a children’s theatre, grassed areas and a state-of-the-art playground. This north-south connection renews and reinforces the pedestrian spine that starts at the Entertainment Centre on the southern edge and continues through the Cockle Bay promenade and beyond. The development includes underground public parking and upgrades to roads and pedestrian crossings to allow clear sight lines, making the ground plane safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Generated by the geometries of Tumbalong Park, Harbour & Day Streets, the design creates a two-part ensemble of stepped campus-style commercial buildings atop a base of retail activities that enliven the ground plane. The stepped form of the City is continued in the building forms of the city-scale buildings fronting Harbour Street and lower scale forms fronting Tumbalong Park. The roofs create an elegant transition from the upper to lower forms, providing the development with a unique profile and marking the importance of the central atria within the development.

Darling Quarter is a benchmark for green precincts. Commonwealth Bank Place, the campus-style workplace building on the site has been awarded world leadership status by the Green Building Council of Australia. It includes the first buildings to achieve 6 Star Green Star – Office As Built v3 rating in Australia. The buildings have been certified 6 Star Green Star – Office Design v2 and 5 Star Green Star – Office Interiors v1.1. 6 Star Green Star ratings recognise world class innovation. The buildings and their fit-outs achieve a 72 percent reduction in carbon emissions in operation when compared to the average performance of typical existing office buildings in Australia.
The project included the development of the Darling Quarter Recycled Water Plant which treats 245 kilolitres of wastewater a day to produce high quality recycled water for use in the precinct.

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