NAKED CITY – PETRONAS TOWERS FOR KINGS CROSS – WHAT NEXT?

You might have read about it in one of the Sunday tabloids. Shock and horror – the plans to demolish a great slab of the glittering mile in Kings Cross and erect Sydney’s answer to Kuala Lumpur’s futuristic Petronas Towers. Apparently owners of real estate on one side of Darlinghurst Road, between Bayswater Road and Roslyn Street, have formed a cartel to flog the entire block off to a potential developer.

Disillusioned with vacant shops and a massive downturn in pedestrian traffic, it’s easy to see why the landlords are bailing out. Whether it was a good idea to suggest that the land be used to erect two massive Petronas style towers is certainly open to debate. Basic logic suggests that they would have been better in suggesting some kind of sympathetic redevelopment rather than going the whole grandiose hog and proposing the building of two massive monoliths.

Needless to say, even before the first wrecking ball swings into action, there have been howls of public protest, from residents, politicians and those that still see some benefit in preserving the character of Kings Cross. Unfortunately the city of Sydney has ‘form’ when it comes to this style of projected development and there are some very ugly precedents.

Here’s how it’s worked in the past: developers buy up real estate and immediately set about knocking down all existing structures. Even whilst DA’s are being lodged and Council battles being fought they excavate the site, replacing what was once an active area of the city with an enormous ugly hole.

Witness the demolition of the historic Anthony Horderns building, which once occupied almost an entire city block bordered by Liverpool, George, Pitt and Goulburn. Raised to the ground in 1986 for the controversial World Square development, it remained a cavernous hole for some two decades before Meriton and the other big boys moved in. A similar fate met the once heritage listed Regent Theatre in George Street, levelled in 1988 and another great bloody hole in the ground, untouched until 2004.

Once you have your enormous cavity established, and as long as you are prepared to wait, regardless of endless rulings in the Land and Environment Court, the law of attrition applies. Eventually the Council, local residents and the public at large, sick to death of the gaping subterranean sore that’s festered year after year, throw up their hands and say “go ahead, build anything you want”.

Whether that scenario will ever play out in Kings Cross remains to be seen. One thing that should definitely not occur is the demolition of that side of Darlinghurst Road before final plans for any development run through the entire legal process. It seems highly unlikely that we will ever see the shadow of a Burj Khalifa or Taiwan 101, block out every inch of sunlight on Darlinghurst Road. If the site is eventually sold off we could well see a more restrained development, albeit at least the height of the nearby Omnia building.

The Cross has certainly taken its share of kicks to the guts in recent years. The last thing it needs is its own block-long archaeological site, although who knows what and whom may be discovered, buried beneath the rubble!