No Room For Town Hall Squares (Naked City)
Image: Town Hall Precinct Public Domain Plan / City of Sydney
Back in 1963 jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley released an album with the then very catchy title of ‘No Room For Squares’. It was a reference to hipsters only when it came to digging his music. It’s a shameless appropriation of a metaphor but perhaps the same wording could be applied to the current debate over the Sydney Town Hall Square Project.
Said to be forty years in the planning the 4,500 sq metre plaza will supposedly evoke a European style atmosphere and ‘unify’ the CBD. Lord Mayor Clover Moore has probably never owned a Hank Mobley album but is perhaps the most enthusiastic promoter of the plan.
She’s been quoted as stating “I’ve sat in squares in Vienna and Rome and Greece and Spain – it’s where people gather, it’s the centre of city life and it’s quite fantastic.” But don’t expect a replica of St Marks Square in Venice, along with a thousand or more pooping pigeons. Clover was quick to add, “this isn’t going to be like that – it’s going to be just as grand as one of those squares, but it’s going to be very Sydney and it’s going to be very Australian.”
When it comes to monumental legacies many will remember the somewhat infamous Cloud Arch which Clover had proposed almost a decade ago. The massive steel structure planned to tower over George Street, designed by Japanese artist and architect Junya Ishigami, evoked visions of Casper The Friendly Ghost. After a lukewarm public response and blow out costs approaching $22 million it was eventually canned.
The $150 million budget for the Town Hall Square has raised a few eyebrows as has the inevitable disruption of both demolition and construction. It’s unlikely the project will be completed until 2031 and surrounding retail and other businesses are concerned what impact it will have on them.
There are always casualties in these kind of grandiose redevelopments and the Council has labelled the Woolworths building, which it now incidentally owns, as having no particular historic or architectural significance. That’s despite the fact that the imposing landmark has stood for nearly a century and is deep in the heart of many Sydneysiders.
Meeting your friends on Woolies corner and slipping in for a cold drink or bite to eat has long been an institution in the CBD. It’s a retail monolith that will be sadly missed, all for the sake of a water feature and hundreds of square metres of paving.
Critics of the Square have already emerged with the Daily Telegraph’s James Morrow suggesting it will become a space for numerous political protests, homeless encampments and flocks of ibis. His was a cheap shot but maybe there’s some validity in the points he raises.
As far as political protest goes, who knows what the future holds, with the rise of One Nation and a massive swing to the right in Australia. If school kids protesting Pauline Hanson turn out in 2031, like they did recently in the CBD, maybe they will need a much bigger space to voice their anger.
As for the city’s homeless taking up residence in the square, it could be argued that the $150 million would be better spent providing a new hostel, so we never end up again with the tragic case of the homeless Nepali young man whose dead body lay unnoticed in the Sydney CBD for almost a week.
Then again if a number of homeless people did take up residence in the proposed Town Hall Square and threatened to spoil the grand opening with their ramshackle tents, there is a solution. We saw that during the 2000 Sydney Olympics where a cosmetic abduction saw many of the homeless trucked way out of the city and held in special accommodation for the duration of the Games.
As for an army of ibis running amok, feasting on discarded snacks, it would be nice to see some wildlife in the new plaza and surrounds, which will apparently include rows of iconic Aussie gumtrees. It might be an ask to ship in a load of koalas for the tourists but maybe some animatronic equivalents might do the job.
Possums and rats are prolific throughout the city as are pigeons and cockatoos. They should all be encouraged to gather in the square – well maybe not the rats, although they are great for cleaning up scraps. The Council has yet to indicate whether buskers will be welcome not to mention religious evangelists and soapbox orators.
And if we must have one of those huge water features why not stock the thing with edible fish and encourage city workers to throw in a line at lunchtime and take home some fresh seafood for their evening meal!
