In January we welcomed Roy Newman and Terry Olsen from the Tribal Warrior Association. Roy delivered an acknowledgement of country, recognising and paying our respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, as the traditional custodians of the land where the two buildings will stand. Terry conducted a smoking ceremony – one of the most significant ancient rites performed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – to cleanse the sites and ward off evil spirits, while Roy played the didgeridoo. We will shortly be holding a similar ceremony when we break the ground and commence work on the new building to house our Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
We are keenly aware of the Indigenous history of our campus, a site where the Gadigal people were teaching and learning for tens of thousands of years before the construction of the Quadrangle. It was a very special moment when all those involved in the creation of the new buildings, including the architects, project managers, builders and senior management of the University, alongside the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, were able to celebrate, recognising the past and anticipating the future.
The two new buildings will be both beautiful and sustainable, providing an appropriate sense of place and arrival at Australia’s oldest university. With their construction, we have the opportunity to create a new urban square at the University’s frontage to City Road.
A new café on the ground level of F23 will be open to the public, and the structure has been designed so as to provide shade and shelter at the campus entry. There will be landscaped gardens, together with improved pedestrian and cycle access.
LEES1 will connect to the existing Carslaw Building, built in the early 1960s, with internal links at the two lowest levels. It will be a welcome upgrade and modernisation of our scientific teaching and research facilities, supporting the delivery of world-leading education and attracting research and industry partners. With a transparent façade to City Road, it will place science on display and allow us to engage with the broader community.
While we are looking forward to the completion of the buildings, anticipated for the second half of 2018, we are delighted that the project teams managing construction of both buildings have enclosed both sites with hoardings decorated with an attractive graphic of a hedge, replicating the real one running alongside City Road to the west of the University entrance.
