This month, we open our beautiful new Abercrombie Building: state-of-the-art home to the University of Sydney Business School. As we do so, we have plans in place for future infrastructure so that we may centralise two vital areas of University work.
One of those is administration, currently scattered throughout the campus and often housed in conditions that are less than ideal. To address this, we are planning a central administration building, five storeys tall, in a prominent position on the southern edge of the Camperdown campus, near the existing pedestrian bridge across City Road. The architects, Grimshaw Architects, have an international reputation for design excellence.
In tandem with its development, we will construct a building on the other side of Eastern Avenue where our School of Life and Environmental Sciences will be located. This building will occupy a parcel of land between the existing Carslaw Building and a stand of mature fig trees. Our architects for this project, HDR Rice Daubney, have designed an innovative response to the site, preserving the trees and adapting to the unusually shaped parcel of land.
The two buildings will together form a new and elegant gateway to the Camperdown campus and will be complemented by landscaped gardens and improved pedestrian and cycle access and facilities. They will incorporate open spaces and a café, creating ideal working conditions, but at the same time integrating accessibility and sustainability. The life sciences building will include first-class research and teaching laboratories, alongside common space for the students.
Both buildings have been designed to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and with overall design excellence. The University has undertaken extensive site planning and urban design to achieve purpose-built buildings that will complement and blend with our heritage site.
In December last year, we met with local residents to discuss these projects and the two proposed building designs. The community expressed interest in the developments and we know you are keen to be kept informed on the continuing transformation of the campus. We have prepared and submitted Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) in accordance with our obligations to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment. The EIS for both are currently on public exhibition (until 25 July) on the Department’s major project webpage, and you are invited to make submissions regarding your views on the projects.
