Keating slams the quay
Former PM Paul Keating has called for the demolition of the Cahill Expressway among other changes to Circular Quay.
By Nick Dent
Artists impression of Circular Quay without the Cahill Expressway
Paul Keating has called for the demolition of the Cahill Expressway where it crosses Circular Quay.
The
former Prime Minister's comments came during a panel discussion as part
of the Sydney Architecture Festival at the Sydney Opera House on Monday.
In
his keynote address Mr Keating said that Sydney as a harbourside city
had only two rivals in the world, Venice and St Petersburg, but had
given over its main harbourfront to transport facilities.
"Utilitarian junk defaces the founding site of our country," Mr Keating said of Circular Quay.
"There's nothing Venice-like about it."
Mr
Keating reminded his audience that the NSW State Government under John
Fahey had turned down the Federal Government's offer to fund the
demolition and replacement of the Cahill Expressway in 1988, when
Keating was treasurer.
"There's no real need for [the expressway]," he said.
"All it was, was a failure of imagination in that government."
In
a typically rascally address Mr Keating went on to slam the Overseas
Passenger Terminal Building as "infested with restauranteurs [sic]" and
called for half of the building to be demolished.
Mr Keating said the Quay "fails the landscape picture test - it's a painting without a centre."
He
proposed that such a centre could be provided by a plaza in front of
Customs House if the Cahill Expressway section were demolished where it
blocks the city from the harbour.
"Defined, contained spaces work because they give meaning to a place," he said.
"A plaza in front of Customs House would need buildings on either side to define it."
The
former PM also said that the city had a "once in two centuries
opportunity" to restore the Barangaroo area at East Darling Harbour
from a post-industrial site to a pre-colonial one.
"The built environment cannot and should not be the defining feature of our harbour," he said.
Mr Keating said that East Darling Harbour and Green Island should ideally "bookend" the city with greenery.