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PYRMONT SOUND WALLS
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GLEBE ISLAND ARTERIAL STREETSCAPE
Pyrmont Sound Walls
The Pyrmont Sound Walls are located on the viaduct and ramp of the Glebe Island Arterial just west of the CBD of Sydney. During the construction of this new freeway one of Walter Burley Griffin’s remaining landmark incinerator buildings was still in existence adjacent to the site. Artist/Architect Richard Goodwin used one of its striking tile designs as a contextual motif for the outside surface of the sound walls. It was necessary to make the walls lightweight, which led to the use of glass fibre reinforced shells with motifs cast into both sides. The incinerator was demolished before the opening of the road, which makes the memory of his design more powerful. Early in the process the artist exploded the scale of one particular pattern and worked it into the geometry of the panel architecture. The support structures became extensions of the theme reaching in circles to beneath the carriageway for structural reasons. The resulting combination of sculptural steel curves and bas-relief concrete forms a bold tribute to Griffin in Pyrmont. On the roadside an abstract signature pattern reflects the earlier road design suggesting the form of a fig tree growing on stone – a metaphor for Pyrmont as a place.
Glebe Island Arterial
Glebe Island Arterial Streetscape represents a milestone in collaborative design, which rethinks the leftover spaces beneath freeways. The site lies beneath the approach freeway to the Anzac Bridge and forms a separation between historic Pyrmont and the working waterfront with fish-markets. The needs of pedestrians, cars and light-rail required to be met via a new approach to road architecture.
The team included Conybeare Morrison and Associates, Context Landscape Architects and Richard Goodwin P/L Art and Architecture. During a six year design process the original road designs were changed to encompass a new pedestrian vision for this foreshore zone complete with sculptural installation by Richard Goodwin. The inclusion of such a permanent vision for a new "road architecture" was a first for the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority.
"I developed the sculptural component as a way of engaging the architecture of the freeway via prosthetic shapes attached to the forest of columns. The combination of aluminium wings, stone finished turrets and growing frames create a "pin-ball" machine of prosthetic devices which mediate between the pedestrian and the car to facilitate an increase in the permeability of the space." Richard Goodwin.
Pyrmont Sound Walls
Design: Richard Goodwin Pty Ltd Art and Architecture
Glebe Island Arterial Streetscape Design
Design team
Conybeare Morrison and Partners
Context Landscape Architects
Richard Goodwin Pty Ltd Art and Architecture
Sculptural Column Installation
Design: Richard Goodwin Pty Ltd Art and Architecture
