New South Wales' top five developments of the past 50 years
New South Wales' top five developments of the past 50 years have been chosen by the Urban Development Institute of Australia as part of the organisations 50-year anniversary.
The developments needed to address a certain criteria including: financially viable, ground breaking and innovative, commercial or residential and must have contributed to the economic and social betterment of the community, city or state.
Lend Lease’s Australia Square took out the winning prize for the 1960s and was Australia’s tallest building until 1976.
Hooker Rex and Stockland’s Kings Langley was chosen as the top development of the 1970s and was one of the first suburbs to have water and power services placed underground to maximise open space in the suburb.
Delfin’s (now Lend Lease) Wattle Grove won the top development for the 1980s and was the first New South Wales master-planned community with unifying design, abundant landscaping and smaller-block, more affordable housing.
The Norwest Business Park, developed by Mulpha FKP and The Hills Shire Council, took out the prize for the 1990s, marking the rise of the business park in Sydney and successfully brought skilled jobs to Australia’s largest population.
Winten Property Group’s Forum at St Leonards development took out the prize for the 2000s, having revolutionized transport-orientated development through mixed-use residential office and retail space immediately adjacent to public transport.
Winten Property Group also won the inaugural Urban Taskforce Development Excellence Award in 2002 for the Forum at St Leonards.
UDIA New South Wales chief executive Stephen Albin says the decision was not an easy process for the panel of past UDIA New South Wales presidents and leading urban development professionals.
“There have been a host of outstanding and innovative projects delivered in New South Wales since UDIA’s inception in the 1960s.
“The projects that were selected, however, were at the forefront of what was being offered in the development sector at the time of their construction, and remain as relevant today as the day they were built,” says Albin.