April 2018
Currently under construction, Opal Tower is challenging the norm of Australian apartment living, offering a family-focussed and affordable alternative to enable people to live closer to the city. Located 16km west of Sydney’s CBD in the growing suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Opal Tower provides a new level of amenity, community and work-life accessibility for the area.
Overseeing 14,000sqm of landscape and public realm design across the project, Turf Design Studio has been working on Opal Towers since 2013, collaborating with architects Bates Smart, developers Ecove and Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA) on the masterplan and public domain strategy.
With Sydney Olympic Park’s population forecast to reach 14,000 by 2030, Opal Tower provides vital new infrastructure and connectivity to the 40-hectare Bicentennial parklands and local transport. Situated in a prime location on the boundary between Olympic Park and Bicentennial Park, Opal Tower provides an important new gateway for the suburb. The 117m tower captures views across Homebush Bay to Chatswood, east to the Sydney CBD, and south over Bicentennial Park to Sydney Airport.
Spanning 38,000sqm, the centre piece of the Opal Tower site is a striking 36-storey residential tower with 392 apartments, ranging from one to four bedrooms, with ground floor lobby and retail. The mixed-use development (formerly known as Site 68) also features a new childcare centre and retail precinct, a land bridge, a pedestrian underpass beneath the railway line, upgraded stormwater infrastructure, and a new pocket park.
The landscape design celebrates biodiversity, water treatment and stormwater run-off through an explorative and interactive urban landscape. Residents can explore wetlands, bio-retention ponds or wander through a cascading terraced water feature. A forest of eucalypts, melaleucas and casuarinas frame the periphery of Opal Tower, anchoring the development to its surrounding native landscape. Turf is also involved in landscape and public domain works for the new 12-metre-wide landscaped land bridge, shared pedestrian-cycle underpass and pocket park.
Opal Tower is due for completion mid-2018.
“The influx of residents to Ecove’s towers has made Sydney Olympic Park a fully functioning suburb. There is a real sense of community here, and residents appreciate the benefits of living in the sporting and entertainment heart of Sydney with 430 hectares of parklands as their backyards.” – Sue Ballesty, Ecove
Links:
opaltower.com.au
Opal Tower video by Ecove
