An impossible thing to guarantee': $729m stadium races ahead despite opposition
by Jacob Saulwick12 October 2018 — 2:45pm
A hybrid steel and wood roof – the first of its kind in Australia and the second in the world – will sit atop and around a new football stadium at Moore Park, according to designs released on Friday.
As the political opponents of the new stadium consider legal options to frustrate the $729 million scheme, Sports Minister Stuart Ayres announced a design by Cox Richardson – the same firm that designed Allianz Stadium – had been selected as the façade of the replacement for Allianz.
The design includes a bronzed ribbon that bands around the stadium, which is intended to complement the sandstone podium on which the stadium will be built. The roof of the 45,000 seat stadium will consist of a series of shells, designed to concentrate noise back into the arena.
The head of projects at Infrastructure NSW, David Riches, said “creativity around the roof structure” was one of the distinguishing features of Cox Richardson’s design, which was selected over two other submissions.
“Wrapping the skin of the roof around the back to contain the noise and light spill outside and beyond the stadium was an attractive feature,” Mr Riches said.
Another feature, he said, was the possibility of landscaping on the upper levels of the stadium. During daylight, the effect of this garden landscaping is intended to replicate the surrounding Centennial and Moore Parklands.
Mr Ayres said: “I think Cox Architects has come up with a wonderful design that embraces that parkland setting.”
The stadium has been the subject of intense political controversy. It was not to be built under the policies of former premier Mike Baird, but Mr Ayres and Premier Gladys Berejiklian reversed the order of stadium plans and committed to replacing Allianz Stadium at Moore Park ahead of upgrading ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park.
The Labor Opposition is against the new stadium at Moore Park, and has commissioned legal advice into whether the Department of Planning and Environment called a premature end to the period under which demolition plans for Allianz Stadium were on public exhibition.
That advice, by barrister Simon Lees, suggests the plans should have been on public exhibition for 30 days, when they were likely only exhibited for 28. There is a decent chance, therefore, that a party might be able to compel the government to either redo the public exhibition, or obtain a declaration that a future development consent would be invalid.
Labor’s sports spokesman, Lynda Volz, said she would be talking to the Member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, as well as the City of Sydney, about the possibility of legal action.
“Why the haste?” Ms Volz said. “The haste is about pulling this down before the election so that the opposition can't stop it.”
Mr Greenwich said he would also consider legal action. “I think that this whole thing shows the rushed nature of this plan.”
A director of Cox Richardson, Alastair Nicholson, said the roof would be the second after a soccer ground in Lyon to consist of wood and steel, with those materials allowing for a lightweight structure.
“The way we designed the roof structure as part of the competition was to really work on getting the best atmosphere in the seating bowl, and hence the shape of it. And then using the latest technology, about hybrid timber steel structures, to really create an innovative environment,” Mr Nicholson said.
And as for the stadium, will you get wet in the rain?
Mr Riches said that while the edge of the roof came to the first row of seating, it was “an impossible thing to guarantee” that everyone in the stadium, scheduled to open in 2022, would be kept dry on a windy day.
Mr Ayres said: “How about we just say the roof covers all the seats?”
