he diagrams are more important than the words.
Blocklines. Diagram 1 shows how Burley Griffin’s triangle is incomplete and how Russell is an enclave not legibly connected to Civic or the Parliamentary Zone and how its internal roads have no sensible pattern.
The other four diagrams show the progressive changes to Russell and how buildings and roads Will integrate to make the Apex and stronger focal point so it can be better used for ceremonial occasions.
story follows:
Work to complete Walter Burley Griffin’s triangle at Russell will begin within 18 months under a draft amendment to the National Capital Plan made public yesterday.
The acting chief executive of the NCPA, Gary Prattley, said that subsequent work to extend Constitution Avenue to intersect with King Avenue, as Burley Griffin intended, would happen sooner rather than later.
He said the Department of Defence’s building requirements had created the opportunity to transform Russell from a defence enclave to a lively urban environment and at the same time complete the triangle.
Defence planned to demolish the eight “”railway carriage” buildings at Russell. It had worked with the NCPA to come up with a design that would allow that corner of the triangle to become an important ceremonial and cultural focus.
The first two new buildings would be those at the apex.
Some of the general themes have been made public before, both through defence sources and through the NCPA’s Central National Area study.
The draft variation is the formal statutory process which gives a chance for public input and for the parliamentary committee to look at the proposals in detail.
Copies of the draft and the background reports are available from the NCPA, 10-12 Brisbane Avenue, Barton, Phone 271 2888.
Mr Prattley said without the Defence requirements, the opportunity to complete the triangle might have been lost for 50 years.
Under the draft, Russell would be open for non-Defence uses, such as other offices and service businesses for the workers there: restaurants, banks, consulting rooms, health centres, recreation facilities and so on. Russell would be connected more legibly with Civic and the Parliamentary Zone. Eventually a ceremonial entrance to Canberra would be created, so that VIPs or people bringing visitors to Canberra from the airport could detour around the back of Russell and come over the crest with the triangle set before them.
One proposal in the Central National Area study is to make this the general entrance to Canberra from a road from the Federal Highway around the back of Mount Ainslie and Mount Majura.
Mr Prattley said that the amount of space given to open carparks in Russell would slowly be reduced. There would be a system of integrated parks from the lake back.
The Russell proposals would not close off options like the major upgrading of Constitution Avenue and the reduction in the freeway role of Parkes Way or for the new entrance Canberra, but would not make them imperative.
Mr Prattley said, “”With the renewed interest in urban design and better cities, we can see that Burley Griffin’s ideas are more relevant today.”
There was no an opportunity to undo some of the mistakes of the late 1950s and 1960s, he said.