Queens Domain Legacy Park Community Hub
A new community hub and heritage landscape in Hobart's premiere park
Project Overview
- Client: Hobart City Council
A multi-million dollar community hub that includes the restoration of an ANZAC memorial walk, amphitheatre, a children’s playscape, a couple of community buildings, a community pizza oven and new carpark.
My Role
- Project landscape architect and manager for the design and construction of this project.
The Project
The Queens Domain is Hobart’s premiere urban park but was in need of rejuvenation and reactivation.
The idea of a community hub had been under concept development before I joined Hobart City Council, but the project was lacking a clear direction.
I joined Council as the project landscape architect to liaise with the different levels of local government, consult with the community and stakeholders, work with engineers and civil construction crews and run meetings to facilitate design direction and communication between all the different parties involved.
It was my responsibility to incorporate the diverse perspectives into a final design concept with documentation for construction.
Water Sustainable Design
One of the requirements of the project was to incorporate environmentally sustainable elements into the infrastructure, wherever possible. Working closely with the hydraulic and civil engineers, I designed bioretention basins and swales to catch and filter runoff from asphalt surfaces before the water was irrigated around the park.
Site Engineering for an Accessible Amphitheatre and Walk
One of the unifying elements of the Hub was a large amphitheatre that would celebrate the Soldiers Memorial heritage walk and provide a major performance space.
This was a major site engineering challenge for me, as I had to salvage heritage trees and ensure accessible levels were attained while also working with the natural site contours.
Natural Heritage Landscapes
The planting plan to the right is a sample from the planting design for the entire site. This planting plan shows areas of detailed planting design around the edges of the carpark that adjoins the main entrance of the Tasmanian State Athletic Centre (at right). The planting design concept used only local native vegetation to extend the bushland setting of the Queens Domain.
The Soldiers Memorial Walk was accentuated with additional avenue trees to revitalise its heritage importance.
Construction Begins
While elements of the Hub, like the playground and building shelters, were being workshopped with the community, I had to also manage construction crews in delivering the intended design. Some of the heritage listed trees were extremely close to some of the construction works and I had to be vigilant with the crews to make sure they did not damage the heritage landscape.
The Amphitheatre
The amphitheatre was built from sandstone blocks, marked in similar ways to how the convicts would hew the rock into shape. The space integrated into the existing Soldiers Memorial heritage walk.
Community Hub Development
While managing the construction of the landscape, community groups were consulted to further develop the playscape and pizza oven area of the Hub. Feedback from the community and stakeholders were incorporated into a final design.
The playscape was designed to encourage discovery and enable children of all abilities to engage in active play.
