Broadway Student Village
February 2024 | By Brian Mariotti, AJC Director
AJC’s design competition entry for a pivotal Sydney site is rich in urban amenity, liveability and sustainable design.
Early in 2023, AJC was invited to submit a design proposal for student accommodation to be built on the corner of Glebe Point Road and Broadway, a prominent hinge where the Sydney’s grand western gateway meets the heritage suburb of Glebe, opposite Victoria Park. The invited competition also included SJB (the winners) and Carter Williamson.
The corner site is significant for both pre- and post-Colonial Sydney. Broadway is an extension of the CBD’s principal promenade of George Street, while the Blackwattle Creek headwaters spring from Victoria Park opposite, where three different types of native Sydney forests once converged.
Defining the site as a Broadway Gateway that neighbours the Glebe Heritage Conservation Area and the former International Harvester Company Warehouse, drove the design direction and strategies to preserve cultural and historic elements.
Also of concern was the preservation of views and solar access, which, similarly, required a thoughtful urban strategy to balance mass and articulation with a degree of transparency and connectivity through the site.
Our design proposed a four-metre wide open-air pedestrian link between Glebe Point Road and Grose Street, with a finely detailed street wall condition to all frontages, and retail activation integrating the 132-room village into the area.
Consisting of two wings, the building’s finely detailed six-storey facade to Glebe Point Road references the local heritage palette, with a deep awning and neatly articulated canopy, rising up to signal the building entry and through-site link, while the robust Grose Street elevation contains eight storeys.
They intersect at a central courtyard, lushly landscaped with shade trees and hanging gardens that help keep the open-air entry verandahs cool. Another sustainable initiative was SHARC Hot Water.
Our preliminary art strategy was themed around ideas of custodianship for Country and would of course follow the City of Sydney Guidelines for Public Art in Private Developments.
By Brian Mariotti, AJC Director
The corner site is significant for both pre- and post-Colonial Sydney. Broadway is an extension of the CBD’s principal promenade of George Street, while the Blackwattle Creek headwaters spring from Victoria Park opposite, where three different types of native Sydney forests once converged.
—Brian Mariotti, AJC Director
