DANDENONG’S revitalised Lonsdale Street has picked up a national award.
The collaboration between landscape architecture and urban design firm TCL and BKK Architects won the Walter Burley Griffin Award at the National Architecture Awards at the Sydney Opera House on 7 November – the highest accolade for urban design.
The Lonsdale Street redevelopment was a key part of the $290 million Revitalising Central Dandenong Initiative, launched by the State Government in 2006.
Lonsdale Street was historically a prosperous retail spine but in recent years had become a major arterial route dissecting the retail heart, creating a significant physical and psychological barrier to the city.
It was redesigned as a grand, 500 metre boulevard with a pedestrian focus.
Through-traffic is guided between double rows of pin oaks.
There’s patterned paving, shared traffic zones and rain gardens that collect and treat stormwater run-off to be reused for irrigation.
Lonsdale Street has again become the heart of central Dandenong.
The awards jury commended TCL/BKK’s design for its dramatic impact in changing the city’s feel.
“Not so long ago Dandenong was seen by some as a place to avoid; now it is a destination,” they said.
“Lonsdale Street has been transformed from a wide, barren arterial route into an engaging pedestrian realm.”
The jury said reconfiguring bus routes and existing infrastructure and integrating it into the streetscape had shifted the city’s centre of gravity and created healthy, vibrant urban spaces.
They also applauded the design process for being genuinely consultative and collaborative, with a resilient, clear masterplan that allowed the community and other stakeholders to contribute meaningfully to the vision.
