Landscape Architecture Australia
Big-picture thinking
Four practitioners working in major city-shaping positions discuss the expanding role of landscape architects in the strategic government space and the opportunities for pursing a landscape agenda in the future design of our cities and regions.
A series of interviews exploring the work of landscape architects in major strategic city-shaping positions. Interviews by Emma Washington.
Interview Malcolm Snow, CEO, City Renewal Authority (ACT) Emma Washington — What’s your role?
Malcolm Snow — I’m CEO of City Renewal Authority (CRA), a statutory authority of the ACT government responsible for managing the renewal of central Canberra.
EW — How has your career developed?
MS — I’ve always had a strong interest in design, sociology and the environment. My first degree was in regional and town planning and I worked as a planner for six years before completing a master of landscape architecture at the University of Melbourne in 1982. I decided to focus on urban revitalization, which I saw as an increasingly important challenge. I worked in Scotland for the Scottish Development Agency (now Scottish Enterprise) and returned to be the head of design with the City of Melbourne, working for nearly a decade on the revitalization of central Melbourne. I then returned to the private sector as a director of Urbis, specializing in urban design. My next position, as CEO of Brisbane’s South Bank Corporation, was a fusion of place-making and management, design and planning. Following that, I worked for Places Victoria as General Manager of Design and Place Strategy, then as CEO of the National Capital Authority, a Commonwealth Government agency. In early 2017, I took up my current role at CRA.
EW — What do you see as the appeal of these roles for landscape architects?
MS— When you work for government, you’re working with a big palette. In a city-state like Canberra, you can be involved with every part of what government touches and does, so there’s plenty of variety! My recent roles have all been with statutory authorities which are more independent from government, reporting to a board rather than a minister. You have more flexibility but still work across a wide spectrum of portfolios, such as community, environment, planning, economic development and engineering.
And you’re working with public land, which makes up a large part of the urban footprint. Government looks to agencies such as mine to give them advice, to encourage them to be bold and to take calculated risks in remaking the city in new ways. Getting politicians to think beyond just the election cycle requires good strategy, but also means you need to be opportunistic and tactical to achieve your goals. Government’s role must be to lead by example, not to follow.
EW — Why are landscape architects well suited to strategic city-shaping positions and what particular skills do they bring to the table?
MS — Landscape architects are well placed to take on city-shaping roles, particularly in place renewal and revitalization, because they’re spatially more adept. We also mesh the environmental and people dimensions more easily. So much of renewal is about the public environment and improving its quality and use, but also about working with the private sector, which we do as a planning referral agency, to get better quality development outcomes. By having a seat at the table, and being able to contribute in a way that’s technically strong, clearly communicating the issues, and by understanding the built implications of your design advice, you can add immense value both for the applicant and the community.
EW — Have you seen a shift in your department in terms of hiring landscape architects recently?
MS — We have a variety of professions working in our agency, but the majority of my design team come from a landscape background. When I recruit for our agency – not for every role, but certainly for our place and design team – the core competencies and experiences are centred on the urban landscape, both at the broader strategic level, as well as [at the] precinct scale. That ability to think holistically about the city and to be able to work at a variety of scales is essential.
EW — What are the major issues/ challenges you’re engaging with in your work at the moment?
MS — I think the key challenge for urban centres is economic and social recovery, and how we adapt [those centres] to the new post-COVID paradigm by encouraging people to come back and use them. As well as making their public spaces attractive, we will need to use different levers and work with different partners. Winning funding support from government for our projects will be harder [going forward], so the challenge is finding the common ground between different portfolios and adopting a “joinedup” approach to realize the shared benefits. Forming stronger partnerships, particularly outside government, and working more closely with the community will also be crucial. So, collaboration, both between the professions and the different players in the city, is our new mantra.
EW — What are some of the major projects currently in the works?
MS — At the big scale, we’re planning and designing a new waterfront for Canberra on Lake Burley Griffin. It’s been controversial but it will be transformational for the city. [The site] is currently a sea of asphalt car parks, but just as the Griffins’ imagined, it’s where city centre and water should connect, [with] a new urban park. Engaging constructively with the community on the place ambition will be key to its realization. The city-shaping light rail project is another important project, ensuring
that urban design informs the infrastructure decisions, not the other way around.
We’re also working on a new civic and cultural district for the city centre. Government has approved the business case for a new Canberra Theatre redevelopment and CRA has land around the site which it can develop. It’s a strategic opportunity to reimagine and re-energize our city square and create a compelling destination by introducing a fine-grain public space network, using the new theatre and mixed-use development investment as the renewal catalysts.
UNSW Sydney is building a new campus in the city centre which will further consolidate its important role as a knowledge cluster. We’re working with them on its master planning to ensure we get the best long-term place and economic outcomes. All of our projects prioritize pedestrians and active travel before cars. We’re also exploring pilot projects with the private sector on affordable housing on sites that the CRA controls using different delivery models. These are all “game-changing” initiatives and, when they come to fruition, [they] will strengthen Canberra’s liveability and sustainability.
EW — What do you see as the future for landscape architects working in these kinds of strategic government roles in Australia?
MS — It’s positive and professionally rewarding. Personally, it’s where [I feel] I’ve had the biggest impact in making better cities. Everyone in the community should be the beneficiary of design well-done and, again, government agencies should lead this through action. In a visionary government, you can try different things and take calculated risks, which is something you don’t typically get to do in the private sector, where you might have a nervous or uninformed client. Our projects are sometimes subject to changes in government – but you deal with it when it happens. You work with the players you have and your objective is to lift their sights above the ordinary to achieve the extraordinary.
“Everyone in the community should be the beneficiary of design well-done and government agencies should lead this through action.”
Interview Fiona Morrison, director of Open Space and Parklands, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (NSW) Emma Washington — What’s your role?
Fiona Morrison — I’m the director of Open Space and Planning at the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE). Within the Public Space Division, I lead a team of design and planning professionals that plan for, design and deliver open spaces across NSW. This work supports the delivery of the NSW Premier’s Priority for greener public spaces and includes the preparation of critical strategic plans to advocate for the provision of high-quality open space for communities.
EW — How has your career developed?
FM — I graduated around 20 years ago and commenced my career in local government in Sydney, responsible for strategic planning for open space and recreation. I worked in a few different local governments across Sydney and the Hunter Valley, then spent some time in the private sector, where I worked in consultancy at Clouston Associates in Sydney, and a little time in the development sector with Lendlease. Throughout my career, I felt there were barriers to being able to deliver outcomes for open space as efficiently and effectively as I would like. When my current role at DPIE was created, I saw it as an opportunity to unpack some of those barriers and create ways to be able to plan and deliver open space more collaboratively and effectively.
EW — What do you see as the appeal of these roles for landscape architects?
FM — The scale of projects in government can be extremely specific or incredibly broad, so you learn a lot and you’re surrounded by a diversity of people and professions working together to achieve the creation of liveable communities. I’ve recently spent six months working with our legal team, putting together agreements with councils to deliver open space in partnership. They learn, we learn – it’s a melting pot.
Landscape architects are great at understanding all pieces of the puzzle and are very collaborative. We are building living, breathing infrastructure that gets better with age, and having this different type of thinking influencing other people and professions across government is very valuable.
EW — Why are landscape architects well suited to strategic city-shaping positions and what particular skills do they bring to the table?
FM — Within my department, design thinking is really important. It’s not just about theories or formulas, but about immersing yourself into a place and understanding how people move. Planning can sometimes be quite two-dimensional, whereas landscape architects generally think three-dimensionally. Because of the nature of the work, landscape architects also think long-term. Their construction awareness is also important, as understanding of the full life cycle of space – from planning and design
through to construction and management – is vital to the creation of great places.
EW — Have you seen a shift in your department in terms of hiring landscape architects recently?
FM — In my three years with DPIE, I’ve seen a notable change. When I joined the department, there were a few of us [landscape architects] – certainly in the Government Architect’s Office there are landscape architects – but not a lot within the true centre of the department. Since the Open Space team was created three years ago, I’ve built a team with landscape architects who are working across a whole range of strategy planning program and project streams, delivering, building and planning. The desire for that knowledge by other teams within the department is increasing. As the department has moved towards more place-focused planning, the value of design thinking is extremely strong and having a Minister for Planning and Public Spaces has put it really front and centre that planning for highquality public spaces is critical.
EW — What are the major issues/challenges you’re engaging with in your work at the moment?
FM — Proving the value of open space is still a challenge. Everyone says they want great public spaces, but when it comes to recognizing the economic value and social benefits – that’s one of the biggest challenges we’re currently facing. But it is changing. I’m now working across government agencies on various projects, such as with Transport for NSW and the Department of Education, to create public spaces for the community. Seeing the increase in investment in open space across government is very encouraging. Another challenge is the speed of change, growth and development, and the fact that we have to plan for the future as well as address some legacy issues to improve access to and the quality of open spaces across the state.
COVID-19 has presented challenges for the delivery of our programs. The community is at the heart of all we are doing and we want to ensure we’re continuing to understand community needs and creating plan strategies and programs that meet these needs. The pandemic has required us to thinking differently about how we work.
EW — What are some of the major projects currently in the works?
FM — [One is] our Open Space program, where $150 million has been allocated for the creation of more and better open space in Greater Sydney. Within this, Parks for People has $50 million designated for the creation of eight parks across Greater Sydney, reaching from Appin to Penrith. Four of those parks are new and four are upgrades. The project focuses on assessing government-owned land where there are deficiencies in open space or a need for improved open space, and using that land, with capital investment, to create new parks, which we will transfer to council to be a public open space asset in the long term. Five parks – Appin, Penrith, Ermington, Fairfield and Leppington – are underway, and we’re working with councils and the community to develop their designs. We have a diversity of landscape architectural firms working with us, including Moir Landscape Architecture, Context Landscape Architecture, AECOM and Phillips Marler.
Everyone Can Play is another of our flagship programs – with the support of funding, we have $20 million to influence the creation of inclusive spaces across the state. And what’s happening now is that we’re actually looking at that [concept] of inclusion outside of just a playground and making it about our cities being inclusive.
We also have the NSW Public Spaces Legacy Program that’s part of the NSW Government’s work to protect the health of the community, provide economic and jobs stimulus in response to the pandemic and deliver a legacy of safe, quality public and open space. The program incentivizes local councils to accelerate their assessments of development applications and rezonings to create new development capacity and meet demand for housing and employment over the next decade. $250 million in funding will be made available to eligible councils across NSW for planning, design, construction or land acquisition costs for new and existing public and open space.
Our two major strategic projects are the NSW Open Space Strategy and the Best Practice Open Space Guidelines for NSW, which are looking at the important standards, metrics and guidelines on provision. How do we ensure that councils, developers, consultants and industry know how to put the right park in the right place? We’ve completed the Greater Sydney Outdoor Survey and the draft Greater Sydney Recreation Report to help understand community needs and we are working towards building a better understanding of the needs of the community across regional NSW.
EW — What do you see as the future for landscape architects working in these kinds of strategic government roles in Australia?
FM — The influence landscape architects can have is being better understood across government. The profession has so much to offer in the public sector – and not just in the traditional delivery of design, but in strategic thinking and policy creation. The way landscape architects are educated in creative and critical thinking, and how they approach problem-solving at the strategic masterplan scale to detail decisions onsite, is of great benefit. Our city-shaping efforts need creative solutions – we can’t keep doing the same thing. The heart of our communities is our people and the environment we live in – and landscape architects design for people and the environment.
“Proving the value of open space is still a challenge. Everyone says they want great public spaces, but when it comes to recognizing the economic and social benefits – that’s one of our biggest challenges.”
Interview Emma Appleton, director of City Strategy, City of Melbourne (VIC) Emma Washington — What’s your role?
Emma Appleton — I’m director of City Strategy at City of Melbourne. Our branch specializes in strategy development, including transport, heritage and affordable housing, urban design and planning policy, [and] spatial planning, including structure plans and urban renewal precinct delivery. We also translate strategic plans into the planning scheme, implementing built form and land-use controls to provide clarity and certainty about future change in neighbourhoods and precincts. We work collaboratively across council to ensure that policy and strategy draw from the organization’s operational knowledge and can also be implemented.
EW — How has your career developed?
EA — I trained initially in architecture, went into a landscape architecture postgraduate degree, then worked at Maroochy Shire Council as a landscape assessment officer assessing development applications, developing landscape guidance and implementing public realm projects. I then relocated to Glasgow, worked on major city strategies at Gillespies for around 3.5 years, which led to a master’s in urban design at Oxford Brookes University. Following that, I moved to London to become an advisor at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and to lead the enabling program, with particular focus on masterplanning and design of major housing initiatives – urban renewal in the northern cities and housing growth in the south-east of England. In 2009, I came back to Australia and led the urban design team at VicUrban on various regeneration projects, including the Docklands, Dandenong and Maribyrnong, then moved to the Office of the Victorian Government Architect to set up and lead the Victorian Design Review Panel. The City Strategy director role at the City of Melbourne draws from all my previous roles.
EW — What do you see as the appeal of these roles for landscape architects?
EA — The opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams and understand how the skills of different professions can come together and add value to projects. Landscape architecture is a very broad discipline by training, and you can apply that thinking and approach to much broader city systems. My role at CABE was where I think I went from being a true landscape architect to being much more of a city thinker and city strategist. From a leadership perspective, these city roles are an extraordinary opportunity to make better places and policy decisions that might impact on the city for 10 to 20 years.
EW — Why are landscape architects well suited to strategic city-shaping positions and what particular skills do they bring to the table?
EA — Landscape architects bring a systembased, strategic and creative approach to problem-solving. As one component within a much broader system – be it the environmental or development system – they collaborate to achieve what their expertise brings. Their research skills and the strong need to be evidence-based in their approach all translate well to city councils and public agencies because you need that evidence base to be influential in those roles and convince others to do things differently or to set new and innovative policy. They’re also good at narrative and telling a story of connection between things at different spatial scales through words and illustration – a powerful way to test and shape ideas.
EW — Have you seen a shift in your department in terms of hiring landscape architects recently?
We employ a lot of landscape architects across our City Strategy and City Design branches. City Design has an in-house function relative to design and, under the leadership of Rob Adams, has always had a very strong landscape [architecture] base. There are lot of landscape architects in leadership positions across the organization. We’ve had general managers for strategy planning climate change and a general manager of city communities who were landscape architects. In the City Strategy branch, we employ a lot of strategic planners who then go on to take degrees in urban design.
EW — What are some of the major projects currently in the works?
EA — Above and beyond any other municipality in Victoria, the central city has experienced the biggest issues as a result of COVID-19. Under last year’s lockdown restrictions, all the things we love about our city weren’t happening. When the pandemic began, we started working on a cityrecovery strategy that led to our COVID-19 Reactivation and Recovery Plan, which was endorsed by council last September.
The city also declared a climate and biodiversity crisis in February last year and our commitment to respond was endorsed by council in February 2020. The bushfires in Victoria brought into clear focus the need to act.
Another issue is flooding. We have three urban renewal precincts extremely close to the city centre that have been declared state significant projects – Arden, Macaulay and Fishermans Bend. These areas hadn’t been developed earlier in the city’s evolution because they’re low-lying and next to waterways. With the flood-management issues we’re increasingly facing, it’s important not just to hide water away underground or manage it with engineering solutions, but [to
imagine] how our future public places within the city can embrace and live with water in a different way, like many other cities do.
For a long time, there has been significant underinvestment in social housing by state and federal governments, as well as in affordable housing for key workers. In terms of affordable homes, we’re 5,500 homes short at the moment within the City of Melbourne, which will grow to 23,500 by 2036 if there isn’t intervention. The Victorian Government has recently launched “Victoria’s Big
Housing Build,” which invests $5.2 billion into a program to deliver 12,000 affordable homes over four years. City of Melbourne has launched its Affordable Housing Strategy 2030, which was endorsed by the Future Melbourne Committee in December 2020.
Another issue is around Aboriginal culture and reconciliation. How can we make our city an Aboriginal city and ensure that within the public realm, at a strategic level but also visibly, we really learn and work alongside the Traditional Custodians to elevate culture and understanding, and adopt sustainable land management practice? City of Melbourne has a dedicated Aboriginal Melbourne branch within the council that is doing extraordinary work to build the organization’s commitment and capability.
EW — Are there any other major projects in the works that you’d like to highlight?
EA — We’re focusing on the delivery of the transport strategy at the moment – in particular, the very rapid delivery of segregated bike lanes within a 10-kilometre zone of central Melbourne. We hope people living within this area will choose to ride into the city, freeing up more space on public transport for those further out. Outdoor dining is another area – the planning laws have changed for a year to allow people to expand their outdoor dining potential within the city in the new COVID context. And we’ve also launched a creative laneways project – over six months, 150 artists will culturally reinvigorate the city’s laneways, employing a sector that’s been really hard hit.
EW — What do you see as the future for landscape architects working in these kinds of strategic government roles in Australia?
EA — The future looks bright. I think [all] landscape architects should consider working in government as part of their career. There are diverse opportunities in councils to really influence outcomes which affect the community and make the city accessible and inclusive for everyone. Councils offer opportunities to learn broad generalist skill sets, as well as how strategy operations and delivery intersect. Every day is different and the challenges are complex, and the impact can be very significant.
“With the flood management issues we’re increasingly facing, it’s important not to hide water away underground but [to imagine] how our future public places can embrace and live with water in a different way.”
Interview Shaun Walsh, CEO, City Parklands Services (QLD) Emma Washington — What’s your role?
Shaun Walsh — I’m CEO of City Parklands Services (CPS), which manages Brisbane’s South Bank Parklands and Roma Street Parkland. We deliver holistic site management for the parks, including visitor experience and event management, capital renewal projects, site and horticultural maintenance and precinct security.
EW — How has your career developed?
SW — I’ve always been a keen gardener, but my first degree was in town planning with a major in applied ecology at the University of Queensland – I didn’t know what landscape architecture was back then.
My first job was at Noosa Council, where I was tasked with developing [their first] landscape policy that specified that only native plants could be used in new developments. It was through that policy that I first engaged the landscape architecture profession. My next job was at Maroochy Shire Council – one of their landscape architects was taking leave for six months and so I took up the role of acting landscape architect, project managing the Mooloolaba streetscape project designed by John Mongard Landscape Architects, as well as preparing their first ever landscaping policy.
After 10 years as a town planner, I finally began studying landscape architecture at QUT, while working in environmental management at the Queensland Government Environment Protection Agency. From there, I secured a job as environmental manager at Brisbane City Council, with oversight of new infrastructure projects across the city. I subsequently secured a job as environmental manager at the Australian Antarctic Program, staying there for four years before becoming design manager for Place Design Group, managing the Surfers Paradise Foreshore development and various projects across Queensland and in China.
Since then, I’ve been planning and development manager at South Bank Corporation and became the CEO of City Parklands Services, while simultaneously completing an MBA at Griffith University. I’ve also recently been appointed a director of the Oxley Creek Transformation project and to the project coordination group of Victoria Park Vision – both are Brisbane City Council projects.
“Design has to push the envelope and requires value assessment about what makes good outcomes for the public. Landscape architects can populate that space and challenge it.”
EW — What do you see as the appeal of these roles for landscape architects?
SW — For me, [the appeal has been] breaking through the decision barrier in landscape architecture. Being able to make decisions, in terms of the design approach, that assist a project’s budget formation and then [ultimately] the design outcomes. While landscape architects might sometimes be reluctant to leave the design board, because of the creativity aspect, I find that [creativity] in being able to arrange for funding and setting the strategic direction for multiple projects to be executed and multiple programs to be delivered.
EW — Why are landscape architects well suited to strategic city-shaping positions and what particular skills do they bring to the table?
SW — Landscape architects are good at understanding the relationships between town planning and architecture, the spaces between buildings and the way people use these spaces between, which make great cities. Town planning can sometimes be more about design-by-committee or general consensus. But we know that some of the best design has to push the envelope, and requires value assessment about what makes good design and outcomes for the public. Landscape architects can populate that space and challenge it.
EW — Have you seen a shift in your department in terms of hiring landscape architects recently?
SW — I employ landscape architects as project coordinators and parks planners to set up the frameworks and delivery mechanisms – we then contract out the designs. [Hiring landscape architects] is an approach I’ve cultivated here, but it also requires a mind shift in landscape architects’ views – they [need to understand that] they can’t get their fingers into the design process. Instead, they have to set up exceptional processes to procure and select the right kind of landscape architect, to make sure the project brief is really tight and then oversee the development of the design and its delivery. They become the advocate of quality outcomes. We wouldn’t have park projects, with multi-million dollar investment, unless we had landscape architects in roles in government – that’s what creates work for our industry.
EW — What are the major issues/ challenges you’re engaging with in your work at the moment?
SW — Brisbane is undergoing transformative change as a city. Through Roma Street Parkland and South Bank Parklands, we’re hosting and interfacing with very significant city projects, including Cross River Rail, involving the development of a major new urban renewal precinct and Neville Bonner Bridge, which is part of the Queen’s Wharf project – as well as the Brisbane Metro and numerous other projects shaping South Brisbane. Those projects are incredibly challenging – how do we maintain a park experience through this significant construction disturbance, and how do we negotiate to achieve good park outcomes at the interfaces? The design of these development will [have significant impacts] on both parks.
Oxley Creek Transformation engages one of Brisbane’s most polluted creeks. The creek was originally used for significant industry and sand mining, has significant areas of pastoral landscapes and also provides key ecological connectivity between valuable, but somewhat degraded, bushland, all on a site very close to the CBD. The goal is to rejuvenate the whole 27.5-kilometre waterway corridor, with combined recreation and ecological benefits. We’ve just finished our [first] priority project there in partnership with various public and private landholders and are now proceeding with the next few. It’s a $100 million investment by the city and the challenge has been trying to figure out priorities and what will achieve the best-value ecological and public outcomes. Ideally, this would be 27 kilometres of continuous greenway for public recreation, with several water bodies for swimming. We’re about five years into what will be a 50-year project.
EW — Are there any other projects you’d like to mention?
SW — The Victoria Park project [comprises] 65 hectares of very disjointed former public park that includes Brisbane’s Victoria Park. This parkland was the original green belt around the CBD that was created in the 1800s, but [it] has since been carved up with transport corridors, a golf course and other social infrastructures. This is the first major project to realize the true potential of a green belt around the CBD and is the largest park redevelopment in Brisbane in 50 years. The golf course is planned to close in July 2021, but the design process is well underway, including the establishment of the budget, and will amount to a significant investment in public space on behalf of Brisbane’s residents.
Both Oxley Creek and Victoria Park are practical examples of dealing with the issue of how to ameliorate climate change in our cities and particularly in the inner western suburbs of Brisbane. Oxley Creek will provide green corridors for ecological benefit and Victoria Park is about providing green space, and the emotional and public health benefits associated with that, within the [urban] fabric. Both projects address what the twenty-first century park could look like, moving away from the old modernist model of Central Park and asking: What are the facilities, attractions and amenities that generations of the future want?
EW — What do you see as the future for landscape architects working in these kinds of strategic government roles in Australia?
SW — [I think there’ll be an even further realization] that landscape architects have the skill set to be really actively involved in problem-solving, and adapting to and ameliorating climate change and mental and physical health. During the most recent lockdowns of the pandemic, our organization received the most significant letters of thanks and appreciation, for the joy people got out of spending an hour in the parks that we maintained for them. It really re-motivated me to think about how we, as landscape architects, can keep bringing the best to the table for populations to come.