High praise for Woolley’s height study

A REPORT that helped to make building heights the most discussed issue in Hobart has been lauded in a national competition for urban design.

Local architect and urban design consultant Leigh Woolley was commissioned by the Hobart City Council in 2017 to look at townscape and streetscape values that require consideration when a proposed development does not meet acceptable height limits.

The Building Height Standards Review Project report recommended adding several extra criteria to the planning scheme and applying a maximum height limit of 75m in the area bounded by Murray, Macquarie, Argyle and Melville streets.

The report has now received the award for leadership, advocacy and research at the Australian Urban Design Awards.

Convened by the Planning Institute of Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects and Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, the awards recognise contemporary Australian urban design of the highest quality.

Judges said the Woolley report demonstrated “an exemplary approach to urban design research at a city scale” and they were impressed with the “place-specific framework, which acknowledges and accommodates the future growth and change anticipated for Hobart’s city centre”.

“The resulting recommendations for building heights emerge from a careful reading of the city’s relationship to its distinctive surrounding landforms.”

The Bridge of Remembrance linking the Cenotaph and Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue was commended at the national awards in the built projects category.

Mr Woolley said it was great to see Tasmanian work recognised on the national stage. “It does vindicate the decision to work from my birth city and develop design values based on the experience of being here,” he said.

“There’s always good work coming from Tasmania.”

In August, the council voted to hold off on setting an absolute height limit for Hobart after a motion to set a 60m limit was lost.

The interim planning scheme has a maximum height of 45m in the CBD with discretions allowed.

Picture: ROGER LOVELL HONOURED: Architect Leigh Woolley, whose report on building heights for the Hobart City Council has received an Australian Urban Design award.