Contaminated Millers Point/Barangaroo and the lessons it holds
January 1st, 2017
The sign reproduced above currently appears on a mortician like tent outside 38 Hickson Road, Millers Point.
So full of spin, those in the know get giddy reading it.
From personal tenancy experience over 12 years ago we can tell you that living in 38 Hickson Road was intolerable because of this contamination.
The carcinogens literally oozed from the sandstone walls of the subterranean car park and belched their putrefaction into the foyer and units above.
Into the second decade later, obviously no end is in sight.
Instead of celebrating that their site “enabled Sydney’s first gaslight network”, right minded buyers in that building have to be asking “how the hell was this allowed to happen?”
It’s a refrain not confined to contaminated sites and likely to be repeated across Sydney in years to come.
38 Hickson Road is proof that urban planning disasters can, do and still happen; this one in Sydney’s high profile CBD centre diagonally opposite James Packer’s proposed Crown Resorts Casino site.
People live there as this ‘remediation on the run’ experiment continues.
But not developer Lend Lease.
It and a ground floor child care centre long ago bolted from next door leaving a now derelict looking former 6 Star Environmental masterpiece HQ – http://dynamic.architecture.com.au/awards_search…
(and yes, those louvres are blown out):
