It still has two years to go, but the Central Park development on Sydney’s Broadway opposite UTS has already transformed the city.

A whole new urban precinct is rapidly emerging, extending the Sydney CBD in the process. New residential towers, retail and hospitality amenity, new landscaping and urban renewal are the features of this joint development by Frasers Property and Sekisui House. A standout feature are the vertical gardens – all 1200 square metres of them. They are the work of French botanist extraordinaire, Patrick Blanc.

Blanc is in Sydney for a final inspection of his work and there was a chilly wind on the iconic cantilevered Sky Garden last Monday as Blanc spoke about this and his other projects around the world.

In fact, the wind was appropriate. Every part of the world, Blanc told us, throws up its own challenges as far as vertical gardens are concerned. In Sydney, it is wind. There is also the challenge of making the greenery interesting all year round. Hence, the 380 exotic and native species which will ensure that this wall has colour all the time.

And for residents this means their own gardens in the sky. But Central Park is also Blanc’s highest achievement, two of the panels coming in at 116 metres.

All of which means that Central park will be more Blanc than bland.

Patrick Blanc
verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com

Central Park Sydney
centralparksydney.com