b'MUDD 25 - Urban Intensity l Urban Design - Sydney2005 saw the release of the City of CitiesA Planand skyline of Central Sydney. The Harbour designation, for Sydneys Future, which introduced the concept ofhowever, downplays the need for North Sydney to Sydneys Global Economic Corridor, the concentration ofmeasure up in international terms as a truly vital sector of globally significant enterprises extending from high-techa global city.industries at Macquarie Park to Sydney International Airport. In the process, the role of North Sydney wasThe problem with the commercial core of North Sydney finally highlighted when the City of Cities plan linked itis simply that it has been a commercial core, dormant for symbolically and economically with the City of Sydneythe most part outside business hours Monday to Friday. It at the centre of the corridor in a twin-city cluster termedis literally a CBD, a single-use business district lacking Global Sydney. This was defined as: the 24/7 diversity and cultural depth of a truly vital sector of a global city.The main focus for national and international business, professional services, specialised healthThe MUDD25 North Sydney Studio took this condition as and education precincts, specialised shops anda starting point, seeing the over-Metro development as tourism, it is also a recreation and entertainmentnot just another commercial complex but as a catalyst destination for the Sydney region and has nationalfor a dramatic shift to diversity and vitality through urban and international significance (NSW Department ofintensification. Planning 2005, p.92).Grounded in the principles of urban design as public A Plan for Growing Sydney in 2014 maintained the Globalpolicy, the studio undertook three investigationsSydney concept, although the above definition appliedfirst, an historical analysis of how the North Sydney more to the City of Sydney than to the commercial corecommercial core came to be built in such a limited, that had developed at North Sydney. In 2018, the NSWsingle-use way; second, a rigorous survey of the Government through the Greater Sydney Commissionbuilding stock, Council-owned property, public open published the Greater Sydney Region Plan, A Metropolisspace, critical sun angles, and social dynamics of the of Three Cities that confirmed North Sydney along withcommercial core today; and third, selective analyses the City of Sydney as the prime centre within the greaterof the feasibility of dramatic change in property metropolitan context. In the process, its standing wasdevelopment terms.strangely downplayed by re-naming the Global Sydney cluster as the Eastern Harbour City (Greater SydneyThe historical analysis yielded a cautionary note but Commission 2018, pp.6, 20). The setting of Northalso a mechanism for change. The transformation of Sydney on the heights above Sydney Harbour gives it aNorth Sydney into a high-end commercial precinct spectacular identity in combination with the waterfrontwas driven by the road and rail connections to Central 40P3-20200301-SYDNEY STUDIO.indd 5 2020/3/5 19:32:17'