Church Street Mall in the centre of Parramatta was not much more than a street blocked to traffic with tired shops. Parramatta Council underwent a $5M refurbishment of the space, transforming Church Street Mall into Centenary Square.  The revitalisation aims to improve connectivity and re-establish the space as the civic centre of the city. The geometry of the street is broken to create a proper square able to cater for large community events and gatherings.

The landscape design, by JMD Design, de-clutters the existing mall and introduces a restrained, contemporary palette, focusing on a unified ground plane and locating seating and other infrastructure to the edges.  The larger open Square is subtly delineated by a change in pavement pattern and, during periods of non-events, is activated through a significant animated and illuminated water play fountain incorporated within the pavement.

To further activate the space, three kiosks will be built in and around the square. One will house an information centre managed by Council, the other two will be leased to food and beverage tenants.

While of a traditional geometry, the kiosks feature a contemporary appearance changing with the quality of the ambient light. During the day, the mirror pattern reflects the surrounding space in a distorted manner due to its circular shape. The coloured fabric roof will tint the proximity of the kiosk. At night, the kiosks are glowing like giant light boxes. The walls are illuminated from within with different colours. The mirror pattern then, will appear in silhouette.

Project team:

Client: Parramatta Council (Rod Cook, John Graham, Jim Stefan, Kati Westlake)

Architects: Lacoste+Stevenson (Simon Howard, Thierry Lacoste, Angela Rowson, Melanie Schofield)

Landscape architects: JMD Design (Anton James, David Warwick)

BCA / Accessibility: Design confidence (Luke Sheehy)

Lighting: Electrolight (Donn Salisbury, Catriona Simmons)

Graphic Design: Toko (Eva Dijkstra, Michael Lugmyar)

Structure: SDA (Andrew Simpson, Nick Reichinger)

Electrical: Electrical Design Consulting (Larry Tan)

QS: Coutts Cost Consulting (Alan Jenkins)