Great Place - Blue Poles Park
PIA Planning Excellence Commendation for Great Place
SPACELAB's Whitlam Design Team attended the PIA 2023 Awards for Planning Excellence and accepted the commendation award for Great Place category for the "Blue Poles Park" on behalf of their client, the Suburban Land Agency.
In summary PIA commented: "The judges commended how this park was inclusive, landscape led and playful with the Blue Poles innovative theme. It was noted that it was a well-used park and established before residents moved into the area. Overall, the concept was solid and commendable."
Congratulations to Brendon and Tom for their passionate pursuit of urban design and landscape architecture, Jackson for his tireless planning work with a huge stakeholder group, David for his focus and project oversight and to Simon Cox and the team at the Suburban Land Agency for their ongoing commitment to producing desirable liveable communities.
Planning Excellence - Great Place - Blue Poles Park
Blue Poles Park is centrally located within the suburb of Whitlam, and has been designed to provide residents with a unique, highly usable park, which pays homage to Whitlam’s purchase of Jackson Pollock’s famous Blue Poles painting. The park has been designed to include colours and elements from the world famous painting, which helps to encourage residents of the suburb to engage with the arts. But Blue Poles Park doesn't just focus on its connection to the famous painting, it has also been designed to incorporate high quality playground equipment, which suits a wide-range of ages and abilities, allowing kids to explore their creative side, while being engrossed in an inspiring, artistic landscape.
While the kids spend time playing and exploring, Blue Poles Park allows parents to sit back and relax, on a wide range of seating options, with barbeque facilities provided, to make it an all-family destination. All of this, within an area designed by a landscape architect, to ensure the park has a vast array of planting consisting of 9,000 native shrubs, 350 native trees, and natural rock boulders, ensuring it retains a comfortable environment year round.
Given this, Blue Poles Park provides Whitlam with an identifiable landmark, which is able to provide Whitlam with a unique character, as residents are only just moving in.
Throughout the design and development of the overall Whitlam estate, numerous Indigenous Representative Aboriginal Organisation's were engaged, through numerous Cultural Heritage studies, and Statement of Heritage Effects applications. Blue Poles park was officially opened on 22nd August 2022 by Annette Berry MLA. During this opening, a welcome to country and smoking ceremony were held by Indigenous elders who remarked the aspect and views available from such a wonderful space positioned it to once again become a meeting place for all the peoples of the area.
