Jack Evans Boat Harbour has taken out a top award at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) NSW Awards for 2011, presented at a ceremony in Sydney late last week.
The joint submission from Tweed Shire Council and design consultants ASPECT Studios, won the AILA NSW Medal for Landscape Architecture, the top State award which is ranked higher than the annual event’s other awards for excellence.
The AILA is the peak national organisation representing the interests of the Australian landscape architecture profession, which oversees the professional recognition of Registered Landscape Architects.
The award judges said the $8 million Stage One of Jack Evans Boat Harbour was “an outstanding example of transformation in a regional coastal town”.
“It has enriched an existing park experience to create a unique civic place of waterfront leisure,” the judges said in their comments.
“It is visually compelling and beautiful; it has provided for a rich variety of recreational and aquatic activities; and is ingeniously introduces a refined solution to a complex hydrological environment subject to tidal, river and coastal climatic pressures”.
Tweed Mayor Councillor Barry Longland, said this was a well respected award and receiving it was an indication of the quality and quantity of planning, design and consideration which had gone into the Jack Evans Boat Harbour project.
“The Jack Evans Boat Harbour has been wholeheartedly embraced by its community who have reconnected to their forgotten waterfront,” Mayor Longland said.
“Not only has it introduced a new scale and quality of public landscape infrastructure to the Tweed, it has also provided impetus for economic revitalisation of the broader Tweed Heads area, which is critical.
“This is the gateway to the Tweed, and it’s ‘wow factor’ is undeniable, a fact that has been emphasised by this prestigious award.
“Tweed residents should be proud that our Jack Evans Boat Harbour came out number one ahead of a field of high-profile projects including Sydney’s $13 million Darling Quarter.
“Congratulations to all Council staff involved in the project, as well as the joint recipient of the award, ASPECT Studios,” Councillor Longland said.
“In particular, I would like to congratulate and recognise the work of Council’s landscape architecture project officer Georgina Wright for her dedication to, and belief in, this project over many years,” he said.
The new 4.9 hectare park, which opened mid-year, marks the transition between the river and the sea. The water’s edge has been designed to allow the tidal nature of the Tweed River itself to create a unique experience every time a person visits the parkland, and also withstand tidal inundation and potential storm surges.
The design offers experience and recreational opportunities by creating a series of distinct relationships with the water – a new beach and beach deck, a new rocky headland, an ‘urban pier’, boardwalk, water amphitheatre, swimming areas, fishing points and boating opportunities.
The Jack Evans Boat Harbour project also recently won an award for the best ‘Irrigation’ project at the Landscape Queensland Association Awards for 2011. It was also a key element in Tweed Shire Council receiving the 2011 AR Bluett Award for the best shire council in New South Wales.
