It’s official: Maitland Levee has been named the best civic landscape design in the state.
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The crew behind the revamped mall, McGregor Coxall, took out the top gong in the civic landscape category at the prestigious Australian Institute of Landscape Architects NSW awards in July.
The Levee will now be pitted against projects from across the country at the national awards in October.
McGregor Coxall CEO and founder, Adrian McGregor, said he was “absolutely stoked” with the recognition of the project, which he described as “ground-breaking” for its scope and style.
“We think it’s well deserved,” Mr McGregor said.
“It’s ground-breaking for regional NSW – for regional Australia, really.”
To take out the award in the country’s most populous and most contested state was no small feat, Mr McGregor said.
“In NSW, that’s the biggest award for the year,” he said.
Mr McGregor was confident the Levee design could be successful on a national scale. “We think it will win even more awards.”
The result is a re-endorsement of the $7m Maitland Heritage Mall upgrade, which initially courted controversy with a contingent of shoppers and traders concerned the design had safety risks and didn’t fit in with its heritage surroundings.
However, the institute’s seven person judging panel found the Levee’s paving and lighting helped highlight the century old buildings around it, while the shared driver-pedestrian zone had helped reinvigorate the mall economically and socially.
In their appraisal of the winning entry, the jury stated that the project demonstrated the value of “investing in high quality civic spaces, with an impressive impact on vacancy rates in the town centre”.
“The Levee respects the historic character of Maitland’s High Street and embodies a new identity for its future … The construction of the River Link building and river walk will complete the project vision, engaging the new heart of town with its unique river setting,” the citation stated.
Mr McGregor said the mall reconstruction was one part of turning Maitland into “a fantastic destination” with the under-construction Riverlink Building to also play a key role.
“The end game is to really see the river front activated and more shops facing on to the river,” he said.