2016 National Landscape Architecture Awards: Award of Excellence for Infrastructure

Jury comment

The exemplary design and delivery of Bowen Place Crossing demonstrate the benefits that well-designed, integrated and contextual infrastructure can provide cities, particularly when designed with a landscape approach. Located within the national capital’s Parliamentary Zone, the project not only improves access and connects people with Lake Burley Griffin, it also reinforces the civic nature of Canberra’s Burley Griffin Plan.

The sculptural qualities of the project reinforce the designers’ vision of building more than a physical link across Kings Avenue. The project responds to existing geometries and creates new views to the

National Carillon. The scale, fluidity, material selection and landscape of Bowen Place Crossing reference the land art movement as well as Canberra’s modernist landscape architecture and architecture, including the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Australia.

The simplicity of the design belies the complexity of successfully meeting the challenges of transforming the functional into the splendid, including the significant excavations required.

Bowen Place Crossing sets an exemplary standard in the design of infrastructure in Australia.

For more coverage read Roger Pegrum’s review of Bowen Place Crossing from Architecture Australia, March 2016.