Unlocking Sustainable Urban Development with The Symphony Centre

How will dense urban areas regenerate to deliver vibrant and economically prosperous outcomes whilst ensuring that infrastructure in place will serve its communities for decades to come? How will cities future-proof their proposition in the global competition for quality of life?

A central challenge for expanding urbanisation sits in fit-for-purpose transport networks. In large metropolitan cities, transit options along key corridors are the most effective way to service mass footfall, supplemented by clear walkability to key city zones as well as functional bus and cycle routes.

When you match practical transit planning with the development of quality civic spaces that enhance universal access, and combine it with a diverse mixed-use approach to real-estate and urban design - a smart, sustainable city is unlocked.

Transport Oriented Developments (TODs) are mixed-use developments anchored around public transit networks.

A multidisciplinary approach to city planning and urban renewal, TOD’s weave together transport, infrastructure, urban design, and property development to deliver vibrant, diverse and liveable communities within a city. Designed to generate more sustainable outcomes for growing populations, the TOD concept promotes compact, walkable, pedestrian-oriented precincts centered around high quality train systems.

A development philosophy growing in trend and popularity with city planners across the globe, TOD’s are an effective way of improving the economic performance of metropolitan areas as they grow - yielding a sustainable model for increasing urban sprawl.

Singapore: Singapore has set a world-leading benchmark for the successful development of a dense urban area into an economically prosperous, liveable city. The city invested in high quality public transport infrastructure and strategically integrated world-class urban development to not only provide residents a high standard of living, but to become a global business hub.

Kuala Lumpur: Led by our development partners MRCB, Kuala Lumpur Sentral is Malaysia’s crown jewel of TODs. In the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Sentral Station is the country’s largest train station and is an intermodal hub which services all passenger rail for the city and inter-city connections. Completed in 2015 KL Sentral created a new business hub financial hub for the city, with the development of hotels, office towers, condominiums and shopping malls.

Copenhagen: Denmark’s capital city boasts a TOD plan that started back in the late 1940s after World War II. Known as the ‘Five Finger Plan’ Copenhagen designated its growth along five corridors of urban development which stretched out from the city's central business district (like the palm of a hand). This plan allowed the city to grow, prioritising recreation and agriculture - especially between the ‘fingers’ - while providing robust transit links from the city.

Hong Kong: Kowloon Station is a prime example of TOD and yields a successful blueprint for effective place-making and commercial outcomes. A mini-city within itself, Kowloon Station has a mall, residential, hotels, commercial office, an airport rail link and is at the very heart of Hong Kong’s comprehensive rail system.

Tāmaki Makaurau is in a critical era of urban regeneration. We have keenly watched the transformation of notable city centre precincts like Britomart, Wynyard Quarter and Commercial Bay - all with waterfront proximity and real estate - come to life in recent years. But as the transformation continues to work its way up through midtown and along the hotly anticipated CRL line, there is a vital opportunity to devise a central hub and reframe the heart of the city.

The Symphony Centre will be New Zealand’s first true Transport-Oriented Development. Built above and integrated with Te Waihorotiu Station, it will serve as a vertical village combining retail, hospitality, commercial and residential to bring to the city a new model of inner-city living.

In partnership with urban regeneration specialists Eke Panuku Development Auckland, the development forms part of the Auckland Council group’s City Centre Masterplan, a strategic framework designed to unlock the city’s potential. The Symphony Centre is a critical urban regeneration project that addresses the strong focus on the Waihorotiu/Queen Street Valley and the need to make the area more accessible, more attractive and more prosperous, with pedestrian-friendly streets and better connections to the rest of the city centre.

In Tāmaki Makaurau’s pursuit of becoming the world’s most liveable city, The Symphony Centre is a bold, forward-thinking, sustainable endeavour that will forever enhance the city centre and its patrons.