City Walk
The transformation of City Walk between Garema Place and Ainslie Place is now open, providing an oasis of gardens in our city centre. More than 3,000 plants, 635 square metres of lawns, improved lighting, and extra street furniture have been added.
The upgrade has brought new life to the area, creating places for people to spend time, and connect with family and friends.
Local businesses have benefited from the upgrade with the revitalised site driving increased foot traffic and directing pedestrians closer to shopfronts, while leaving the central spaces free for people to relax and enjoy.
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We have introduced a program of live performances in the city centre called Lunchbox Acoustic to activate the area.The program features talented, local artists performing weekdays at lunchtime (12pm -1:30pm) in City Walk.These live performances bring life to the heart of the city and encourage people to spend time in our city centre's outdoor public spaces.The Lunchbox Acoustic program is a diverse mix of performances by entertainers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, female and non-binary performers, singers and musicians and theatre, poetry and dance artists.
To find out what’s on this week visit our What’s on Page.
New garden beds have been installed to add greenery to City Walk, including 17 new steel-framed raised garden beds and 8 new ground-level garden beds. Based around and under the existing plane trees, the garden beds contain more than 3,000 new plants. They’re designed to complement the new furniture, creating places to sit, relax and socialise.
The plants have been selected to add more ground level foliage and lush leaf colour all year round. The new plantings include 20 species of banksias, violas, agapanthus, bergenia, grevilleas, lomandra, dianellas, kangaroo paws, cycads, correas and tree ferns.
The upgrade includes 635 square metres of lawn to provide opportunities for relaxation, play and enjoyment the year-round. The lawns were installed at ground-level for easy access. The new space is great for picnics or just to stretch out and take-it easy. The new deciduous copse of silver birchs and avenue of Japanese elm trees will give life to the lawns, providing shade in summer and allowing sunlight in winter.
A selection of new street furniture is now available in City Walk to create more spaces for people to sit, eat and spend time catching up with friends or simply enjoying a break in the heart of the city. Seats, benches, stools, chaise lounges, high tables, coffee tables, chairs and seating walls have been added. The furniture under the trees are made with robust frames and sustainably sourced timber.
For this project we took a placemaking, people-first approach, tapping into local knowledge and the communities' attitudes, aspirations, and feelings about the space.The City Walk Upgrade built on the principles of the City Plan (2014) and the City Precinct Renewal Program( 2019), exploring how people used the spaces, and what improvements they would like to see. Further consultation, retail studies, and pedestrian movement studies were conducted to inform our decisions for the design of the City Walk Upgrade.
Construction began in July 2020 and was completed in November 2020.