Barangaroo: now is the time to heed Macquarie's legacy

In cities, buildings come and go while streets remain. Architecture is mostly a sideshow to the main event, which is the street (''Back to the drawing board'', May 13). The real success of New York is based on its regular grid of generous 22-metre and 30-metre wide streets.

Macquarie Street, one of Sydney's finest streets, is 25 metres wide and runs from Hyde Park to the harbour. It is edged by parks and public buildings. Buildings along the western edge have come and gone. Most recently a Ken Woolley building was replaced by a Renzo Piano building.

The tragedy with Barangaroo is not, as Elizabeth Farrelly presents, that the architecture is "too big or boring" (''Think big but make it exciting'', May 12). The real tragedy with Barangaroo is that the state government did not follow Macquarie's lead and lay out the streets, parks and public buildings as a lasting legacy and a great city. Worse still, a private corporation dictated the public space.

At Barangaroo the horse has bolted and we are left to read about architectural trivia. The greatest tragedy is to know that the competition winning scheme by Thalis, Irwin and Berkemeier had Macquarie Street as its model.

Macquarie's brief was to form a town. Lend Lease's is to make a profit.

Peter McGregor Redfern

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