[ McGregor Westlake Architecture ] Sam Fiszman Park 2007

Sam Fiszman Park 2007 Sydney
Landscape Architecture 360°, Sydney
McGregor Westlake Architecture, Sydney
Project Team
Liam Noble (360°)
Peter McGregor (McGregor Westlake Architecture)
Daniel Baffsky (360°)
Art Consultant Peter McGregor
Engineer Partridge Partners
Builder Synergy Resource Management
Landscape Contractor Coordinated Landscapes
Excavation revealed a mosaic of different rock platforms and floaters, requiring the designers to work on site with drawings from eye level to help calculate edges and steps

Photos: Dianna Snape

This small public park, named after Polish migrant Sam Fiszman, is a redevelopment of Ben Buckler Point on Bondi Beach. A collection of small spaces engage with the particularities of the site, sitting exactly here and exactly there like jigsaw pieces, and develop directed, rather than passive, relationships with the views on the edge of Sydney Harbour. Two concrete lookouts, crouching on the sandstone cliffs, stick out like ships' prows or Juliet balconies. Standing in one, the viewer looks south to the Waverley Cemetery headland; the other points out to sea.

Behind them is a flat, sandy terrace with a large circular lawn element in the middle. There is a distinct contrast between this peaceful level space; the lookouts, with their almost-domestic glazed blue interiors; and the cliffs below, which move steeply down to the water in wild, jagged jumps. Steps and edges are anchored to eccentric rock elements discovered by the designers rather than to measurements, requiring on-site drawing from eye-level and a strong relationship with the form-worker.

Like an ideally placed picnic rug, the circle podium looks over the site to the view beyond, bypassing the sandstone cliffs
Named for Polish migrant Sam Fiszman, the park has two pointed balconies that direct attention to arresting views