After a program of design and construction that spanned more than four years, the International Convention Centre (’ICC’) Sydney is to be officially opened in December 2016.
Located in Darling Harbour, ICC Sydney will be a hub of venues and spaces for conventions, exhibitions, and entertainment that will be linked and adaptable.
The suite of venues will include seven exhibition halls; a raised, open-air Event Deck; three auditoria, the largest of which will have an 8,000-seat seating capacity; a Grand Ballroom; and 70 meeting rooms.
MGAC, as the project access consultants, have worked collaboratively with the ICC Sydney consortium to embed accessibility into as many facets of the project as possible.
Seamless accessible connections have been allowed for in the integrated design across the venues, as well as across a revamped public realm that will stretch from Cockle Bay through to Haymarket.
ICC Sydney will also feature a standard-setting array of accessible features for the use of patrons and members of the public.
These include lowered service counters and hearing augmentation at key points of sale and enquiry; power-assisted operation at entry doorways into the premier venues; a centrally-located Changing-Places facility; and fire refuge spaces as part of the egress strategies.
That such a degree of accessibility on such a scale has been delivered in this project has been a credit to commitment of the development consortium, which included LendLease and joint-venture designers Hassell + Populous.
The MGAC team are honoured to have contributed counsel and advocacy to a project that has set a formidable benchmark for accessibility.
Eden Fong