The Queen’s Wharf integrated resort project will transform 1km of Brisbane’s north river bank from the city’s ugly duckling into its swan.

Exclusive “before” and “after” artists’ impressions show how the dead zone will become a hive of activity with event spaces, boardwalks, pop-up coffee shops, a nightly light show and grassy spaces for families and office workers.

The architect behind the project, Stephen Pate, director of CUSP landscape architecture and urban design, says the area underneath the Riverside Expressway will become one of Brisbane’s most defining spaces.

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“The freeway has really diminished the whole side of the city’s prospects and we’ve grown over time to realise the river isn’t a drain and it’s a place to be enjoyed and it’s become really the icon of the city,’’ he told couriermail.com.au.

“This site has the capacity to really define our city stronger as a subtropical city with the river at its heart.’’

In all, there will be 12 football fields of public space developed under the Destination Brisbane Consortium’s winning bid.

These areas will be among the first constructed as part of the multi-billion dollar Queen’s Wharf project, which includes new hotels, restaurants, casino and new retail shopping.

Echo Entertainment Group’s managing director and chief executive officer Matt Bekier says plans for the public realm were a central part of the bid.

“If you think about that patch under the motorway, it’s terrible,’’ he said.

“If we get in there and extend and activate it by putting in pop-up restaurants and great public event spaces … and you get people to actually use the space, it will be valued and it will have much greater longevity than anything else, so I think it’s actually a good way for government to get us to invest.”

Pate’s plans include revitalising the city’s birthplace at the site of the heritage-listed Commissariat Store.

There, the river will be brought back to its original bank as measured in the city’s very first survey.

“It’s almost ironic that the birthplace is actually the most derelict part of the city, whereas other cities have embraced their origins in terms of colonial history, so the Rocks in Sydney is a very well-established example of how these parts can be so active,’’ he said.

Pate, who was part of a team responsible for the River Quay development at South Bank, says his vision will put the river centre stage while paying homage to the city’s indigenous and colonial histories.