‘Like Donald Trump designed it’: The Sydney smokestack compared to a chicken nugget

A proposal for a 30-metre-high golden smokestack that will release fumes from traffic emerging from the new Western Harbour Tunnel at Cammeray has been panned as an abomination and a health hazard that resembles Trump Tower in New York or a supersized chicken nugget.

The NSW government’s draft place design and landscape plan says the new ventilation outlet will be a commanding structure when viewed from the Warringah Freeway.

The NSW government has released a draft plan proposing a 30-metre-high ventilation stack near the Ernest Street Bridge at Cammeray.Credit: NSW government

The distinctive building would serve “as a welcoming element to the tunnel when seen from the main entrance ramp”, the draft plan says.

The facade, material and colours of the structures were selected to mimic the shape and colour of local sandstone, and the design would minimise bulk and complement the similar golds and bronzes of the nearby Ernest Street bridge.

But urban planners and residents have been quick to criticise the draft plan. On social media, one local said it had “strong chicken nugget vibes” while another suggested the designers had taken inspiration from popular video game Minecraft.

Western Harbour Tunnel construction at Ernest Street Bridge on Monday.Credit: James Brickwood

North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker said on Monday that she was not surprised at the community outcry and concerns over the “massive smokestacks” that are “more than six stories in height”.

“No matter what you cover them in, they’re not going to be disguised,” she said.

Baker said the unfiltered outlet was within 500 metres of schools and homes in one of the most densely populated precincts in the country.

“The council concern, which is entirely reflective of community agitation since the environmental impact statement was first published, is about it being unfiltered, and it will be one of the longest spans of tunnel coming up the hill from the harbour into Cammeray,” Baker said.

A Transport for NSW spokesperson said no road tunnel in Australia used a filtration system.

Designs from the planning document.Credit: NSW Government

She said the tunnel would be built and operated to comply with current regulations and legislations, and meet strict air quality standards using state-of-the-art ventilation and tunnel design. The location, size and height of the outlets had been determined as part of the air quality assessment for the environmental impact statement.

Emeritus Professor James Weirick, a landscape architect and former director of the Urban Development and Design Program at the University of NSW, said it was “an abomination”.

It was “evidence once again of a project that has been wrongly conceived and appallingly designed from beginning to end, from Haberfield to Rozelle, North Sydney and Cammeray”, he said.

“Given the manifest failings of Transport for NSW across all areas of its responsibilities, [including] tollways, trains, trams, ferries, bicycles, we need a royal commission into its untrammelled power under the Review of Environmental Factors process to approve its own projects, which is destroying our city.”

The ventilation outlet will be located between the north and south lanes of the Warringah Freeway near the Ernest Street Bridge on Sydney’s north shore. Traffic will emerge from a 6.5-kilometre road tunnel connecting the Rozelle Interchange to the freeway after crossing under Sydney Harbour between Birchgrove and Waverton.

A matching ventilation building will also be constructed on the old Cammeray golf club.

Residents think the new smokestack will stick out like a sore thumb. According to the Mosman Collective, a local online paper, resident Ian Hindley said on Facebook that “the giant pollution stack” was meant to minimise the perceived scale of the structure and ensure its sensitive integration with the surrounding environment. “But then you see the picture of it … it’s like Donald Trump designed it.”

The two gold buildings represent the largest “surface intervention” of the $6.7 billion project. They will house equipment and controls to expel air from the tunnels, ensuring the safe operation of the Western Harbour Tunnel.

Transport for NSW is encouraging the public to provide feedback on the draft plan, promising that it would be considered and inform the final design.

The plan is on display until August 28, with community consultations from August 13. The NSW government says it is seeking feedback on ventilation facilities, tunnel entry and exits (the portals), landscape design and tunnel interiors.

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