John McAslan + Partners

Infrastructure

Central Station

A cathedral-like concourse brings clarity, light and ease to one of the world’s busiest transport hubs

Central Station has been a lynchpin of Sydney’s transport network since 1906, and now serves as the principal interchange between overground rail and the new Sydney Metro, Australia’s largest transport project of recent times. Enlarging and modernising the station meant radically improving the passenger experience, while protecting the heritage-listed Edwardian terminus by Walter Liberty Vernon.

The design of the Metro station and associated upgrades to Central were jointly led by John McAslan & Partners and Woods Bagot. The collaboration produced a clear organisation and cohesive architectural language before JMP assumed responsibility for the masterplanning and design of the Northern Concourse. Replacing a warren of dark pedestrian tunnels, this 140m-long, 16m-high navigational hub was conceived as a light-filled urban room – a contemporary answer to the vaulted halls of rail’s golden age.

Information / data

Client: Laing O’Rourke for Sydney Metro
Dates: 2018—2023
Architects:
John McAslan + Partners with Woods Bagot

Consultants

Aurecon

GDH

General Contractor:

Laing O’Rourke

Awards

Winner

Australian Institute of Architects NSW Architecture Awards, NSW Architecture Medallion for Sydney Central Station in collaboration with Woods Bagot as part of Sydney Metro City, 2025
Australian Institute of Architects NSW Architecture Awards, Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design for Sydney Central Station in collaboration with Woods Bagot as part of Sydney Metro City, 2025
Architizer A+, 2025
2025 AIA International Design Awards, Merit Award for Architecture, 2025
World Architecture Festival, WAF Completed Buildings: Transport, 2025
Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) National Awards, Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design, Sydney Metro City Stations, 2025
World Architecture News, 2024
Engineers Australia Excellence Awards, Sydney Division Project of the Year, 2023
Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award, 2021

Celebrating movement
Bathed in daylight from a soaring sculptural roof, the Northern Concourse promotes the smooth flow of up to 450,000 daily passengers between intercity, suburban, light rail and Metro lines, while offering an uplifting experience.

From Eddy Avenue, Metro passengers enter the station through the 1936 Central Electric Building, where a new understorey was excavated to give direct access to the lower level of the concourse. Natural light and views of trains guide the way to platforms, while streams of passengers pouring through the lower level make a spectacle to be enjoyed from the glass-fronted balcony above. Overhead, reflected daylight animates the roof canopy, whose heroic scale and sinuous curves further add to the sense of dynamism.

Signature structure
The dramatic curving roof inset with kite-shaped skylights gives the station a distinctive and memorable new visual identity, but one derived from the historic architecture: its profile describes half an arch, in tribute to the distinctive flattened arches found throughout Vernon’s building.

Spanning the broad concourse, the structure is formed from eight steel trusses resembling hockey sticks, which rise from the gateline to float over the original terminus roof. To minimise disruption to station operations, the large-scale components were prefabricated off-site and assembled during night shifts. Elegant details and the fluid geometries of the canopy and skylights make a lightweight counterpoint to the sandstone facades of Vernon’s building. Externally the structure is clad in aluminum that will grey over time to match historic roofs.

Celebrating heritage
Given the heritage significance of the 1906 terminus the project demanded a sensitive approach, which was developed in partnership with heritage specialists OCP Architects and balances careful conservation with confident additions.

The initial design competition brief required that new works should be subservient to the listed building, with the concourse roof tucked below its parapet. Instead, JMP successfully proposed that the new structure should rise above the original terminus, celebrating the historic building by framing it from within and capping it externally. A respectful distance is maintained: the roof oversails the Central Electric Building and touches the Stationmaster’s House lightly, with a thin glass margin providing visual separation.

Remodelling of the Central Electric Building reveals the historic structure more fully, and its warm sandstone facades are echoed in the material palette adopted throughout the additions to the station.

Urban impact
Building new transport infrastructure can create benefits that extend far beyond the ‘red line’ of the site boundary. For millions of travellers, the Northern Concourse will be their first impression of Sydney, and its high, arching roof and long vistas make an expansive gesture of welcome. The remodelled station also acts as the gateway to fast-changing neighbourhoods, establishing through-routes that link districts to the east and west and give shape to new development catalysed by the arrival of the Metro. The airy concourse is both an efficient means of managing passenger flows and a significant public space in its own right – a busy city square framed by stone facades.

Walter Liberty Vernon’s original terminus building was a symbol of its era, exuding pride and confidence in contemporary technologies of construction and transportation. As Sydney’s rail network begins a new chapter, the additions to Central station honour its history and reflect the civic ambitions of our own time.