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EmailBill Tsakalos, City Architect & Director Transformational Design, Blacktown City Council.
St Bartholomew’s Cemetery is a cemetery which, having reached interment capacity, lacked purpose and visitation and consequently fell into disrepair.
A bold initiative by Blacktown City Council to declare it as one of ten Transformational Projects rebirths St Bartholomew’s into a multipurpose facility that deploys clever design initiatives to enable public passive recreation, environmental management and cultural celebration to be added to the site’s uses. With the ‘new’ Stage 1 under construction within the existing cemetery site a masterplan has been developed to add 7.5 hectares to the cemetery that should see it continue to service Western Sydney for the next 20-25 years.
This presentation will focus on the issues encountered and solutions employed to enable the project.
Bill Tsakalos joined Blacktown City Council as its first City Architect in 2015 and was appointed a Director in 2018. He leads over 80 staff comprising engineers, architects, landscape architects, scientists and project managers. Bill’s public and private sector experience in Australia, USA, Europe and the Middle East includes infrastructure, public space, commercial and residential projects.
He is on the State Design Review Panel, the Transport for NSW Design Review Panel and has chaired the AIA NSW Award Juries for Public Architecture, Educational Architecture Houses and Enduring Architecture. As Director, City Projects at the City of Sydney he prepared the City to host the 2000 Olympics and consequently served on the Sydney Olympic Park Design Review Panel for 14 years. He holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
