The Griffin Legacy
The national capital is one of Australia's greatest assets. As the seat of Government, the city is a vital part of the nation's history and an important visitor destination.
Yet Canberra has not realised its full potential. The landscapes and monuments are not matched by a cosmopolitan lifestyle expected of such an important national and international centre. Parts of the city give a glimpse of the grand civic design envisaged by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin - of parks and boulevards, public buildings and monuments - but others are an anticlimax.
Urban development pressures and traffic threaten to diminish the capital's special qualities, to encroach on its leafy garden suburbs and erode its celebrated landscape setting.
It is time to look to the future. A far-sighted strategy is needed to ensure that the nation's capital in the 21st century realises its potential and can accommodate the best of contemporary urban development.
The NCA is providing the framework to complete Griffin's plan, outlined in the Griffin Legacy, released December 2004, with great support.
The NCA has developed a model showing detailed Griffin Legacy planning and how the central national areas of Canberra can look in the future. This model is on display to the public at the National Capital Exhibition.
The model demonstrates how the Griffin Legacy, as the blueprint for the central national area of Canberra, will transform West Basin into a vibrant and spacious lakeside promenade, City Hill into the heart of Civic and Constitution Avenue adapted into a grand boulevard linking the educational centres.
See the model of Canberra today and how it could look tomorrow at the National Capital Exhibition, Commonwealth Park between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday, 10am and 4pm Saturday and Sunday (closed on public holidays).
Or you can view a short film about the Griffin Legacy on-line.