Optus Stadium
Burswood, Western Australia
Hassell, Cox Architecture, HKS
When the Graham Farmer freeway opened in 2000, it revealed to the citizens of Perth an elevated view of the Swan River and the river’s edge. The freeway and its tunnel (colloquially known as the Polly Pipe, after footy legend Graham “Polly” Farmer) expedited the masses from the northern suburbs to the south by tunnelling under the city’s north, crossing over the Swan and landing on a spongy, open expanse of an oxbow peninsula. The view from the road revealed to the east the glorious architectural carcass of the massive East Perth Power Station and to the south, across the peninsula, an underdeveloped neighbourhood of leisure – horses, golfers, paddlers, its primary residents. Despite its proximity to the CBD, the Burswood…