Meet the team behind Municipal Baths site design

A GROUP of landscape architects, water engineers and visual media artists from property and infrastructure consulting firm Spiire has been revealed as the team behind the design of the new urban park in Barnard Street.

The park sits on the site of the original Bendigo Municipal Baths, which opened in 1913 and served as a popular location for swimming and bathing until the adjoining Olympic swimming pool (now Faith Leech Aquatic Centre) opened in 1958.

Over time the old infrastructure was removed, including a grandstand and changerooms, and the site was fenced off to the public.

In 2014 the City of Greater Bendigo developed a master plan for Rosalind Park which recommended the restoration of the plot.

Fast forward more than a decade and Spiire’s design for the precinct has successfully brought the neglected location back to life, with improvements to the quality and presentation of the water thanks to indigenous riparian and aquatic vegetation being planted.

Gemma Fennell, landscape architect and senior associate at Spiire’s Bendigo office, said when starting out the design it was important for the project team to honour the local community’s collective memory of the place.

“From the initial (50-page) brief from council we came up with our own set of goals and visions for this site, both working back in with (the brief) and from our own research and concepts,” she said.

Ms Fennell said the vision developed for the project acknowledged how special it is in Bendigo to be beside water and feeling its cooling effects in summer.

“We live in Bendigo, we’ve got the Bendigo Creek (but) we don’t have a river or a key water body, and it’s a very hot, dry climate, so we wanted to create a space where people could be immersed in the water’s landscape and have that connection to water,” she said.

“It’s been a really big privilege to work on such a significant project in the centre of Bendigo.

“Having access to this parkland that’s been closed since the 1980s is really exciting. We hope that everybody comes and enjoys it.”