Project Type: Place Plan and Strategy
Year: 2025
Client: Inner West Council
Reactivate Consulting is currently leading the development of a Place Strategy and Public Domain Concept Plan for Norton Street, one of Sydney’s most historically significant high streets. Once celebrated as the heart of Sydney’s Italian community, Norton Street is now at a critical transition point — facing increased vacancies, shifting demographics, and changing patterns of visitation. Our role is to help shape a ten-year vision for the precinct that is rooted in local character and capable of responding to contemporary urban and economic needs.
Engaged by Inner West Council, our multidisciplinary team is delivering a Placemaking and Activation Framework alongside a Public Domain Concept Plan. These two streams of work operate in parallel, with engagement and site analysis forming the connective tissue between them. The work includes extensive consultation with local businesses, residents, community groups, and cultural stakeholders, and builds on earlier Council strategies, precinct-specific studies, and renewal programs such as Renew Leichhardt and PRUAIP.
Our approach is focused on restoring vibrancy to the street through layered activations, improved streetscape design, and support for existing and emerging cultural uses. Norton Street already offers a unique platform — a walkable corridor framed by historic façades, independent retail, Italian cafés and delis, co-working spaces, exhibition areas, and creative studios. The public realm features vibrant street art and artists installations, rainbow benches, locally designed garbage bins, and student-made murals. From temporary music pop-ups to annual events like Leichhardt Fiesta, the precinct holds significant potential for place-based programming that invites both daily use and destination-making.
We are working to build on this potential by identifying new opportunities for interactive public installations, rethinking streetscape infrastructure, and integrating adaptable spaces for cultural expression, outdoor dining, and night-time activation. Accessibility, sustainability, and public safety remain core to the design brief — as does ensuring the street remains an affordable and authentic space for the diverse community it serves.
The final strategy will include short- and long-term implementation pathways aligned with Council’s capital works programming, and will offer a clear framework for guiding investment in the precinct over the next decade.