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The revised design for the City of Sydney's Cloud Arch public artwork project has been released - and the cost has increased from $3.5 million to $11.3 million.
Designed by Japanese artist and architect Junya Ishigami, the sculpture will span 53 metres from the Queen Victoria Building across George Street to the intersection with Park Street at Town Hall.
Pedestrians and the George Street light rail line, which is currently under construction, would pass underneath the 58-metre-high steel sculpture.
The council said there were a number of technical challenges with the initial design and the location of the footings had to be changed.
As a result, 140 tonnes of steel would be required, up from 58 tonnes. In addition, the increase in the price of steel had increased by 43 per cent since 2015.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the outlay would be "repaid many times" by the additional tourists who would visit Sydney to view the artwork.
"Cloud Arch is the most significant artwork to be built in Australia for decades and will help raise our city's profile on the world stage," she said.
"It will become a symbol for Sydney and a popular drawcard for residents, workers, tourists and visitors."
"There'll be the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Cloud Arch and they'll be really important places, destinations for people," Ms Moore told ABC Radio Sydney.
The original design, released in 2014, had an estimated height of 50 to 74 metres and a span of 28.5 metres.
'Great big white elephant'
The council said the increase in cost could be covered by using funds set aside for Hany Armanious' Pavilion artwork in Belmore Park - a piece dubbed the plastic "milk crate".
Further, it could reallocate savings from the public domain budget, it said.
Liberal councillor Christine Forster said she will oppose funding for the project when it comes before council for approval.
"$11 million is an awful lot of money on what is essentially a great big white elephant," she said.
"The Lord Mayor hasn't brought it back to council to ask for our approval yet but when she does I'll be opposing it.
"It's an extraordinary waste of ratepayers' money."
Cost blowout unacceptable: Labor
But Labor Councillor Linda Scott said the cost blowout was not acceptable.
"This will necessarily mean cuts to council services for residents, less green spaces, fewer affordable housing places or delays in other important city infrastructure that was planned," she said.
"I think residents and businesses will be pretty upset about that in the City of Sydney."
But Ms Moore said it was the council's responsibility to provide beautiful spaces for the public to enjoy.
"Homelessness and affordable housing are really high priorities for us ... but creating great public places for people is also a priority and think we need to do both," she said.
The council has lined up a variety of prominent people to speak in support of the project, including executive director of the Sydney Business Chamber Patricia Forsythe who said: "Art is always subjective and the fact is, this sculpture will be a major talking point and will enhance the city's pulling power."
Architect Penelope Seidler said Cloud Arch would "be the most exciting design to emerge on the Sydney scene since the Opera House. I know it will become a Sydney icon".
Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Elizabeth Ann McGregor said similar large public art projects overseas had been beset by problems, but "the inevitable difficulties in delivering them are quickly outweighed by the impact".
"All the initial criticism of Antony Gormley's Angel of the North is long forgotten, as it has become the symbol of the regeneration of the City of Gateshead in the UK."
If approved, construction of Cloud Arch is expected to be complete before March 2019.
Topics: contemporary-art, visual-art, local-government, urban-development-and-planning, sydney-2000
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