The 20 year old Gold Coast Arts Centre, newly renamed as HOTA (Home Of The Arts) now stands as the Gold Coast's premiere cultural facility. An ambitious vision to evolve the precinct saw ARM Architecture, and Berlin based firm Topotek1 win a masterplan bid for the transformation of the 17 hectare precinct with a distinctive Voronoid pattern. CUSP were engaged to join the team of designers, and were responsible for various roles including detailed landscape design and contract administration to see the successful delivery of three stages of the winning masterplan.

CUSP have collaborated with Topotek1 and ARM Architecture, along with other masterplan team members including BIOME and historian Michael Aird at a schematic level and were responsible for leading the construction supervision for Stage One of the development.

CUSP has produced a Botanical Overlay for the entire cultural precinct, which includes an exciting and diverse list of plant species that are durable and sustainable to the local climate. A master plant palette was developed by CUSP to inform landscape design decisions.

This detailed list includes information such as species name, common name, growing conditions, growth habit and designation of plant species per landscape character zone. This is a useful tool, which takes into consideration the site conditions, points of botanical interest, indigenous significance including traditional uses of the plants, flower colour, Australian Native status and plant image. This Botanical Overlay will ensure that the Cultural Precinct has local relevance and longevity.