La Piazza and La Strada

Sign that reads Piazza
Year started

2006

Stage 2 opened in 2010

Designer

Lend Lease for Bevillesta Pty Ltd

About La Piazza and La Strada

This modern shopping complex with residential apartments above was started in 2006 and Stage 2 was opened by Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2010. 

Top Ryde City replaced an earlier retail centre opened in 1957. Known as Top Ryde Shopping Centre, it was the first such modern shopping complex in NSW. 

The original centre was designed as a shopping street centred on a major department store, A.J. Benjamin & Co, a supermarket, a chain variety store, and 45 other shops grouped around a pedestrian mall, with 400 car parking spaces.

The centre's catch phrase was "Come as you are... shop in comfort" and it offered a new experience to shoppers who previously travelled to Sydney or Parramatta to visit such a wide range of shops. Top Ryde grew to park 600 cars whereas the new centre occupies several levels, with space for 3,000 cars, and incorporates over 600 apartments above the shopping levels.

Take time for a coffee and to look a little closer at some of the architectural features around the complex. The vertical garden and laser-cut corten steel floral sculptures above La Strada are attractive, as is the use of cream and grey granite and black basalt pavers throughout the complex.

When the administrative needs of the City of Ryde outgrew the now demolished Ryde Civic Centre, three important council services of Development Advisory Services, Community Services and the Library were incorporated into the development.

Location

6/8 Pope St, Ryde 2112  View Map

Google Map
Back to top