News & Discussion: Height Limits

[tambi]

What is with the height obsession? I agree the focus should be on the design and quality of the buildings not how tall they are.

[Snorkie]

Well all things considered - If you were in charge, what would your height limit be?

Due to airspace limitations and the 'european look' of Adelaide, I would still probably keep it pretty reasonable. I think 213.5m (700ft) is a good benchmark to suit Adelaide, as it gives possibility of a 'tall' building for its own standards. Not too big, nor too small.

The Currie Street proposal is 123m or 400ft to put into perspective. Anyone agree or has other preferences?

Honestly i dont feel as if we need anything too tall. Dont get me wrong i would love to see lets say a 200m tower, but anything taller would be stupid. What i would love to see happen however, is the heights lifted in areas south of santos. Areas which are so far out of the flight path, that they could easily accomodate a 150m tower, without invading precious airspace. I think 150-160m (or even 140m, with 20m spire) is a height that would work quite well in adelaide, and dont see what the problem is with buildings this height on lets say franklin st, flinders, wakefield and angus, because with the exception of flinders, the others are pretty run down, and if built close to kws, would still keep our 'pyramid' skyline. All that said i would love to see a few 500ft buildings in adelaide before I die.

[Pistol]

All that said i would love to see a few 500ft buildings in adelaide before I die.

Now that depends on how old you are
Lets just fill up our city square before we start worrying about something we can't change. Why do we have to be like every other city in Australia? Do you think that cities like Copenhagen and Stockholm care about building heights? Just give me quality design.

[Ho Really]

...Do you think that cities like Copenhagen and Stockholm care about building heights? Just give me quality design.

We also want a liveable city just as those mentioned. If tall buildings are a consequence of future expanded regulations, so be it, but they should be approved only on their design quality and functionality.

******

Cheers

[rev]

All that said i would love to see a few 500ft buildings in adelaide before I die.

Now that depends on how old you are
Lets just fill up our city square before we start worrying about something we can't change. Why do we have to be like every other city in Australia? Do you think that cities like Copenhagen and Stockholm care about building heights? Just give me quality design.

F'ing A!

[CMA]

He all! Im a newbie! So bear with me

Couldn't they get all planes to land from the ocean end of the runway??

[Pistol]

Hey CMA, welcome aboard! Planes tend to land into the wind and therefore after much study back in the 50s, the calibration of the runway was placed in the most favourable direction for these winds. Therefore if the wind is coming off the sea, the planes will come in from an Easterly direction and vice versa.

[Tyler_Durden]

Planes tend to land into the wind

Correct, but it has more to do with takeoff than landing. Planes take off into the wind, which in Adelaide's case usually means they take off heading west, over Glenelg. They take off into the wind to make the most of the wind moving over the wings. Of course, the wind doesn't always come from the same direction and you will sometimes see the planes take off in an easterly direction. Wind direction isn't so important to landing but air traffic heads in the same direction so they will land facing the same way that planes are taking off.

[duke]

Just looking around to see what other cities are doing. I know we can't really compare Adelaide to others that much because Adelaide is different.
BUT I just read about a new tower in Dubai. Al Burji 1200 meters.. It seems other parts of the world are dramatically starting to upscale throughout Asia and parts of the Middle East. I wonder if this is a sign of how we will be left even further behind if we can't even get more resonable height levels in place.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=291398

[crawf]

I think the world is getting further behind Dubai and parts of the middle east.

[urban]

Any attempt by Adelaide to excite visitors purely on the basis of tall buildings is doomed to failure. There is too much emphasis on this site on building heights. The most important thing for Adelaide is to get the street level activity and infrastructure right. Most of Adelaide's streets present an extremely poor image.

Planning regulations need to be modified to ensure that any new buildings provide active street frontage and a mix of uses to ensure activity is not limited to business hours or weekends.

Council needs to redesign virtually all streets to create pedestrian & cyclist friendly streets. A city wide traffic management plan is needed to get private cars out of the minor streets.

Melbourne's revitalisation was based not on their tall buildings (these followed) but on getting the street level activity and infrastructure right. They implemented the laneways project which concentrated on turning the service lanes and side streets into exciting places and introduced planning regulations which required 70% of street frontage to be active.

Once we get the street level right Adelaide will become a place that people want to spend time in and come back to, then we will have the development pressure which will lead to taller buildings.

[rhino]

BUT I just read about a new tower in Dubai. Al Burji 1200 meters..

Is this correct? That's 1.2km high!.

Also Urban - agree 100% with your post. Well done.

[jimmy_2486]

I wonder why the councils think this way here in regards to what urban said?? Also what they are trying to achieve by acting in this way?? obviously they are trying to achieve something out of it??? but what?? I feel that council members have no vision and couldnt give a rats ass about our future.

[Shuz]

Adelaide could do with a revitalisation of its laneways, of which many are dormant and gloomy. I do love the laneway adjacent to Melbourne Central shopping mall, it is a classic example of inner-city urban living, filled with basement bookstores, arcades, upbeat cafes, you-name-it. The only laneways I can think of that are successful - is Grey Street (i think thats what its called) and the one between Grenfell Centre and Rundle Mall... it has a Starbucks on the corner of the mall.

I think we have the largest CBD in Australia by geographical size and that this has had some effect on the demand for hi-rise buildings, as there is so much room to utilise and expand into. Even if that wasn't a part of the problem, it still is ludicrous to have such draconian limitations, when taking into account of the typical Australian CBD (albeit Sydney, whom we can share the argument with), let alone the international standard. And I swear to god, if one more person says 'airport, flight path, runway, planes' or any other related words... I actually don't know what I'll do, but you'll have me ventilating in frustration as that 'exucse', or lack thereof! It is irrelavent, and I don't wish to bring in the classroom lecture of diagrams and associated textbook information.

[crawf]

Theres a few good laneways in Adelaide such as the ones in the East End (love them!), James Place (especially with the Grenfell Centre in the background), Leigh Street etc...

Though before giving our ugly laneways a makeover lets first fix up the streetscapes especially along Grenfell/Currie St, Pirie St, Franklin/Flinders St, West Terrace and Victoria Square. I wouldn't mind seeing the tramline extended along Hutt Street and the precinct being more developed plus a few alfresco cafes along North Terrace. Another thing is population, increasing the number of people living in the CBD would lure more businesses to the city (such as shops, cafes, restaurants, bars etc...) and giving the city a vibe 7 days a week.

Because at the moment we really don't enough people living around the city area to make it viable for our laneways to be transformed with shops, cafes and restaurants and especially with the already stack load of shops and dining facilities in Adelaide.

However Gawler Place badly needs to be redeveloped, the footpaths need to be widen and paved. Because of its high usage of pedestrian activity.