[COM] SAHMRI | $200m

[pushbutton]

It's certainly not an eyesore. It's spectacular!

Sadly though, it's no use whatsoever to me, as I don't happen to be a scientist.

[Will]

It's certainly not an eyesore. It's spectacular!

Sadly though, it's no use whatsoever to me, as I don't happen to be a scientist.

That's an incredibly short-sighted thing to say. Sure, the building is not designed for 'fun', however you may one day benefit from the scientific discoveries that will be made within its walls. Not to mention the economic benefits to the state that will derive from having such a facility here.

[serca]

Looks amazing Reminds me of the Esplanade - theatres on the bay in Singapore ....

Push button you don't have to be a scientist to appreciate its architecture or the economic advantages this will have have for the state.
You might not be a scientist but judging by some of your previous comments you may just well of been a roller coaster or water slide in your previous life

[Phantom]

It's certainly not an eyesore. It's spectacular!

Sadly though, it's no use whatsoever to me, as I don't happen to be a scientist.

Wait until they develop a cure for something major there, Push! You'll be made to eat your words by everyone on the forums, I reckon. It's only fair.

Even if *knock on wood* you don't ever need to use this building, it's a lot better in that prime bit of Real Estate than some heartless student accommodation building, with a terrible 40m-high blank wall with shitty, already-out-of-date cladding, ruining every postcard shot until the State Gov and ACC can decide on something next to it to detract from its hideousness!

And if that doesn't change your mood on it, it's shiny and pretty.

[pushbutton]

As I said, it LOOKS good! Nay, it looks FANTASTIC!

Personally, I think it would have made a wonderful new casino.

The old casino could have been converted into a scientific research place. Why build a state of the art, inspirational new building, but not let people enjoy it?

[Matt]

Are you trolling, pushbutton?
Or are you really this ridiculous?


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[pushbutton]

I hate trolls, Matt.

I merely state my opinions. Seems some don't agree with me, but as long as they don't make personal attacks on me, that's ok.

I can't see what's ridiculous about wanting to have somewhere to enjoy life. I would have thought everyone wanted that. Clearly I would have been wrong.

However the one time of the year that you can actually have some fun in this city (when the Royal Show is on) the showgrounds are always packed with people. That proves to me that there are at least some (in fact a lot) of people here who do want fun.

Same happens when the Christmas Pageant is on. It's always packed. I'm not the only ridiculous one in this state!

[Nathan]

As I said, it LOOKS good! Nay, it looks FANTASTIC!

Personally, I think it would have made a wonderful new casino.

The old casino could have been converted into a scientific research place. Why build a state of the art, inspirational new building, but not let people enjoy it?

You do realise that the SAHMRI building has been designed very specifically for medical research. It's a state of the art inspirational building for a reason. It's not a matter of 'hey, let's move the casino into this nice looking building'. Likewise, there is no way you could set up medical research labs in the railway station, let alone the cyclotron.

[pushbutton]

Well ok, maybe the railway station isn't necessarily the perfect place for science labs, but I was making a point that there is no overall higher level vision to ensure the public gets maximum use of new developments, nor to give the public somewhere to enjoy exciting recreational and leisure activities.

Yet they keep on coming up with stupid new state logos and slogans, and wondering why there aren't many tourists. It's because there's nothing here for tourists to do (or those who live here)! The money they waste on logos and slogans, and design competitions for unknown future developments, could go some way towards funding things that would actually benefit the public enjoyment of living here, and actually attract real tourism to the state.

The fact there's so much new development along North Terrace, but the government has neglected to do anything about the archaic and decaying festival theatre, is one obvious example of this lack of vision.

[Matt]

Lack of vision? Ridiculous.

Spending half a billion dollars on a 50,000 seat stadium in the city shows a lack of vision?

Altering licensing regulations to encourage the swath of small bars that are popping up shows a lack of vision?

Altering gaming regulations to unlock a multi-hundred million $ extension and redevelopment of the casino shows a lack of vision?

Footbridge to encourage pedestrian links between public transport and a cohesive entertainment precinct shows a lack of vision?

Come on. Really?


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[crawf]

I can't see what's ridiculous about wanting to have somewhere to enjoy life. I would have thought everyone wanted that. Clearly I would have been wrong.

I really don't get your obsession. Your ideas of having 'fun' is things that would of excited me when I was 12 or younger. I would find it personally weird and a bit creepy of a middle aged man running around in a Pirate themed playground designed for children. The only two things that come to mind for adult play equipment are outdoor exercising equipment and ......... well you know.

However the one time of the year that you can actually have some fun in this city (when the Royal Show is on) the showgrounds are always packed with people. That proves to me that there are at least some (in fact a lot) of people here who do want fun.

I'm sorry but didn't you discover the Festival Season for the first time this year?. Also surrounded by screaming kids at the Royal Show isn't what I would classify as 'fun'.

Please just move to the Gold Coast.

[Amused]

*sigh*

I have to agree there is really very little to do for tourists in Adelaide if they have outgrown clubs.

As to the inference that medical research is the opposite of enjoyable well, I get that nobody is going to look up through the windows and be pumped into rave mode by watching scientists filling hundreds of test tubes with various solutions but here's the thing...
There are a great many people who are alive today only through advances in medical technology. I mean, there are SO many people alive and we take it for granted. I'm not just talking about living longer. I'm talking about all of the people with an opportunity to begin living. I remember on ward rounds one day I just took a moment to stop and look around and I was overwhelmed. Some people view sprawling metropolises or having landed on the moon or being able to travel from one side of the planet to the other in less than a day as humanity's greatest achievement. But looking around the neonatal intensive care unit on that day, looking inside 'boxes' containing tiny humans born far too early but are kept alive though incredibly detailed biological/nutritional manipulation, with the incredibly complicated equipment doing things that would take over an hour and three dozen slides to describe in any level of detail and surrounded by doctors and nurses, experts in modern medicine and our ability to keep mums and dads looking in lovingly at their child, alive up to nearly half of normal gestational age outside of the womb, I decided that it was one of the best representations of human achievement and it...was...incredible. Did you know that in the 60s the infant mortality rate was 16% during birth? That's nearly 1 in 5. It is now a fraction of a percent. That's nearly 16 extra people per hundred alive only because of advances in obstetric medicine alone!
But not just that. Asthma, anaphylaxis and diabetes kills and does so from a very young age. Yet here hundreds of thousands of people living almost completely normal lives every day, managing their conditions as if nothing were the matter. People did not used to survive these things before treatments became available.

I'm certainly not alien to the notion myself having acquired a condition at the ripe old age of 24 during my first year in med-school, of which I would most certainly be dead now if it weren't for the simplicity of a couple of tablets every day, 40 years ago with the same condition, I would have been dead within 2 years. So, both professionally and personally, when I look at the SAHMRI building, I see an architecturally brilliant representation of the truly incredible concept of what modern medicine really is and will become. It does not excite presently but it should excite for what it represents as a spearhead of future heath and well being. It represents giving more people the opportunity to move without pain like those with chronic injuries or inflammation, breathe without breathlessness of those with heart or lung disease, be free to make plans for the future that doesn't end most likely within five years at the end of a morphine drip like many with cancer. So many more people will have the opportunity to bitch and complain about another f***ng medical research building occupying land where a stadium or casino should have gone. Won't it be marvelous!?!

I mean the cyclotron, man! I understand that unless one is acquainted the beautiful science at the heart of biology that the magnitude of what can and will be achieved with this device alone will fail to stimulate! The ability to use radioactive isotopes to show cancer insitu. 'Has it spread doctor?' well let's take a cell sample, extract and multiply the mutated DNA fragments to be employed as our own personal sentinels, attach an isotope that will show up on a scan and inject it back to see where they all congregate shall we? (not strictly correct but far more complicated I promise you) Individually tailored diagnostics and dare I say a possible candidate for future curative treatment.

On a side note, let's not even get into the incredible talent that this will and already has attracted back to Adelaide, with many of Australia's greatest medical minds wanting in on the action. That grant money and those (sometimes substantial) incomes will be spent in Adelaide, boosting the economy. Nor should we get into how this development could potentially spur surrounding redevelopment that will reopen the West End so that normal people can reclaim it from those who enjoy drinking far too much and causing trouble. Finally the often beautiful North Tce won't end at the Morphett St Bridge too.

Anywho, to summarise, the thing about medical research is that most people are effected by it regularly throughout their lives but have no idea. So enjoyable? No. Necessary in order to enjoy life? Absolutely. Cheers

[Phantom]

To be honest, I'd love to see some major attractions that everyone is claiming Pushbutton wants, but I kinda figure that if something huge like this were to be built in Adelaide's CBD, it would probably be better suited to a full sized block of its own.

I had idea a while back of the Casino being built on the northern side of North Tce, west of Morphett St and very much being a Crown Casino copy (including its own waterfront area with eateries and things along the Torrens). The reasons I guess why something like this wouldn't be viable is that besides the major financial clusterfuck it would cause for every type of investor, simply put anything else in this physical position wouldn't really lead literally anywhere. The area along the river itself leads to a dead end created by train tracks, the Adelaide Gaol and a weir... Hardly user-friendly, imo.

[pushbutton]

All good and valid points thanks guys!

Good to see there are at least a couple of people on this forum who would like to have more things to do in Adelaide.

Crawf, I do not consider myself "middle age" and there are people of all ages at the Royal show each year. Christmas pageant less so as I will admit that is mainly aimed at kids, so it's mostly parents with their kids. I haven't been to it since my nephew and niece were about 7.

I have used outdoor exercise equipment, but it's not very much fun really.

There are playgrounds all over the world that are NOT designed just for kids.

Theme parks are NOT just for kids and people of all ages enjoy them.

[Nort]

The problem with theme parks though is that they are everywhere, and bigger places can afford better ones.

Believe me, I wish that Dazzeland had succeeded, I wish the old Magic Mountain was still there, Glenelg with Luna Park would be FANTASTIC. However we are a relatively small city in a country with a low population about as far from the rest of the world as it is possible to be.

The problem isn't supply, there are plenty of investors who would love to make money, the problem is demand. There simply isn't the population here for the big theme parks you want. So there are two things to increase vibrancy.

1. Developments to encourage economic and business development in the city. Things like the Adelaide Oval revelopment, trams throughout the city, investment in research buildings and the convention center. These are the things that increase activity in town, that increase the population and also give young South Australian professionals the feeling that the state is growing and encourages them to stay rather than heading interstate.

2. Increase demand for the facilities you want, get out there and DO things. I too seem to remember you saying that you had never visited the Fringe Festival before this year. That is without a doubt Adelaides highest profile event and draws in massive amount of interstate and overseas visitors. It has hundreds of shows, from giant international acts to local newcomers, rides, food, street activity. Get out to that and use the rides. In the rest of the year get out into town and see live music, live comedy, check out shows.

Use the parklands! See a show at the moonlight cinema, have an afternoon picnic in the botanic garden with friends. Take a paddleboat and enjoy floating in the Torrens while taking in the development going on all around you. Rather than waiting for people to build things specially for you, be part of the group showing up to participate in things so that investors see there is a market there.