[COM] Festival Plaza Tower 1 | 115m | 27 Levels | Office

[pushbutton]

It would want to be something a whole lot better than a few office buildings, a hotel, a theatre and a plaza for $800m that's for sure.

[crowdoc]

The article quoted Mr Walker as saying the proposal was about to be submitted to cabinet but that it was delayed when the current head of infrastructure was sacked by the Premier. Mr Walker and his group are not ones to play games and should move quickly. Given his age I would not think he has 10 years to waste waiting for this to be approved.

[Howie]

Given the Le Cornu debacle I wouldn't be so certain about that.

[Dog]

Following on from the festival theatre comments on the Torrens footbridge thread-
This is one of Adelaide's iconic structures but I think a lot of the problems stem from both poor maintenance, and lack of respect for the original building, the first major stuff up was enclosing of the original covered plaza at the front with a colour bond veranda to create space for offices and a now defunct night club. This cheap addition blocked the street view through to the river at the northern end and not in keeping with the original architecture.

In recent years they have found money to add a multi coloured balustrade right across the front of the complex not in keeping with the building but the original painted plaza sculptures were allowed to fade and look derelict.

Even the crisp white "shells" of the main structures have been poorly maintained, waterproofing repairs left obvious patches, and the white paint has peeled expose the black coating underneath.

The occasional attempts at garden plantings were never watered and maintained.

To top it all off, hanging advertising all over it does no respect the architecture. Obviously the marketing team have just realised the new Torrens foot bridge has become the new front door so the rear is now fare game for more advertising.

I guess for me it is what you get when you hand a fantastic bit of Architecture over to be run by its tenants, the festival theatre people are all about putting on theatre and bums in theatre seats and not maintaining architecture.

The same could happen to the SAMRI in time if it's up keep is handled by its tenants, building maintenance and maintaining architectural integrity come pretty low when your priorities lay elsewhere.

Maybe the solution for Adelaide's old and modern icons would be to take the responsibility for maintenance and architectural integrity off of the tenants and in some cases the owners and place it fairly at a state funded Architectural heritage maintenance body.??

[monotonehell]

Much truth there, Dog.

[kernelpanic]

Walker Corp has been sitting on this for a couple of years having had a bit of a falling out with the architects they were working with. My guess would be that they're trying to get things moving with a bit of publicity.

It'd be fantastic, to say the least, to see the plaza redeveloped. But I'd prefer to see it done differently. A developer like Lang Walker is going to try and squeeze every dollar out of a project. That usually means more commercial rent paying tenant, and less consideration of the long term public interest and architectural outcomes. And if the government is in his pocket, as it's rumoured to be, nobody's going to be looking out for the public interest on this one.

Sacked infrastructure chief Rod Hook warns of ‘mates’ deals’ risks over Riverbank development

MAY 31, 2014 12:30AM

SACKED infrastructure chief Rod Hook says there is a risk of “mates’ deals’’ being struck during the city Riverbank development because of potentially compromised planning rules.
Singling out Deputy Premier John Rau, he warned there was a risk in him holding the dual roles of Planning and Development Minister.
This stemmed from the importance of planning processes being separate from striking deals with developers so the system was not compromised. This was especially important at the Riverbank, Mr Hook said, where Adelaide Casino operator SkyCity and developer Lang Walker were proposing projects on public land.
Mr Hook, who was fired by Premier Jay Weatherill on May 8, was overseeing the Riverbank development after leading the nearby Adelaide Oval upgrade construction project.

http://www.news.com.au/national/south-a ... public_rss

[AdelaideGold]

From the budget..

ROADS

$124 million over five years will go towards the $620 million Darlington upgrade
$896 million over five years will go towards the Torrens Road to the River Torrens.
$842 million goes towards the South Road Superway
$46.5 million goes towards the Festival Centre Car Park and Plaza.

[Patrick_27]

From the budget..

ROADS

$124 million over five years will go towards the $620 million Darlington upgrade
$896 million over five years will go towards the Torrens Road to the River Torrens.
$842 million goes towards the South Road Superway
$46.5 million goes towards the Festival Centre Car Park and Plaza.

$842m goes towards the SR Superway? Was that not funded before construction commenced?

$46.5 million is pathetic. I understand people feel more money should be invested into health and education - but let's be real here... As we can see, there is already a butt-load of money that has been invested into both fields throughout the duration of this government, and regardless of how much we spend neither sector is ever going to be perfect - they will always have their downfalls. That being said, the Arts have been quite literally abandoned by the government. Mike Rann was the Minister for the Arts, and in his term the only major investment I recall being made towards facilities that cater for the Arts was the AEC, which regardless of it's face-lift still under-performs in comparison to it's interstate counterparts, and 'opening up' the plaza over the Festival Centre - which did absolutely no good.

The Festival Centre is an absolute disgrace - I find it genuinely difficult not to support the idea of bulldozing the venue and starting again; because the more the building wears, the more I struggle to see any future for what's already there. $46.5m for a car-park? Give me a break, that car-park will change absolutely NOTHING for the AFC but instead provide more parking for the expanded casino. $100m at the very minimum should be invested into the theatre, $200-250 would be better (look at the Hamer Hall in Melbourne).

[AdelaideGold]

I can see what you mean as its looking a little tattered in some spots.. but its still a fabulous building. I guess the big question is what investment the private sector (aka Walker/Casino) will make into the entire area

[[Shuz]]

It seems to me that the State Government will be the ones to rebuild the car park, and then lease it out to Walker to operate it. But with a number of spaces reserved for the Festival Theatre, Casino and Parliament, and then the rest being general commuter parking.

Then once having rebuilt the car park, Walker will rebuild the Festival Plaza area atop the car park.

This is how I read it anyway...

[metro]

I have this bad feeling that Festival Plaza will become a carpark roof, and will look a bit like this for 10 years:

[Nathan]

I have this bad feeling that Festival Plaza will become a carpark roof, and will look a bit like this for 10 years

"become"?

[metro]

I have this bad feeling that Festival Plaza will become a carpark roof, and will look a bit like this for 10 years

"become"?

I forgot it already is one, what I mean to say is it may become just as bad or even worse than it is now.

[Matt]

http://bit.ly/1ou6eXq

Looks like a hotel (not an office building) is mooted for the service road between Parliament and the casino, as well as a smaller building with bars/restaurants.

Bring it on.

[pushbutton]

Those would be better than an office building. That area should be reserved for cultural, leisure and entertainment purposes. Not offices, of which there are more than enough elsewhere around the CBD.