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

[Patrick_27]

I don't understand why anyone would support Walker's proposal for the area, it's invasive.

Means to an end. Walker clearly makes a motza out of the arrangement. But that's beside the point. Everyone else (Casino, Govt, Festival Centre) gets a permanent revenue stream with car parking fees, and presumably an uptick in patronage...

But should that outweigh quality of development / good town planning?

[Patrick_27]

Based on The Advertisers 'Inside' information, weren't they meant to announce the plans for this area at last night's Convention Centre opening?

[Wayno]

I don't understand why anyone would support Walker's proposal for the area, it's invasive.

Means to an end. Walker clearly makes a motza out of the arrangement. But that's beside the point. Everyone else (Casino, Govt, Festival Centre) gets a permanent revenue stream with car parking fees, and presumably an uptick in patronage...

But should that outweigh quality of development / good town planning?

Ok, time to drag out the ol' bat slap image. lol

batslapper.jpg (14.12 KiB) Viewed 4802 times

Money trumps all.

[ml69]

Based on The Advertisers 'Inside' information, weren't they meant to announce the plans for this area at last night's Convention Centre opening?

You've made a rookie mistake... believing what is written in The Advertiser.

That journalist wrote a similar piece before Christmas saying that a major Riverbank announcement was imminent... and then .... nothing.

[Matt]

The Tiser article suggested tomorrow (Friday) from memory, but not sure scrapping the courts plan, then announcing this would be particularly clever politically.

[SRW]

The festival plaza, if it weren't to become a cafe restaurant precinct, they should build a concert hall/recital hall on-top of the car-park; whilst the festival theatre is great for theatre productions, most classical muso's will agree that the venue isn't suitable for concerts of their sort - which considering the ASO have a busy annual calendar the Granger Studios on Hindley don't necessary provide adequate venue for all these events.

I sort of like the idea of building another shell (theatre) for the Festival Centre closer to King William Road (around or even in place of where the Banquet Room is) that could cater to classical performance. This would have the bonus of giving the centre street frontage and extending activity along both King William Road and Elder Park.

[Pants]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 7261886840

[Nathan]

I'll copy and paste my AdelaideNow comment.

A number of issues with this plan:

1. The Festival Centre is in desperate need of funds to bring it up to scratch. It has been neglected for far too long, and to do a massive overhaul of the plaza and spend zero where it is needed is outrageous.

2. There is already an oversupply of office space in the CBD at the moment, so fail to see why it's an office tower is needed. IF it is required, then by all means bulldoze the disaster that was the Riverbank Building (next to the Convention Centre) and build a new office building there.

3. The northern edge of the plaza that connects with Elder Park is left untouched, when that connection is currently poor.

4. The two level building blocks views of Parliament House by hugging too closely to it's side. It should be in the middle of the plaza, thereby maintaining the views, while dividing the large plaza into smaller human scale spaces.

5. No addition of new cultural spaces (other than the "possibility" of an art exhibition space in the office building? The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra needs a concert hall, and the Art Gallery of SA needs additional space to display it's contemporary/modern collection.

It looks to me that these renderings are only indicative, particularly of the towers. It is absolutely imperative that any building be of exceptionally high architectural value, given the existing buildings surrounding the area. Do NOT cheap out on them. We've had some good recent architectural outcomes, such as SAHMRI, and these need to hold their own but not detract from Parliament House, Adelaide Railway Station and Festival Centre.

[Matt]

Did wonder if that was you, Nathan...

This bit in particular I agree with:

"It looks to me that these renderings are only indicative, particularly of the towers. It is absolutely imperative that any building be of exceptionally high architectural value, given the existing buildings surrounding the area. Do NOT cheap out on them"

Spot on - if this space is going to be the Riverbank's centrepiece, any buildings need to be architecturally brilliant. No 'playing it safe', and certainly no glass boxes with tacked on pods.

[Matt]

A couple of the happy snaps from the article...

[Nathan]

Did wonder if that was you, Nathan...

Incidently, former head of the IDC, Tim Horton, has tweeted that it's a serious deviation from the publicly funded master plan, and that the plan was for low rise. Conlon being the one who pushed for high rise.

Original master plan: http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/__d ... erplan.pdf

[Brando]

I know illustrations are for indicative purposes only, but does the Casino extension looks taller?

[Matt]

I like the concept in principle, but not thrilled about the office tower. Was (obviously wrongly) under the impression the building was going to be a hotel?
Perhaps not viable given SkyCity will be next door and the Intercon a couple of doors down.

Hope they can compromise and design the building with a rooftop bar/restaurant so the view can be enjoyed by everyone.
If they HAVE to smack a massive tower up to make the project viable, at least ensure parts are accessible (and useful) to the public, given the location.

[metro]

For the last 50 years they cant seem to make up their minds on if Festival Drive should be opened up or covered over. I think it was built open originally, then covered over in the 70s-80s, then in the 90s-2000s they opened it up, now in the 2010s they want it covered over again

I think this plan looks very poor, for $800m I was expecting something better, but this looks like something cheap i'd expect from a small city like Hobart, Darwin, or Canberra..

[crawf]

Nathan is right, what about the Festival Centre?. Also, why don't they use the first couple of floors for public use; eg art gallery, tourist attraction, retail etc.

They need to stop this bandaid approach and implement a full masterplan for the riverbank... and do it!