ONH: [Port Adelaide] Newport Quays | $1.2b

[bva]

why should this building stand alone? I am not familiar with its history but wonder if it has always sat remote from other buildings in clear view or previously sat within a cluster of other buildings and structures? It is poor heritage planning to make a pariah of a building if it was never intended to be seen in this context, just as english planning guidance states "In general it is better that old buildings are not set apart, but are woven into the fabric of the living and working community". I agree that high design quality is necessary to provide an appropriate setting but talk of heritage precincts and selected viewing corridors demonstrates recognition of this. I think you should wait to see the next design stages, plus those images of the taller building awhile shows improved design intent. Maybe i am just an optimist.....

[stumpjumper]

I agree, bva. Why should Hart's Mill stand alone. It once had a few legs and arms in the immediate vicinity - an engine house etc.

The British and generally accepted planning approcah your quote illustrates is all about context and texture. If Hart's Mill is really all that can be kept and given an economic new life by adaptive re-use, then if there are new buildings around it they should at least harmonise with the old mill. There are various ways of achieving this - harmony of form, colour, texture etc.

Unfortuately, I think we'll have thin-walled apartments with random, coloured blades and frames here and there. A bit more money, a bit more imagination, and most of all a bit more willingness to take a risk, and it could be a gem.

As has been said before, no-one will cross the city let alone the planet to look at yet another boring, generic, cost-driven block of apartments whose sales are achieved by lots of advertising and the expectation of capital gain rather than the desire to live in a well-designed building that does its location proud.

I'm an optimnist too, bva. For example, I rave on and on in the confident hope that someone might agree with me. I'm just not very optimistic about the Port. Sorry.

[Cruise]

I can see Harts Mill loosing is stance in port adelaide anyway though wheather anything is built around it directly or not at all, there will be 12 story buildings accross the river, these will dwarf Harts Mill making the building lose its character. I hope that made sense, just my 2 bobs worths

[Pants]

This may or may not be interesting:

http://www.the-port.com.au/pccg/downloa ... mework.pdf

[crawf]

btw this development will now cost two billion dollars.

[jimmy_2486]

Wow will there really be that many yachts floating around there?? heheh

Makes it look more like darling harbor!!

Looks very impressive and i HOPE that it actually will end up looking like that!

[stumpjumper]

I suspect that most of the 'yachts' will be powerboats. The challenge of getting a decent sized mast through first the Birkenhead Bridge with its limited opening times then under the low Third River Crossing with its limited opening times would be quite a gamble.

Increasing the clearance of the bridges was discussed in:

http://www.transport.sa.gov.au/pdfs/tra ... ummary.pdf

but the idea has apparently been dropped (govt and developer unwilling to spend the money), along woth the mooted heritage listing of Wharf Shed 5, now demolished (developer insisted on demolition to enable more residential construction on profitability grounds).

[AtD]

Stumpjumper, I can't see any yachts ever in the Newport Quays development, it's on the wrong side of the Jervois Bridge!

Anyway, photos from today. Since UrbanSG has been keeping us all up to date on the city's developments, I thought I'd tackle the suburbs.

[urban]

2nd to last photo in Adam's set:

If they had allowed space around the train station for a single depth of commercial usage they could have sold the townhouses for more money because it would have blocked out the train noise.

Construct over the train line you could get a couple of hundred extra apartments/commercial tenancies while connecting the adjoining suburb to the waterfront. Win for everyone especially public transport.

[AtD]

I don't think the area is busy enough to support commercial tennancies. There's not much around except low-income residential, and is a long way from the centre of Port Adelaide. There's a pub on the other side of the bridge, and that's it. Once the Expressway is open, there'd be a fair amount less road traffic as well. Even once this development is complete, it'd still probably be too quiet to support much at all.

[rhino]

Commercial development in the way of a post office, a super deli / small supermarket, service station (that actually does services), cafe, take-away food(fish'n'chip shop), speciality food store (eg Lennards or Bakers Delight), chemist, newsagent are all commercial tennancies that would work in such a position. Take a look at what works right outside the train stations in Sydney and Melbourne.

[Cruise]

really there is no service station in port adelaide at all so if your power boat does break down you really would have trouble getting fuel

[AtD]

Commercial development in the way of a post office, a super deli / small supermarket, service station (that actually does services), cafe, take-away food(fish'n'chip shop), speciality food store (eg Lennards or Bakers Delight), chemist, newsagent are all commercial tennancies that would work in such a position. Take a look at what works right outside the train stations in Sydney and Melbourne.

Have you been to Newport Quays, aka Ethelton? As I said, the area's very quiet. Glanville Station could possibly support such things once the high rises are built, but Ethelton Station couldn't. They’re both right on top of each other, so it couldn’t happen at both.

[urban]

Have you been to Newport Quays, aka Ethelton? As I said, the area's very quiet. Glanville Station could possibly support such things once the high rises are built, but Ethelton Station couldn't. They’re both right on top of each other, so it couldn’t happen at both.

In a car dominated city this won't work but if the stations are made to be welcoming spaces which are well connected to the nearby residential areas there are easily enough people just in the adjacent new development to support a commercial precinct.

[AtD]

In a car dominated city this won't work but if the stations are made to be welcoming spaces which are well connected to the nearby residential areas there are easily enough people just in the adjacent new development to support a commercial precinct.

I disagree, there wouldn't be enough people in Newport Quays. A Woolworths, for example, needs over 2000 customers per day to justify continued operations. To the direct west of the station is low density, low income housing. If you mean the entire Port Adelaide development, then maybe, but as I said, it’d be better suited at Glanville rather than Ethelton.

But you're correct, if the entire structure of the urban environment drastically changed overnight, it could support a retail precinct. How silly of the developers not to cater for this.