[SWP] Lot 14 (Old RAH Site)

[Wayno]

I'm pro-development, and want more people living in the city, but feel unsure about using this site for residential. A hotel maybe, but not residents...

[Nathan]

I'm pro-development, and want more people living in the city, but feel unsure about using this site for residential. A hotel maybe, but not residents...

I'm with you there. I think development along North Tce 'parklands' is ok, but it needs to have public value. Culture, health, government, education -> Yes; private residential & business -> No. The existing casino and hotel I think are in an iffy grey zone.

[how good is he]

I think one of the required outcomes from the tender of is to activate the site 24/7 esp. to have activity after hours (similar to the current RAH) to support all the cafe and other businesses of the East End. I expect hotel & student accom. will do this. Could it work/be more palatable for newly built residential apartment buildings to be owned only by the govt and apartments were leased only?

[Nathan]

If a residential component must be included, I'd prefer they use the chest clinic location on the other side of North Tce. It's technically part of the RAH site

[SRW]

Old Royal Adelaide Hospital site to become a '24-hour city' drawcard in development proposal
ABC News Online, 30 October 2016

After years of speculation, the South Australian Government has revealed the old Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) site could be overhauled for a new research institution as well as tourism, cultural and residential precincts.

It proposes to demolish the East Wing and return a third of the hospital's seven-hectare site in the city's east end to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

The development would also retain five heritage buildings and reuse them.

SA Urban Development Minister Stephen Mullighan said the new development proposal was designed to keep the area vibrant at all hours.

"That requires people to work there during the day but we also want people visiting there into the weekends and into the evenings and having a hotel facility," he said.

"Having the opportunity for people to live on site will make sure the site is busy 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Businesses on nearby Rundle Street had been concerned about reduced cafe and restaurant trade when the hospital closes ahead of the New RAH opening in the city's west end in 2017.

Premier Jay Weatherill said the development would draw people into the east end and breathe new life into the district.

"We believe the proposal provided by the preferred proponent meets all of the expectations of the community and we look forward to revealing all of the details."

The development will also include a piazza, a plaza and a series of laneways and Botanic Lake in the gardens will be doubled in size for stormwater retention.

The Government said it was entering "exclusive negotiations with the preferred proponents", which was a consortium involving SA property group Commercial & General and the company John Holland.

The Government hopes to start work on the $1 billion development as soon as the hospital is vacated.

The article could have begun and concluded "After years of speculation we still know very little".

I'm pleased that the impetus to return land to the Botanic Garden remains, but I'm not thrilled about the continued push for residential development.

Another article from the Murdoch press suggests that the mooted contemporary art gallery will not be located here - at least for now.

[Nathan]

After the design comps and talk about it needing to be a destination, it's all a bit underwhelming. Aside from the expanded section of the gardens, why would someone who is not a resident or hotel guest visit the area?

[PeFe]

This proposal fails its own criteria...it will not result in a "24 hour city".

[mshagg]

Im impressed, but im not actually sure what im impressed with.

This is just a blue sky brain dump of what 'could' be built there, right? Hard not to be skeptical when you look at what happened with previous attempts at reactivating sites like the old bus depot and the balfours site. Presumably if left to developers we'd be left with a hotel, some serviced apartments and a half-assed plaza, "stages 2 and 3 TBA".

[Spurdo]

Wow, what a letdown

[crawf]

Pretty underwhelming.

[Norman]

There's a video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=y ... W8WTJjssCE

[monotonehell]

Out of interest, the people who are disappointed, did you watch the video or read the article first?

I found the video before the article and although there's some big holes in parts of the plan that need filling, I found it to be a good mix of uses to ensure it isn't a dead place. The only questions I have are regarding the innovation part - it seems like a very no-content idea. There's no explanation of what form all this research and development will take and who will drive it. With maybe some supplementary questions around what will use the arts spaces.

[how good is he]

From those that are underwhelmed etc what exactly would you like to have seen here instead? Can you provide some examples of other developments you would prefer? It's easy to criticise so instead let's hear your alternatives!

[Nathan]

From those that are underwhelmed etc what exactly would you like to have seen here instead? Can you provide some examples of other developments you would prefer? It's easy to criticise so instead let's hear your alternatives!

Something that is a drawcard for the public, not just people living/staying there. There's been lots of smoke about a new contemporary gallery - they just need a place to put it. There's been agitation for years for a concert hall - they just need a place to put it. There's a need to expand the museum to show more of their collection - they just need to place a put it. Then we have a place, that even after an international design competition, they shrug their shoulders, say "I dunno", and just stick a hotel and some apartments there.

We've already got two government lead 'innovation' districts with the medical precinct in the west end, and the tech precinct at Tonsley.

[SRW]

If you've followed the discussion over the years, the people dissenting from the current development trajectory have not been silent about alternatives. We've all shared, IMO, bigger visions.

As Nathan indicates, there are a multitude of civic institutions that could be appropriately located on this public land. There is demand in our city for more museum, gallery and performance spaces.

However, if we are take the route of an 'innovation precinct', I've always been swayed by the idea of an Adelaide version of Cornwall's Eden Project perhaps co-located with our impressive bio/agricultural research industry (a new home for SARDI?) that would have a synergy with the work and attraction of the Botanic Gardens.

But I'm also not misled by the nebulous idea of a '24-hour city' that this one site is being burdened to achieve. It's adjacent to many underdeveloped sites the opposite side of North Terrace (in the square mile proper) that will be just as important to the future of the East End. All that is required of the ORAH site is that it be furnished with a use as similarly complementary to the East End as the hospital departing - we're not, nor should we be, rebuilding our CBD on parkland.