[CAN] 322 KWS - Echelon | 114m | 2 x 31 Lvls | Mixed Use

[Patrick_27]

This one was deferred.

[*] Further refinement of the design to see this better respect the scale and proportions of the desired character of the locality and that of adjacent and surrounding buildings.

This point worries me {better respect the scale and proportions of the desired character of the locality} as the buildings adjacent to this proposal are embarrassingly inappropriate, some to the south at one level!!! for a major city boulevard. If anything this development should be a catalyst to more larger, bulkier buildings creating an impressive spine down KWS.

Sorry, but how can pre-existing structures be classed as 'inappropriate'? Regardless of what grand idea you and others have in your head about this city boulevard, any new high-rise developments must be in-keeping with the surrounds. Considering the podium for this building is f*cking mammoth and will loom over it's neighbouring buildings (highly likely that it will be a blank wall on it's southern face), I can understand the concerns of the DAC, particularly if these neighbouring sites aren't even being earmarked for development. The podium should be shorter and the tower above should take any lost height.

[[Shuz]]

See that's where you're wrong.

[Allkai]

highly likely that it will be a blank wall on it's southern face

Incorrect, but carry on.

[slenderman]

Incorrect, but carry on.

No it's not. The southern elevation drawing clearly shows that the podium will have a blank southern wall, and it will be at least 28m high. The tower proper on the southern face is glass, but the podium is blank.

That's still reasonably significant for the area and could perhaps be reduced by lowering the podium height, but I agree that it's not a huge issue personally. There's an ugly office building across the road from this development with a blank southern wall, and recently the Quest building was allowed to go ahead with a 50m tall blank southern wall, so it's not like it bucks the trend of the area in that regard.

I assume that the bulk of the podium compared to the neighbouring low rise buildings is the issue, but again, the incredibly bulky 374-400 KWS nearby was also allowed to go ahead.

But assuming it goes ahead, there's also that smaller building seen in earlier drawings that may block that podium wall out eventually, as well as the "future developments" they've shown on the King William Street East elevation.

[wilkiebarkid]

Sorry, but how can pre-existing structures be classed as 'inappropriate'? Regardless of what grand idea you and others have in your head about this city boulevard, any new high-rise developments must be in-keeping with the surrounds. Considering the podium for this building is f*cking mammoth and will loom over it's neighbouring buildings (highly likely that it will be a blank wall on it's southern face), I can understand the concerns of the DAC, particularly if these neighbouring sites aren't even being earmarked for development. The podium should be shorter and the tower above should take any lost height.

One level buildings aren't exactly commonplace in CBDs anywhere. I'll stick with my concerns.

[AG]

BCA pretty clearly states that buildings cannot have combustible materials within 900mm of a property boundary, which is why we have all the blank concrete walls.

[wilkiebarkid]

Diagram of proposed development in relation to surrounds with potential future developments.

Kodo should reach the top dotted line also.

[crawf]

Sorry, but how can pre-existing structures be classed as 'inappropriate'? Regardless of what grand idea you and others have in your head about this city boulevard, any new high-rise developments must be in-keeping with the surrounds.

And this is why the city skyline still looks like a relic from the 1980s.

This development looks decent and will bring more life to this part of the city. The podium height is fine.

[serca]

Exactly AG

Am I missing something here? The renders don't show a blank southern podium. It will be the same as the northern, with glass. This suggests it is being built 900mm+ of that boundary

I don't see the relevance on the height of the podium regarding the neighbouring site and or if it has a blank wall or not? That neighbouring property is built on the boundary and has a blank wall anyway. So unless it has a glass or perspex roof how is it going to notice a blank souther wall when inside the premises? This will be the widest frontage of any podium on any tower in the CBD. At approximately 65 metres it will be similar street frontage as the new parliament house. It supports 2 towers and will look pathetic if it doest have decent height and design to accommodate how wide it is.

I would assume the little retail store next door and most certainly La Trattoria restaurant and surrounding business will welcome an apartment building that will add hundreds of people to the vicinity who will spend money in their respective businesses.

[slenderman]

Exactly AG

Am I missing something here? The renders don't show a blank southern podium. It will be the same as the northern, with glass. This suggests it is being built 900mm+ of that boundary

I don't see the relevance on the height of the podium regarding the neighbouring site and or if it has a blank wall or not? That neighbouring property is built on the boundary and has a blank wall anyway. So unless it has a glass or perspex roof how is it going to notice a blank souther wall when inside the premises? This will be the widest frontage of any podium on any tower in the CBD. At approximately 65 metres it will be similar street frontage as the new parliament house. It supports 2 towers and will look pathetic if it doest have decent height and design to accommodate how wide it is.

I would assume the little retail store next door and most certainly La Trattoria restaurant and surrounding business will welcome an apartment building that will add hundreds of people to the vicinity who will spend money in their respective businesses.

You're overthinking it and missing the blank southern podium wall. I'm not referring to the renders that have been posted on previous pages (because they don't show the southern face of the building). For everyone playing at home, this is the elevation in question:

echelon south elevation.PNG (67.53 KiB) Viewed 3305 times

It will be clearly visible when viewed from the south, and due to a lack of height immediately south of the site (at the moment), that wall will be reasonably prominent, although it appears there are plans to build to the south in the future. And as you mention, it would look a little silly if the podium was shortened too much, considering its width and the two towers above that it will support. It could possibly be taken down a tiny bit, say to the height of the grey bit of 374-400 KWS shown in that street elevation wilkiebarkid posted, but too much more and it would look silly.

I generally share the sentiments of most others here. The CBD, especially our main boulevard, is exactly the place for this sort of development, and the podium will only really dwarf the 1-2 storey buildings nearby, but that's a given for just about any high rise in a CBD. And it's not like that part of the CBD has a particularly precious or attractive character to it; it's a mess of ugly lowrise offices/shops with a couple of reasonably nice heritage buildings scattered around, not a particularly great place to spend time. This building will do a lot more to reinvigorate the area than it will detract.

[Nathan]

Could they install a temporary treatment to the blank wall, like a green wall or a wind panel (like what was done on Flinders St)? Too late now, but that's probably a conversation the DAC should be having when reviewing proposals like this one.

[arki]

Am I reading right? Are people really complaining about a blank boundary wall on what is otherwise a sleek glass tower? It is not unusual for a podium to have a blank wall, just look at EQ in Melbourne:



What is unusual, however, is a tower proposal wrapped in glass around all 4 sides (for Adelaide), in a location capable of supporting even the tallest of towers.

I too am frightened by remarks along the lines of 'maintaining the character of the area'. A ridiculous stance given the subject location is full of nondescript, lowrise office spaces, an empty plot of land (offering a vista of yellow brick court buildings which look like 60s public housing), a 53m tall blank wall approved and built only a few years ago and six lanes of traffic with enough room for angle parking and tram tracks.

If that is the charachter they are after, then I second the calls to allow this building (along with Vue) to be the catalyst for major change in this area of our CBD.

[Ben]

Expected to be approved at Thursdays meeting.

Amendments have been made to the podium and i'm awaiting further images but looks like they have removed the only thing i did not like - the orange cladding on the podium. Looks so much better.

[floplo]

According to the sales rep they plan on starting construction early next year with completion end of 2018

[Norman]

Looks fantastic with the updated podium!