[COM] Victoria Square Upgrade - $24m

[cruel_world00]

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html

AN URBAN design expert hired by former premier Don Dunstan more than 30 years ago says he is "flabbergasted" Victoria Square has still not been redeveloped.

Comments posted on the AdelaideNow website show South Australians have thrown their support behind changes to the city's heart.


Boris Kazanski, now based in Berlin, says decades of talking about the need to rejuvenate the controversial square have "produced zero".

Mr Kazanski, an Adelaide-trained architect who has worked in Italy, Britain and Germany, says a $20,000 prize being offered by Adelaide City Council and the State Government for ideas on Victoria Square is "plain stupidity".

He said the competition - which should be advertised globally - should carry a $500,000 cash prize if South Australia is serious about "revitalising the city".

"It sounds like a lot of money, but it is worth it if we want to show how important the square is, and we want to have the right pedestrian ways, motorways, public transport, landscaping, art and public access," he said.

As revealed yesterday, the council and the Government have joined forces to encourage the public to come up with innovative ideas for future use of the square.

"You are just getting hot air blown around," Mr Kazanski said.

"I'm flabbergasted every year, not because nothing has been done but because every few years there's a new individual who says 'we're going to do this', someone is invited to do a design, and the public are invited to comment and then a new mayor steps into the position."

In Adelaide to visit his seriously ill 95-year-old mother, Mr Kazanski - recruited by Mr Dunstan in 1973 - believes the State Government should hire a permanent architect to lead the project.

Asked what he thought the possibilities were, he suggested an underground carpark potentially linked to the Central Market would provide much-needed revenue to help fund above-ground initiatives.

"We do need to close Wakefield/Grote St and once that is done, we can reconstruct the geometry of the square and look at appropriate functions and facilities," he said.

"It could be something that accommodates concerts, garden shows, film festivals, arts festivals - a myriad of activities guided by commercial and cultural activities."

Hmmm interesting...I like the idea about making it global but then again I support local ideas too...

[Shuz]

Some of the ideas are just ridiculous. If anything, I think the best outcome for Victoria Square is to shift the N/S traffic corridor into a tunnel on the western side - and to have an east/west tunnel, which would start before the Central Markets and open out again just before the street where the Education Building is on the east, thus creating an above ground pedestrian' mall. Pedestrian friendly, and no eyesore traffic to be seen!

[Ho Really]

AN URBAN design expert...Boris Kazanski, now based in Berlin, says...

"We do need to close Wakefield/Grote St..."

Crawl back in your hole. No one is going to close a main east-west thoroughfare. Underground it!

Cheers

P.S. We can design our own solution and we don't need a $500,000 prize, which we're better off giving to the needy or a hospital.

[urban]

Why is it that people won't blink if $500,000 is spent on lawyers or accountants but if it is suggested to spend that money on a design for our city's most important public space they will scream in protest at the waste. The promotional benefits from such a competition would quickly pay for itself. Fed Square in Melbourne has surely shown the worth of holding an international competition for major public spaces.

There is nothing to stop an Adelaide firm from winning the competition. If an Adelaide firm won the competition it would gain an international reputation opening up the possibility of their other Adelaide work being promoted internationally.

Too often Adelaide fiddles around the edges while the opportunity to put the city on the international stage goes begging. If they are serious about doing something about Vic Sq they should bite the bullet and set aside a couple of hundred million and create a world class square.

The current approach is just a waste of time, money & effort. Grass the the square until we are going to do it properly.

There is also no point in doing anything in the square until we have made a plan for our transport systems. Will a new design need to accommodate trains, trams, buses, cars? The city needs some strategic planning. The current ad-hoc planning means we are missing a lot of opportunities.

[Tyler_Durden]

Hmmm interesting...I like the idea about making it global but then again I support local ideas too...

He is right. We need real innovation. It's all well and good to say we need to support local ideas but who cares where the ideas come from? To get something truly significant we need to cast the net far and wide. And people from outside of Adelaide, and Australia for that matter, are in the best position to think outside the square, so to speak, on this. Just look at the post two above this one. Too scared to close of the road, simply because it has always been there and people use it. That's where local ideas can get too clouded and influenced by the past. Those sort of attitides will leave us with a square that is barely different to what we have now. And no one will use it. Nothing will change. But hey, at least we'll still be able to use the square to get from one side of the city to the other.

That's not meant to be a criticism of that post or people here. I couldn't come up with a suitable plan, myself. I want to see what some of the great designers of the world can come up with. We shouldn't put limitations on them. But we will. Actually, we won't even see their plans because we won't even aim that high.

[omada]

why we can't we close grote/wakefield corridor? ffs how many streets do we want, if people want to go to the airport, use the ring routes?

we also have to be realistic, tunnels, I mean what sort of money is that going to cost? I would love to see tunnels everywhere, but we aren't exactly the richest state on earth, ans there are plenty of other areas that require spending... (which reminds me of that other article in the advertiser today, saying that SA is in "technical recession":

SA in recession - ANZ

SOUTH Australia's economy has gone into recession, a new economic report by the ANZ bank says.

The latest biannual ANZ Australian Property Outlook Report says the state is experiencing "weakening economic activity... employment has stalled and economic growth has weakened sharply".

ANZ economists advise: "The state is now in technical recession following two consecutive quarters of negative growth".

The report also warns SA is still losing significant population numbers to other states and "the trend is rising sharply".

Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith accused Premier Mike Rann and Treasurer Kevin Foley of relying on a "coming mining boom while they have taken their eye off other industries".

"It's almost impossible that in a time of record low unemployment across Australia that this state finds itself in an economic recession," Mr Hamilton-Smith said.

Mind you i'm not subscribing as to how valid this report is, just thought i'd post it

[crawf]

Interesting, because according to the ABS, SA's population growth has improved quite alot and the number of people leaving SA is decreasing.

I don't think that report is valid at all!

But its quite funny when the tiser did a whole special that SA is starting to "boom" last week and a few weeks ago, and now a report that we are in "recession" lol wtf - that must of been the shortest boom in history!

[stelaras]

I think the article is a whole lot of mallarchy!

The ABS and colliers can't be getting it that wrong. It wasnt that long ago that colliers identified that there were huge requirements for office space in SA.

The ABS quotes that SA's population is slightly increasing, there is development occuring in the city, country towns are building up and an imminent mining boom. Further the state government is commiting to large infrastructure projects....i could go on and on and on.. Im no economist but to me it doesnt look like SA is in any kind of recession albeit a "technical" one

[crawf]

I would like to know where this report was done?

[stelaras]

I would like to know where this report was done?

Ide like to know what formula (mathematical algorithm) they used to come up with that data!

[Will]

AN URBAN design expert...Boris Kazanski, now based in Berlin, says...

"We do need to close Wakefield/Grote St..."

Crawl back in your hole. No one is going to close a main east-west thoroughfare. Underground it!

Cheers

P.S. We can design our own solution and we don't need a $500,000 prize, which we're better off giving to the needy or a hospital.

You should think of the $500 000 as an investment.

This city needs to change, or else we will become an irrelevant provincial city, where the only young people will be those coming here to visit their elderly relatives.

And in addition, I think the source of the design is irrelevant. If the best solution comes from SA, then this will be good for the local firm, but we should never discount ideas from interstate or overseas.

[Will]

why we can't we close grote/wakefield corridor? ffs how many streets do we want, if people want to go to the airport, use the ring routes?

we also have to be realistic, tunnels, I mean what sort of money is that going to cost? I would love to see tunnels everywhere, but we aren't exactly the richest state on earth, ans there are plenty of other areas that require spending... (which reminds me of that other article in the advertiser today, saying that SA is in "technical recession":

SA in recession - ANZ

SOUTH Australia's economy has gone into recession, a new economic report by the ANZ bank says.

The latest biannual ANZ Australian Property Outlook Report says the state is experiencing "weakening economic activity... employment has stalled and economic growth has weakened sharply".

ANZ economists advise: "The state is now in technical recession following two consecutive quarters of negative growth".

The report also warns SA is still losing significant population numbers to other states and "the trend is rising sharply".

Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith accused Premier Mike Rann and Treasurer Kevin Foley of relying on a "coming mining boom while they have taken their eye off other industries".

"It's almost impossible that in a time of record low unemployment across Australia that this state finds itself in an economic recession," Mr Hamilton-Smith said.

Mind you i'm not subscribing as to how valid this report is, just thought i'd post it

I think that the ANZ report is irresponsible and malicious.

The final nail in the coffin for that report should be the fact that ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake will not endorse it.

[crawf]

I agree, I think $500,000 should be the award. With that amount of money or more it will lure world class architects from all overseas, with the end result being outstanding ideas for Victoria Square.

If we are serious about finally redeveloping Victoria Square, then the State Government & ACC should consider it. The more I think about it, the more I would love to see the square become a major attraction for Adelaide and a place where people can hang out or gather for major events and festivals. But I do not want the square to become tacky & uninspiring, just a iconic and brilliant addition to Adelaide, something that will make people proud of this city.

[Will]

I agree, I think $500,000 should be the award. With that amount of money or more it will lure world class architects from all overseas, with the end result being outstanding ideas for Victoria Square.

If we are serious about finally redeveloping Victoria Square, then the State Government & ACC should consider it. The more I think about it, the more I would love to see the square become a major attraction for Adelaide and a place where people can hang out or gather for major events and festivals. But I do not want the square to become tacky & uninspiring, just a iconic and brilliant addition to Adelaide, something that will make people proud of this city.

Victoria Square deserves to be a place where the citizens of Adelaide will naturally gather. Therefore it is important to consult outside of SA to find the solution. Because I fear that local architectural firms will be weighed down by negativity and the prevalent 19th century mentality which will result in something cheap or uninspiring.

[bmw boy]

If $500,000 is on offer for the design and plan of the new victoria sq, i bet the winner would be one of the more boring designs... and thos with fabulous designs would not be considered.

Not that I wish this to happen... but, I rekon it would...