[COM] The Switch - 203 North Terrace | 119m | 35 levels | Student Accom

[AndyWelsh]

Is this building going up at 2 levels per week ?

It seems like they’re building modules off site and lifting them up with the crane.

Also surely the budget is more than $35 million.

Plasmatron took photos just over 2 weeks ago and it’s gone up 2 levels since then.


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[cmet]

This gets worse every time I look at it

[AndyWelsh]

A few more angles on this one:






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[Will]

Thanks for the photos Andy!

This building however is terrible. The new tallish buildings have helped bring Adelaide's skyline out of the 20th century, but then this takes us back to the 70s.

[EBG]

Picture 5/6/2021 building now at level 22

[Jaymz]

Probably stating the obvious here, but IMO the order of merit for tallies in above pic goes like this...

1: Realm
2: 269 North Terrace
3: Adelaidean
4: World's tallest Stratco shed

[Ozbear73]

Jaymz I agree with you re your list of the outcomes of all the new Adelaide talls. But I still have one criticism of Realm; although it’s a very unique design (for Adelaide) and it looks great up to its full height, I still think the rooftop plant area could have been better shielded off, and the roof fascias/parapets be better designed to finish off the top of the building better.

It’s one criticism (of many) that I also have with Adelaidean, so I only hope that with 269 North Tce that we finally get a decent finish to the top, which we should, as there is scope to fit something better under the height limit ceiling with this building.

[Norman]

As terrible as this building looks, it is being built rather quickly.

[Algernon]

Jaymz I agree with you re your list of the outcomes of all the new Adelaide talls. But I still have one criticism of Realm; although it’s a very unique design (for Adelaide) and it looks great up to its full height, I still think the rooftop plant area could have been better shielded off, and the roof fascias/parapets be better designed to finish off the top of the building better.

It’s one criticism (of many) that I also have with Adelaidean, so I only hope that with 269 North Tce that we finally get a decent finish to the top, which we should, as there is scope to fit something better under the height limit ceiling with this building.

Unfortunately, getting any developer to follow through and give the LMR a decent treatment is disappointingly hard to do. From the developers perspective, they're already built everything and the profit has been made, so when given the choice between spending extra on such a small last detail, they see it purely as carving off their profit. They'll rationalise it away as "you can't see the LMR from x angle" or "you can't see it at a distance anyway" or whatever, then this is the end result. TBH, Realm's finish isn't actually too bad at all compared to other examples. There are some notorious examples in Melbourne, for example Prima/Pearl tower which was just capped with a lego brick after all the effort that went into the tower. Realm's LMR/plant doesn't attract much attention, that's a win.

[Ozbear73]

Algernon I agree with you, Realm’s isn’t that bad, but it could have been a touch better. At night it has the nice solid neon surround capping the building, which gives it a neat finish, but in the day time something replicating this, like a colour matched full surround parapet of some kind imho would have really finished off the excellent overall Realm design….just my opinion though…which is of no real consequence anyway

[Ozbear73]

Hate to always harp on about buildings in Perth, but they seem to know how to finish off well the tops of many of their newly constructed apartment buildings, here is a nice example behind their new QT Hotel, and also some of the newly completed buildings along Langley Park:

[Ben]

From the Advertiser:

A $30m student tower rising above Adelaide’s premier cultural boulevard is being described as “hideous” and an “eyesore”. Do you agree?

A student tower rising above Adelaide’s premier cultural boulevard has raised the ire of heritage supporters who have attacked the design of the $30m building.

The 35-storey property, being built behind a state heritage listed former warehouse at 203 North Tce, will reach 115m tall when completed.

But the architectural merit of the tower has been slammed on pro-heritage facebook page Help Save South Australia’s History From Demolition.

Mario Dreosti managing director of the building’s architect Brown Falconer declined to comment on the criticism of the building.

The Advertiser has sought comment from the property’s Adelaide developer Accord Property.

Members have described the building as a “travesty”, “hideous”, “revolting” and an “eyesore”.

Back in 2017 another student tower came under fire for its design, this time off Waymouth St.

And in January this year we asked 12 of the city’s leading architects to share their most hated buildings.
So does this one beat them all for title of ‘ugliest’?

“One of the ugliest buildings on North Terrace. And that’s being generous,” wrote member, Damian Hill.

Joanna Wells said the building “looks worse than even the most hyperactive imagination would have thought”.

The facebook page has 7000 followers including several Adelaide identities SA Heritage Council chair Keith Conlon and head of the History Trust and Adelaide City Councillor Greg Mackie.

The sandstone-coloured building will have 367 beds and is expected to be topped out in the second half of this year and completed in 2022.
The State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) approved the building in September 2019.

Work includes retaining and restoring the facade of an existing historic 1878 warehouse associated with merchant firm G & R Wills and Co.

According to a planning report put to the SCAP the tower was designed to “to achieve a singular, monolithic and sculptured built form outcome”.

The report, which recommended the project be approved, also said Adelaide City Council raised no objection to the project, which went through a design review process with the Office for Design and Archiceture SA in April 2019.

Mario Dreosti managing director of the building’s architect Brown Falconer declined to comment on the criticism of the building.

[NTRabbit]

Turns out the colour was the least offensive thing about it. I like the way a colour matching tower emerges from the heritage buildings below, just not that tower, should have gone either neobaroque or post-modern instead of whatever neomodern this was.

[VinyTapestry849]

This gets worse every time I look at it


Its good bro, wdym. Its better-having something there then nothing at all.

[Patrick_27]

I say this as a heritage advocate myself; but this is so typical of the generally older, 'we have no alternative' arm-chair heritage advocates in Adelaide... They have their finger on the pulse when it comes to the demolition of heritage buildings (whether certain buildings are worth saving or not is another discussion), but they're always late to the party in these instances where a developer has chosen to 'preserve' the heritage aspect of a site, all the while creating something completely unsympathetic and cheap at the rear. I'll bet that the commentary in this article has only surfaced because the old cronies attending the lunchtime concerts at Elder Hall or special exhibitions at the AGSA have recent noticed the building going up and felt disgusted enough to contact their friends at the Advertiser to have a whinge. Their reservations and influence would have been greatly appreciated and more valuable two years ago, what good can come from complaining about it now?