[COM] Festival Plaza Tower 1 | 115m | 27 Levels | Office

[Nathan]

It was a wasteland, because a concrete space, void of any shade, or greenery, that is blazing hot in summer, and cold and windswept in winter, has no real use in Adelaide’s climate apart from the odd activation at festivals.

It was supposed to have greenery and water, as well as finished in tiles rather than the painted concrete. Some of the garden beds were put in, but quickly left to die, and the rest compromised from the get go.

[Nort]

It was a wasteland, because a concrete space, void of any shade, or greenery, that is blazing hot in summer, and cold and windswept in winter, has no real use in Adelaide’s climate apart from the odd activation at festivals.

It was supposed to have greenery and water, as well as finished in tiles rather than the painted concrete. Some of the garden beds were put in, but quickly left to die, and the rest compromised from the get go.

Yeah.

I'm not arguing that the plaza shouldn't have been replaced by something more modern and useful, but the strategy for a couple of decades was clearly to let it rot away so that there would be little opposition to it being demolished. The water features were dry, the garden beds dead, and paint flaking. It was basically abandoned by the government and then they used that neglect to argue for removing it.

WIth the sort of water features and effort on greenery, events, and engagement that the new space has seen it would have been lively and well used to this day.

[AndyWelsh]

Was looking at some of the other towers built recently by Walker and noticed this Western Sydney Uni building. Like Festival Plaza it’s also 6-star but has more in common visually with the planned (and delayed) Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre (EIC) at Lot Fourteen.

Would something this striking work in Festival Plaza or does it need to be more subtle to mix in with the existing buildings?






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HiTouch]

I did a 20km run yesterday running from Lochiel Park near Paradise to the City and back. Linear park is relatively cool so it was nice on a 23 degree day. However, I went up some stairs and through Festival Plaza and the heat amplified majorly. It felt like it was 15 degrees warmer then by the Torrens Lake. There has been no difference in environment to the concrete monstrosities there beforehand. In fact, I think it's worse. Way too much concrete with a dark glass building overhead to magnify the heat. I can't imagine this place being very welcoming for workers on their lunchbreak on a 30 degree day.

[Plasmatron]

The view of Festival Tower from the 2KW rooftop at night (a few weeks ago).

[Will]

from realestate.com:

[Pikey]

I noticed walking past this last night that there is two huge formed concrete columns with upper exposed reo immediately to the east of Festival Tower, I assume they're for the new 35 level building. Makes me wonder if there is a massive void at the lower section to allow clear sight lines of Parliament house which will require mega colums. These things are huge.

[Dvious]

Do we know its a 35 level building going up next door?

[Ben]

Do we know its a 35 level building going up next door?

Nothing has been lodged or announced.

[Ho Really]

Do we know its a 35 level building going up next door?

Nothing has been lodged or announced.

Perhaps AAA is in the know...

According to Principal’s Project Requirements tower 2 is planned to be a 35-storey building

...and if it is you'll probably be looking at our second tallest or temporary tallest if completed before the Masonic tower. My guess is this tower will be around 143-145 metres starting from plaza level.

Cheers

[AndyWelsh]

Photo dump from today. Getting close to complete at plaza level now.












Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AndyWelsh]

Some more around the plaza today. Feels so big and open all of a sudden.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[abc]

if you squint they almost look the same

Adelaide is a diorama

[AG]

Those columns next to the construction office look quite large - definitely sized for a major office tower and not a 3 level plaza building.

[SRW]

Thanks for the photos, Andy! It's a seriously impressive paving job. Wish Rundle Mall had got something more like this during its revamp.

In saying that, from your photo looks like Walker got their way with fewer trees in front of the building entrance, thereby breaking the avenue planting: