[COM] Spark 88 | 47m | 15lvls | Apartments

[Omicron]

Oh dear.

[skyliner]

"o dear!' is right - it's a shocker1. As someone said, it looks like the old NY tenements of 19th C. Can't see it lasting very long as bldgs go. demolition in 20 - 30 years??

ADELAIDE - TOWARDS A GREATER CITY SKYLINE

[SRW]

Still looks like a prison.

And I hate the colour orange, most especially on buildings.

[bm7500]

Looks like a dropped pie!

But seriously, thats a pretty poor effort

[Pistol]

Update from this morning.

[jk1237]

ok, its certainly not a masterpiece, but for some reason, it actually fits in well with the Hindley St streetscape, even right now during construction. Im convincing myself that the end result wont be that bad. Wont be great either, but not bad

[joshzxzx]

That building looks like CRAP!!!

[omada]

This is the crappest looking building...........EVER..... yes thats right...it's almost a privilege that Adelaide has the shittiest building ever constructed in the world.. it could be a tourist attraction.. the horror!

[urban]

That this has been allowed to be built is an absolute failure of our planning system.

[UrbanSG]

Geeze some of you obviously have not seen a number of terrible apartments that have gone up interstate and overseas. Far worse than this one even. One recently in Perth, another in Sydney and Melbourne and heaps in Qld come to mind. Let alone overseas. Whilst I agree this building is a fairly poor/basic standard that perspective will be its worst as it is the boundary perspective. I realise the remaining elevations won't be anything special either.

We cannot expect every mid to high rise building that goes up to be a moderate to high standard design. Sometimes we are unfortunately going to get some of these poor standard developments. At least the majority of it will be hidden. I say move on and focus on some of the other great proposals we have at the moment in Adelaide. Compared to other locations we have a fair few high quality designs in the pipeline which we can focus on instead.

[Howie]

You could go for a cleaner design with more glass larger balconies etc, but you have to be realistic about the market here. These apartments will be affordable for investors - and subsequently the rent for students. To get an apartment rentable at around $200/wk/room you've got cut down on some of the fancy stuff that makes the building attractive. I don't think Octagon has been a failure at all when you consider some of the other affordable accommodation out there.

[urban]

We cannot expect every mid to high rise building that goes up to be a moderate to high standard design. Sometimes we are unfortunately going to get some of these poor standard developments. At least the majority of it will be hidden. I say move on and focus on some of the other great proposals we have at the moment in Adelaide. Compared to other locations we have a fair few high quality designs in the pipeline which we can focus on instead.

We should not accept substandard designs in our beautiful city. One shocking building like this can ruin a whole street for 40 -50 years. This kind of lazy design should not be tolerated. This building not only presents poorly to the street but is going to be of poor amenity for the occupants (limited access to sunlight and ventilation etc). We are not a third world country, we should not accept 3rd world designs or expect our overseas students to live in 2nd class accommodation.

I don't care what is happening in other states this sort of development should not be accepted in the City of Adelaide.

We should be using innovative designs to meet the requirements of student housing not resorting to nasty designs.

[UrbanSG]

Urban that is 'fantasy land'. It really is. I would also love to see great designs and not substandard ones. However this type of design is a product of the capitalist society we live in.

Some of the more recent student apartment designs seem to be slowly improving but they are also still relatively basic and standard.

[Shuz]

Update from this morning.

I can't really count the floors, what is it up to at the moment, so I can update the database accordingly?

And yes, this building is horrendous.

[urban]

This is not fantasy land. This is the purpose of planning laws.

Do you actually think that we should accept substandard buildings?

We can't expect everything to be brilliant but it should be of reasonable design. If a decently designed project can not be achieved on this site then it is the wrong project for that site.

This has got nothing to do with capitalism, this is just laziness on part of the designer and developer. If you are happy to let someone screw you and your city over to make a few bucks then you're obviously lacking in respect for your city. This is a beautiful city but if we don't maintain our standards it will soon become uninviting and even less vibrant. There is no point advocating a higher skyline, entertainment precincts, laneway rejuvenation etc if buildings like this are allowed to ruin the city.