Invigorating CBD Alleyways & Lanes

[david]

Thanks for the background info on the Alleways and Laneways of Adelaide. Ever since I discovered the lanes in Melbourne I was convinced that Adelaide needs to realise the potential that our lanes have.

You will be pleased to know that Councils Draft budget adopted last night has $50k for a study and preparation of an action plan to start working with owners to develop our Alleways and Lanes.
Incidentally, Lindes Lane is already being upgraded.

Check out the whole document when it comes out on 10 May and let the Council have your submissions and attend one of the information sessions. There are many exciting things in the draft budget - they deserve comminity support.

David

[cleverick]

Some of you may recognise my alias from my blog, http://www.cleverick.blogspot.com.
This is exactly the sort of idea I can get behind. If every other ally in Adelaide were a new delight, a special thing, we could be so much more the festival city. A Tuscan-themed lane could host Italian musicians, an overgrown courtyard a wine tasting festival. Block Gawler Place north of Rundle Mall, set up shops at random intervals on the mezzanine level, and have a rickety-looking (but perfectly safe) walkway down the centre with paths to either side. The walkways could be enclosed, or the Place could be rooved with glass.
Moonta St is clearly under-utilised most of the time. Get the stalls and supermarkets into the street, open other shops in kiosks in the centre, make it like a crowded Asian marketplace. (Strictly Chinese cabbage and rice, no western foods allowed for sale.)
The barn at the end of the Stag alley could become a dance school with open-air lessons.
I'm making these up as I go along, but I like the sound of it. I'm open to more.

Reading the ex-a-sketch people, you could open a couple of walls in some alleys for permanent re-painting. Something like the Mona Lisa who occasionally appears in chalk in Rundle Mall, it would be understood the art had a life span of a week or so, but this would provide expression to those who want it and entertainment for City dwellers/workers.
Certain styles might help identify illicit graffiti, too.

[Wayno]

Thanks for the background info on the Alleways and Laneways of Adelaide. Ever since I discovered the lanes in Melbourne I was convinced that Adelaide needs to realise the potential that our lanes have.

You will be pleased to know that Councils Draft budget adopted last night has $50k for a study and preparation of an action plan to start working with owners to develop our Alleways and Lanes.
Incidentally, Lindes Lane is already being upgraded.

Check out the whole document when it comes out on 10 May and let the Council have your submissions and attend one of the information sessions. There are many exciting things in the draft budget - they deserve comminity support.

David

this is fantastic! look fwd to reading the document on may 10!

[jk1237]

thanks David, now that is interesting and exciting news, especially about Lindes Lane. I feel like going to one of the info sessions too.
As for Moonta Street Mall, the outside tables are always very popular, and I reckon they could fit double the amount of tables in, almost tripple. Not sure why T-chow restaurant dont put some outside tables out front

[cleverick]

I often walk past Gilles Arcade, parallel to Morphett on the east side of Light Squ, and there is a run-down looking building there with the word Bazaar painted on the top. I think it could be closed to traffic (the carpark's exit is on the east-west running street) and turned into an African marketplace, much like Chinatown but for our swelling population of Sudanese immigrants. I had a look, the building is a theatre (heritage listed?) but apparently has been used as a bazaar in the past- perhaps one way to re-invigorate the West End?

[Will]

I often walk past Gilles Arcade, parallel to Morphett on the east side of Light Squ, and there is a run-down looking building there with the word Bazaar painted on the top. I think it could be closed to traffic (the carpark's exit is on the east-west running street) and turned into an African marketplace, much like Chinatown but for our swelling population of Sudanese immigrants. I had a look, the building is a theatre (heritage listed?) but apparently has been used as a bazaar in the past- perhaps one way to re-invigorate the West End?

That is an interesting concept, but I do not know how an African marketplace would work in Adelaide or Australia for that matter. It would have to be some sort of sanitized, Disneyland type market because quite frankly something such as this: would look out of place here.

[cleverick]

OK, so I was imagining something similar to the touristy bazaar I visited in Istanbul, rather than the marketplaces of Morocco. But do you get the drift? It would probably be, in form, similar to Chinatown, but rather than selling rocket lettuce and cauliflower, it would sell ostrich eggs . (Can you? Are they endangered? You get the point though.)
As well as food you could have hair dressers, fabric sellers, a Dinka-language book shop, perhaps some entertainment...
It would be much more lively and entertaining than the current set up.

[monotonehell]

I often walk past Gilles Arcade, parallel to Morphett on the east side of Light Squ, and there is a run-down looking building there with the word Bazaar painted on the top. I think it could be closed to traffic (the carpark's exit is on the east-west running street) and turned into an African marketplace, much like Chinatown but for our swelling population of Sudanese immigrants. I had a look, the building is a theatre (heritage listed?) but apparently has been used as a bazaar in the past- perhaps one way to re-invigorate the West End?

The Horse Bazaar is just the façade of one of Adelaide's most important historical buildings. If you were to walk around to the other side you'll see what's left of the stables and an empty lot that's used as a car park. This was the site of the first proper theatre in Adelaide and two subsequent theatres, that were later used as the first law court, and horse bazaar.

I don't think that Gilles Arcade is suitable for a market or any thing else. It's in the middle of nowhere, facility speaking, and suffers from no sunlight due to the carpark and multi story building either side. Also the idea that a temporary African market in an street for Sudanese immigrants is a little racist? Chinatown is a collection of disparate buildings and businesses based around California street that grew organically, not a ghetto shanty market. Who would you invite to operate what kinds of business from there?

[cleverick]

OK, so the site is not ideal. But not because of a lack of light or being in the middle of nowhere. Are you trying to tell me the central markets are flooded with natural light? And nowhere is subjective. Gilles Arcade is just around the corner for a lot of backpackers, close to Hindley St, fairly close to loads of offices on Waymouth and Currie Sts (including the new tower and Westpac House) and on the bus route which services Henley Beach road, and many of the refugees have been settled in the western suburbs. But if the building has other historical uses, then it is never going to contain a market.
I reject the accusation of racism.
So, I stand by the idea. We all agree it would be wonderful to have a surprise round every corner, and why shouldn't one of them be an African bazaar? The permanent shops in the chosen street would be things like African beading hair dressers (there's one on Bank St) which require permanent infrastructure, while into the street (which would be closed to motor traffic) would spill kiosks and stalls selling home-made trinkets and African vegetables/cuisine. There could be bunting and a pretty entrance similar to Chinatown but Sudanese.
The ACC could market it specifically, approve only suitable businesses in the chosen lane, rename the street- there are many ways in which it could be achieved. And once you start, you might eventually have it growing up organically anyway, since it is the nature of complementary businesses to open near to each other.

If this thread is all about offering ideas for how to make Adelaide's alleys more exciting, I humbly propose the above. Can anyone think of a more appropriate site than Gilles Arcade?

[monotonehell]

OK, so the site is not ideal. But not because of a lack of light or being in the middle of nowhere. Are you trying to tell me the central markets are flooded with natural light? And nowhere is subjective. Gilles Arcade is just around the corner for a lot of backpackers, close to Hindley St, fairly close to loads of offices on Waymouth and Currie Sts (including the new tower and Westpac House) and on the bus route which services Henley Beach road, and many of the refugees have been settled in the western suburbs. But if the building has other historical uses, then it is never going to contain a market.
I reject the accusation of racism.
So, I stand by the idea. We all agree it would be wonderful to have a surprise round every corner, and why shouldn't one of them be an African bazaar? The permanent shops in the chosen street would be things like African beading hair dressers (there's one on Bank St) which require permanent infrastructure, while into the street (which would be closed to motor traffic) would spill kiosks and stalls selling home-made trinkets and African vegetables/cuisine. There could be bunting and a pretty entrance similar to Chinatown but Sudanese.
The ACC could market it specifically, approve only suitable businesses in the chosen lane, rename the street- there are many ways in which it could be achieved. And once you start, you might eventually have it growing up organically anyway, since it is the nature of complementary businesses to open near to each other.

If this thread is all about offering ideas for how to make Adelaide's alleys more exciting, I humbly propose the above. Can anyone think of a more appropriate site than Gilles Arcade?

The Central Markets are a purpose built building with air-conditioning and lighting. At first I thought you were suggesting a market on the street - but are you suggesting that the old site behind the façade becomes a market? Or a street market on Gilles Arcade? The history of the site would not be a barrier to that development as long as the façade is retained. But trying to mount a market on Gilles Arcade road surface itself is not tenable. Have a walk down it (it doglegs back to the square) next time you pass and see what I mean. Operating a market on the now openair carpark on the other side of that façade would be possible.

While not purposely racist, what you are proposing is ostensibly a racist ghetto. You're saying that only a certain kind of business - based on ethnicity - is allowable in this location. Also you're trying to legislate a particular community start trading in a location that is no where near a population centre. Sudanese people have settled all over the metropolitan area. Chinatown started organically as a few Chinese-expat business people set up near the Central Markets. The community slowly took up tenancies in the same area and it built from that. Trying to plant a kernel that a particular ethnic group will grow around is ghettoism and doomed. Communities don't grow that way, there must be a strange attractor that concentrates an otherwise random setup of businesses and their interrelationships.

That's not even addressing the financial viability of such an idea.

[Wayno]

i've said it a 1000 times, and i'll say it again - invigorated alleyways and lanes is the cure to Adelaide's woes.

http://smallbusiness.theage.com.au/grow ... 87707.html
An article from the Melbourne Age:

Life thrives in the laneways

alley.jpg (73.24 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

Melbourne's insatiable desire to shop, eat and party in the city's signature laneways is driving a wave of projects as developers take the retail concept from the niche to the mainstream.

More than a half-dozen major commercial projects around the CBD have adopted laneway designs from the 19th century templates of the Block Arcade and Royal Arcade, or modern equivalents of Degraves Street and Centre Place.

"The public has made it clear they don't want the city to be uniform, with everything in its place, like a supermarket, nor do they want a series of 1960s-era concrete boxes," says Australian Centre for Retail Studies program director Steve Barnes. "Developers have seen this and their new and recent projects are actively trying to sympathetically link the new with the old in their design, offering modern retailing with reference to the past."

The result has been the revitalisation of some of the city's long-forgotten byways and alleys and the creation of new ones, a reversal of a century-old trend that had seen laneways privatised, closed off, underdeveloped, neglected or simply disappear.

Rob Adams, director of design and urban environment for the City of Melbourne, said the process began more than 20 years ago as the council and state government moved to protect and upgrade the city's remaining laneways and alleys, encouraging small retailers to move into the city and take spaces facing the street rather than looking inward.

The first generation of revitalised laneways included Degraves Street, Centre Place and Hardware Lane. But it has only been in the past five years that corporate Australia has really got in on the act, building or resurrecting laneways inside or next to major developments like Melbourne Central, QV, Urban Workshop and the GPO.

"There's been a real recognition that as far as retail, culture and experience, the laneways are as important as some of the bigger developments and (major) streets," Mr Adams said.

"With every development that goes in the city now we ask about what is happening at street level."

Cbus will reopen Goldsbrough Lane when its CBW development is completed this year, which will host about 20 hospitality and retail outlets between Bourke and Little Bourke streets. Rents are reportedly $700 to $1250 a square metre.

The last sentence in the above article is key. Funky lanes where people want to hang out can demand larger rents!

[cleverick]

Why is encouraging African businesses in a certain place any different from allowing only houses in a certain street, or any of the thousand other planning decisions councillors make every year anyway?
Judging by the picture in the post above, I don't see why a marketplace in Gilles Arcade is such a terrible idea, anyway. And you could spruce up the facade of that theatre and do something else with the other side of it. Something completely unexpected: relocate the beach volleyball there, or consider the site for a Guggenheim Museum, or set up a cobbled square for street theatre. Anything but the expected.

[monotonehell]

Why is encouraging African businesses in a certain place any different from allowing only houses in a certain street, or any of the thousand other planning decisions councillors make every year anyway?

Please refer to my last post. I've already answered this question.

Judging by the picture in the post above, I don't see why a marketplace in Gilles Arcade is such a terrible idea, anyway. And you could spruce up the facade of that theatre and do something else with the other side of it. Something completely unexpected: relocate the beach volleyball there, or consider the site for a Guggenheim Museum, or set up a cobbled square for street theatre. Anything but the expected.

The picture above shows a narrow and interesting alleyway with multiple traders facing the street, several buildings make up the streetscape adding interest. Gilles Arcade (Have you taken a walk down it yet?) had on the western side, the corner of an office building with no doorways and the side of the carpark; and on the eastern side the blank wall of the building on the corner with also no doorways of merit. It's like comparing apples with guided missile silos...

[cleverick]

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080 ... mojo-.html

I don't know much about architecture or engineering, but I don't see why the ACC shouldn't require that even if the main street entrance is a foyer or a food court, the ground level of tall buildings facing into alleys and laneways should have shop space, preferably with lots of smaller shops/delis rather than one or two big ones. This would help enliven streets like Gresham St between Hindley St and North Tce.

More street art such as that in Blyth St would be good too, especially if the ACC devoted a particular wall to graffiti artists (as distinct from graffiti vandals) and let them repaint the wall once a month or week or whatever. (I was going to suggest Blyth St, but there are developments there which might make it less appealing for that sort of thing now, especially if it has shops facing into it.)

[Jim]

Melbourne’s has revitalised its CBD having opened up many new and old arcades and lanes. They have also managed to retain an interesting streetscape for new developments. One of the ways they make this to happen is to use several different architectural firms to work on the ground levels to than the rest of building and they have also been required to retain as many (worthy) historical elements as possible. As a result they increased the amount of public building access with great success.