Heritage and the CBD: a story of two cities

[PropertyozSA]

Some in the community seem to hold an image of me something like Robert Duvall on the beaches of Vietnam, cavalry hat rammed on and bellowing ‘I love the smell of diesel in the morning!’ as bulldozers roll mercilessly over Adelaide’s heritage. Nothing could be further from the truth. I personally have a local heritage listed single-fronted worker’s cottage in Adelaide, something that I take great pride in. And from a professional perspective, the Property Council is in favour of appropriate protection of our heritage assets.

But it at this juncture that our opinion diverges from that of the heritage ideologues that hold sway in this debate. There are already more than 1800 properties in Adelaide and North Adelaide on the State and Local Heritage lists and now the Adelaide City Council wants to add a further 300-odd properties in the CBD. We have now moved from a desire to protect our built heritage to a point where we seem to protect anything that could be classed simply as ‘old’. If this attitude ends up dominating our approach to heritage protection we might as well put a glass dome over the city and hang out a ‘Closed for Business’ sign.

This approach is not about protecting those buildings that provide mojo, character and a sense of historical connectivity to the city; it is an ideological crusade with a fundamentalist view of development. The same people that want to list everything are the same who don’t want anything new near anything remotely considered heritage (the term ‘BANANA’ comes to mind – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything). In Adelaide, it seems this refrain is stuck on ‘Repeat’.

Yes, we need to reasonably preserve built form that adds life, vitality and vibrancy to our city. But at the same time we must also accept that for the city to meet the needs of contemporary society, its shape, form and feel must also change. This demands new, sustainable, comfortable, beautiful buildings that service the needs of modern business and reflect the way we do business today. The new built environment must balance the need for heritage in the built form to be balanced with the community’s cry for environmentally benign workplaces, homes and cultural centres. Somehow, for those on their ideological crusade, this is viewed as nothing short of heresy.

But for those of us who want to live in this great town for years to come, what we want is a city that reflects our culture.

Oddly enough, these two outcomes are not mutually exclusive; but they require a rational and reasonable perspective, not an ideological war in which everyone loses.

NOTE: The Property Council has raised with the relevant authorities its opposition to further heritage listings and will be advocating that the State Government reject the Council’s proposal.

We hope to become a regular presence on Sensational Adelaide. In between blogs, you can keep up with day-to-day Property Council developments on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PropertyozSA

[Wayno]

Hi PropertyOz, welcome to S-A. You are among friends here - we all want balanced development that reflects our culture.

Question: Do you know the location of the 300-ish new properties targeted for heritage listing? we are waiting eagerly to see the list...

[PropertyozSA]

Wayno - great question, something we want to know as well!

All we know at the moment is that the process was confidential but the Council did allow one Councillor to provide a list of buildings for consideration by the consultant. We FOI'd the list provided which has been refused on public interest grounds but have lodged an appeal so hopefully we will be able to provide soon.

Cheers Nathan

[Howie]

To the members who aren't familiar with Nathan Paine, is the executive director of the Property Council of Australia (SA Division) and he brings with him a wealth of experience. Hopefully he'll be able to bring us a unique insight on issues affecting development in our state and abroad.

Welcome to the site Nathan, we're glad you could join us.

[Will]

Nathan, welcome to the forum. We value your contribution to discussion and look forward to more posts.

I completely agree, with your opinion on heritage. It is a opinion which I have been advocating for a long time on this forum: "The best way to pay homage to our beautiful heritage buildings is to build equally beautiful modern buildings next to them, not some beige, bland box that fades into the background".

[Omicron]

Hello, newfangled official-sounding fellow!