[COM] Adelaide Convention Centre - Stage 3 | $350m

[Burger]

Southern Cross station is almost as far from the centre of Melbourne as Keswick Terminal is from the centre of Adelaide. It's a similar story with Central station in Sydney and Roma Street in Brisbane.

Bull. Southern Cross, Sydney Central and Roma Street are all inside their respective CBDs and are surrounded by everything a visitor needs. How on earth can you compare them to Keswick?

Agree with AtD - Aidan, I regularly spend time in Melbourne and I'll give you a few facts on Southern Cross just from my experience of it:
- it opens onto the western side of the western-most CBD street (equivalent to West Tce in Adelaide) and given the CBD's expansion in Docklands, it's actually more part of the CBD than it used to be.
- the commuter trains go right through the guts of Southern Cross on their loop through the rest of the City as well as being the end point for many.
- the Vline and interstate train services all start & stop there.
- there are (by my count) 7 different tram services that travel past or adjacent to the station.
- it's the terminus for all Melbourne CBD bound/originated long-haul bus services.
- the terminus for all Skybus services to/from Tullamarine Airport.

All in all it's a very different beast to Keswick and in case someone is suggesting that Adelaide should emulate it, dont bother -the physical and population conditions wouldn't allow it. IMO the only semi-logical position if Keswick was to be relocated would be adjacent to the Adelaide Railway Station but that area's a bit cramped now so not sure how it would fit.

[Waewick]

I really its another pie in the sky idea

but why not put the interstate trains out to the Airport and then have a connection into the city rail station.

As I said, its a crap load of moving for not much gain but it would provide more incentive to get something other than taxi's and the odd bus providing transport to and from the airport.

[AtD]

Keswick is lucky to get more than one train per day. Even Canberra Station gets more traffic.

[crawf]

Keswick would work if they combined the metro and interstate railway lines into one interchange + large mixed-use TOD precinct, similar to Bowden Village.

At the moment Keswick Station is a complete disaster, Interstate Rail Terminal is average though the whole area has major potential

[Aidan]

Southern Cross station is almost as far from the centre of Melbourne as Keswick Terminal is from the centre of Adelaide. It's a similar story with Central station in Sydney and Roma Street in Brisbane.

Bull. Southern Cross, Sydney Central and Roma Street are all inside their respective CBDs and are surrounded by everything a visitor needs. How on earth can you compare them to Keswick?

Agree with AtD - Aidan, I regularly spend time in Melbourne and I'll give you a few facts on Southern Cross just from my experience of it:
- it opens onto the western side of the western-most CBD street (equivalent to West Tce in Adelaide) and given the CBD's expansion in Docklands, it's actually more part of the CBD than it used to be.

I stand corrected - my information was out of date and there is a lot more at that end of Melbourne than there was when I was last there. But Sydney Central is more than a kilometre south of the centre of Sydney's CBD.

- the commuter trains go right through the guts of Southern Cross on their loop through the rest of the City as well as being the end point for many.
- the Vline and interstate train services all start & stop there.
- there are (by my count) 7 different tram services that travel past or adjacent to the station.
- it's the terminus for all Melbourne CBD bound/originated long-haul bus services.
- the terminus for all Skybus services to/from Tullamarine Airport.

Yes, that's the point I was trying to make. The main problem with Keswick isn't that it's physically outside the CBD, it's that it's hard to get to from the CBD. If we had better bus links there and all our suburban trains ran to Keswick as well as Adelaide, it wouldn't be a problem - and it would stimulate development there.

[AtD]

Southern Cross has always been a destination in its own right, even back when it was Spencer Street.

[crawf]

Found this very rough concept of the Adelaide Convention Centre Expansion


http://www.businessevents.australia.com ... ay2010.pdf

Please note - this photo is old, the Torrens Riverbank looks much better these days.

[PJK1]

Impressive.

However IMO those rowing sheds need to be relocated. They are of no architectural merit and need to go, allowing more green open space. Only in Adelaide would a development of such a prime spot retain outbuildings more appropriate to the riverfront of a shanty town.

[SRW]

Good find, Crawf.

I really hope that at some point it's realised that it's probably not the best look to have roadway/carpark opening (beneath the promenade) onto prime riverfront.

Only in Adelaide would a development of such a prime spot retain outbuildings more appropriate to the riverfront of a shanty town.

Add that one to the file...

[Prince George]

However IMO those rowing sheds need to be relocated. They are of no architectural merit and need to go, allowing more green open space. Only in Adelaide would a development of such a prime spot retain outbuildings more appropriate to the riverfront of a shanty town.

PEEEEEP! That's going get you caution, next time it'll be a yellow card.

Cities all around the world have had regrettable things put on their waterfronts. Off the top of my head - New York, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Seoul, and even Paris all have (or had) freeways in prime spots like this. Industry and warehousing along a river was very common, Melbourne's Docklands for example, and London's shiny sparkly Canary Wharf stands on the Isle of Dogs, which formerly had not only industrial sites but also one of the highest concentrations of council housing tenements in the UK. All in all, if a couple of rowing sheds on a lawn is the worst of our sins, we're doing better than average.

That aside - don't focus on "architectural merit", focus on uses. Suppose one of these buildings wasn't a boatshed, it was a bar where you could sit in summer and have a few drinks looking across the river to the oval - would you still want them knocked down? I suspect that you wouldn't be so keen then, that you wouldn't care that the buildings were "more appropriate to the riverfront of a shanty town". Personally, I don't care about rowing and I have nothing to do with the school's whose boatsheds are down there, but I'd be sad to see the rowing go - these are people who are actually using the river, which is a Good Thing. So I'd like to see the buildings that we have down there becoming more multi-use, but I'm not about to want them chased out of town.

[PJK1]

The words I used were - NEED TO BE RELOCATED.

Agreed - great to have rowing on the river, but those ugly sheds at the gateway to the city. Not ideal IMO.

[crawf]

Does the Adelaide City Council own them all and lease to them to the Rowing Clubs?

I would like to see them relocated aswell or incorporated into a mixed use development along the torrens.

[Nort]

Found this very rough concept of the Adelaide Convention Centre Expansion


http://www.businessevents.australia.com ... ay2010.pdf

Please note - this photo is old, the Torrens Riverbank looks much better these days.

Going off the very tentative plans for the Casino relocation that we have heard about, does it seem fair to say that it would be constructed over the train lines? The combination of that and this convention centre expansion means that Aidan is getting closer to his wish for an underground railway, just not in the direction he wants.

[AtD]

I'm not a fan on the design: copy, paste and paste again. The current convention centre is great but I don't think three times the centre will be three times as great. They're not even attempting to be original. Variety is the spice of life.

The west end of the convention centre IMO would be much more useful as a western entrance to the railway station. It would allow for the west end of the city to be opened up much more.

Also, is it just me or did MC Escher design the car park ramp?

[crawf]

I wouldn't take this concept very serious, it's very basic and missing a few things like the redevelopment of Exhibition Hall

Though it does give you an idea at how big this project will be.