[COM] Adelaide Oval Redevelopment

[spiller]

its interesting to see one person sharing such contrasting views at pretty much the same time, nonetheless, i think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how good of an outcome it is when the project is complete.

[believesinadsy]

I'm on exchange right now in France and when I read the headlines every week from back home i truly lick my lips with anticipation thinking about how good this will be for Adsy
Cheers

[ml69]

Agreed. A lot of knockers will be silenced when the redeveloped stands are complete.

We will have the second greatest stadium in the country (only behind the MCG), and from a cricket perspective, one of the finest stadiums in the world. (BTW I'm not a Labor supporter)

[AdelaideAlive]

SOUTH Australia's sporting superstars will be honoured on the new $40 million footbridge across the River Torrens.

A "walk of fame" tribute will line the path to the new-look Adelaide Oval.

The display is planned to recognise greats inducted in the national Hall of Fame who identify as South Australian - including cricket champion Sir Donald Bradman and horse trainer Bart Cummings.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Pat Conlon said the State Government would try to include the 28 inductees of the SA sport's Hall of Fame in the development.

"We have a bridge that will span from the hub of the city's public transport, across what will become the heartbeat of Adelaide with the revitalisation of the Riverbank Precinct, through to the home of sporting greats," Mr Conlon said.

[SRW]

^Link/attribution?

[cruel_world00]

^Link/attribution?

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/a-b ... 6199543408

[AdelaideAlive]

TROUBLED bridge over water or egress to success, Peter Goers ponders pedestrian transport to Adelaide Oval.

So let's build a bridge, as they say in the classics, and get over it. A footbridge.

Impresario P.T. Barnum famously needed a way to get crowds out of his museum of curiosities, so he erected a sign saying: "This way to the egress."

Egress and ingress from and to public transport and the city is crucial to the new super-duper, much-needed Adelaide Oval/ Stadium.

The footbridge - which may also become a perambulatory hall of fame for famous SA sports people - needs to get people to public transport and into the city to buy more coffee, baguettes, fast food, booze and even Louis Vuitton handbags.

This is pleasing to the Adelaide Festival Centre and the Casino, which will benefit from madding crowds rushing towards their very mixed (even, to use a trendy word, diverse) pleasures.

The Labor Government has wisely committed to all this including a much-needed 40th anniversary upgrade and redevelopment of the Festival Centre.

The best thing that's happened to SA recently is that we may lose our holy AAA credit rating from the ridiculously named Standard and Poor's. What use is a Labor government if it doesn't spend money on public projects, the arts, development and while they're at it, the poor?

No one will lose sleep if our credit rating is reduced to AA, which certainly serves the Energizer bunny very well. It's all the better for SA - the Energizer Bunny state.

We need to get this whole arrangement right and not get a troubled bridge over water, although the water is troubled by blue-green algae, too. We might finally fix that while we're at it and does it really matter if the rotunda is moved? Hey, look, a vision splendid. Possibly, please. OK?

Apparently there are five designs for a footbridge under consideration by the Department of Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and Rod Hook.

Let's ponder the two most likely. The first is designed and promoted by the Melbourne firm, Ashton Raggatt McDougall and takes the footbridge to the west of the Dunstan Playhouse, thus obliterating the new West Wing offices of the Festival Centre.

It seems this bridge will lead thousands of hyped-up sports fans into the loading dock of the Intercontinental Hotel and they'd have to then go up via stairs, ramps and escalators to the city. It's the cheaper option and boo, hiss.



The other spectacularly appropriate option takes the bridge higher and through the shells of the Festival Centre across the Plaza and sensibly to the extant footbridge across the driveway and into the city and to public transport and even the casino. Directly. On the level.

Crucial to all of this, is the Hajek Plaza which looks like a technicolour tank trap behind Parliament House.

Otto Hajek was a Czech/German sculptor who specialised in extremely ugly plazas posing as art. They generally involve concrete blocks on strange angles painted in primary colours.

It is not the most memorable testament to the Dunstan Decade and is a barren, spiritless place, neither use nor ornament. A waste of space. It's partially hidden by yakkas which fools no one.

It could be our Federation Square and a triumphantly accessible public space for all manner of amenity and we'll get a preview of that in the next festival.

It will be redeveloped with an expanded carpark underneath which hopefully won't leak and this, with footbridge, is the option favoured by a rare consensus of the Adelaide Festival Centre, the casino and the Intercontinental Hotel.

We may also get an office and apartment building behind Old Parliament House which could offset the costs of the precinct.

The Festival Centre is a great symbol of our city and it desperately needs renovation and expansion. The CEO and Artistic Director, Douglas Gautier, has worked wonders there and re-engaged it with SA and deserves a chance to do more. It gets 900,000 people a year through it's doors, many more than the Adelaide Oval and casino.

The Festival Centre is ideally qualified, placed and suited to have control of the plaza precinct and the carpark which provides crucial revenue.

People will stroll along the new west bank past shops and cafes to regenerated parklands, all the way to Southwark and Bowden.

The focus of Southbank in Melbourne is a bloody casino. Here the focus of our west bank would be parklands. What more can I say. Bravo.

It seems, the casino will not expand, the arts will prosper and we get more use of the Festival Centre and more public space and parklands. The footbridge is the higher road to these successful destinations.

Let it prosper and grow, unlike the ever-stymied dreaded Victoria Square. Let's have a happy ending at last with just the right bridge to the future.

Peter Goers can be heard weeknights on 891 ABC Adelaide

[email protected]

[rhino]

Good article there from Mr Goers - and I do enjoy his sense of humour these days.

[rev]

All the activity is for the Foo Fighters concert on Monday.

[Port Adelaide Fan]

Federal pledge secures extra stadium carpark

AN extra underground carpark will be built at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval as the Federal Government pledges $30 million to aid the city stadium upgrade.

The new funding, to be revealed today in Adelaide by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, comes on top of $535 million the State Government will pay for the stadium and follows months of negotiation with Canberra.

An announcement on Oval funding from the Australian Football League is also understood to be imminent. The Federal Government will now cover the full cost of a 300-space carpark below the Oval's eastern stand and precinct "enhancements", including wetlands on the northern bank of the Torrens.

Both elements are in existing upgrade plans and were to be funded by the State Government. State money earmarked for those projects will now fund extras such as a third big replay screen and wi-fi hotspots.

more

[AdelaideAlive]

let the whinging begin

[AdelaideAlive]

oh well looks like i will spending endless nights touring the wetlands and getting exciting frolicing through the native vegetation every day,this will have people lined up in droves waitiig to walk the decking,can harldy wait on the plus side guess it will kill time when people get bored at the test matches and sheffield shield matches

[monotonehell]

let the whinging begin

oh well looks like i will spending endless nights touring the wetlands and getting exciting frolicing through the native vegetation every day,this will have people lined up in droves waitiig to walk the decking,can harldy wait on the plus side guess it will kill time when people get bored at the test matches and sheffield shield matches

Seriously why are people focusing on the tiny bit of wetland, hidden in a hard to access corner of the parklands, where no one goes except if they are sleeping rough or parking their car during big matches?

[stumpjumper]

The wetlands is just a filler to spread the $30 million of taxpayers' money beyond the eastern grandstand. Unfortunately for the taxpayers who've put up the money, they will not be able to park in the 300 space underground carpark. That privilege will be reserved for VIPs, dignitaries, government and guests etc.

As Transport Chief and head government project manager Rod Hook says, 'I would have thought that most members of the public will catch public transport.'

Enjoy our money, Rod.

[Nathan]

My only concern with this is that the Federal Government is stumping up $30m for the car park under the guise of "revitalising the city of Adelaide", and yet a project like Victoria Square — which is far more about "revitalising Adelaide" than an underground carpark — can't get even a dollar from the Feds.