Sensational-Adelaide.com

Will wrote:If anyone has had the pleasure of entering the Sir Samuel Way Building, it immediately dawns upon you that its current role is not allowing the building to live up to its greatest potential. They say that the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney is the prettiest shopping centre in Australia, however once you have had a view inside of the Sir Samuel Way Building and in particular its majestice marble staircase and dome, you think to yourself that if done correctly, we could have the prettiest shopping centre of them all in Victoria Square!

Prince George wrote:If I could choose one of the surrounding buildings to change, it would be the Samuel Way building. It's not an unattractive building, but it not only adds no life to the square -- it actually manages to be a barrier between there and the market/Gouger street. When I think of that passage way that joins the market and the square ... what I wouldn't give to move the District Court elsewhere and repurpose the Samuel Way building to be a better connection between those parts of town.

And while I was thinking along these lines I found http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=289&c=601

This building known since the 1980s as the Sir Samuel Way building houses Adelaide's Local District Courts but the visitor would find it hard to believe that the building was once a department store. Arthur Garlick and Herbert Louis Jackman were commissioned by Charles Moore to build this department store in Victoria Square in 1911. The building is made of reinforced concrete and was opened in 1916. Moore established his retail business in Victoria Square in the 1880s, breaking away from the city's retail centre in Rundle and Hindley Streets.

That seems like quite a loss - the square lost a department store and gained another courthouse.

skyliner wrote:I actually had the pleasure of going to that building as Moore's department store - absolutely amazing inside. It reeked of early 20th century retailing and gave an effective entry to the markets. It reminded me of the Grande Central Hotel - also seen before it lost it's charm and expression of grand elequence in high Victorian style.
Moores had an ice creamery at the top of the marble bannisters - I remember the overpowering presence of the dome as well. A BIG loss to Adelaide when it went - knew the key draftsman in the redesign of this for courts. Would be great to see reintroduction of retailing at Moores again.

ADELAIDE - *snip* A GREAT CITY SKYLINE !!

Prince George wrote:The council's website now has the "Guiding principles and vision" for Victoria Square up.

http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/scri ... =PC_151184

Prince George wrote: I'm upset at the amount of planning for Vic Square that seems to assume the problems are all within the Square itself, and not in the context of everything that we're doing around it. This [SA Water] was only approved a couple of years ago, but we still seem to have missed making the new construction part of the solution for the square. Instead we've got a project [for Vic Square] that has a hard timeline to get a masterplan out by June next year and start breaking ground in 2010. Is that going to be enough time to include these surrounding buildings in the planning? It could take all that time to decide what to do with the traffic.

AG wrote:From I can see there is an entrance from Victoria Square into the building. A lot of the buildings around the square really don't give much life to the square, as most of them have no ground floor retail and/or only serve their intended purpose during the daytime. The northwestern corner of the square shows a good example as to how the square could be redeveloped, but that corner on its own doesn't do much for the square as a whole.

I've actually had another idea since the deadline, drat. It might be a bit of a controversial one as people first look at it, but I've been thinking on the success of the layout of parts of Hindmarsh square and how they mesh with their surrounds because they are not isolated by traffic around their perimeter.

The ideas behind it are:
1 Through traffic is a reality, but tunnels are not possible due to the long run ups required.
2 For people to make daily use of it, it really needs to mesh with the surrounding buildings, be an extension of the activities at its perimeter.
3 To be a useful and functional space for special events it needs to be a large contiguous space.

Obviously points 1 and 3 are not compatible, unless we allow the roads to be roads most of the time, but close them off for events. To this end I've eradicated the diamond, there are no access roads at the perimeter (except a provision to allow taxis and dropoffs access to the Hilton's front door) instead KWS and Grote/Wakefield bisect the square on both axes. However they are not normal black top roads, whilst in the square they are differently paved roads (possibly those high wear pavers that they use in shared zones in Germany) the kerbs are also removed and replaced with flat style spoon gutters (like in Rundle Mall) in order to provide a completely flat surface. In this way the entire square can be cordoned during large events without anyone tripping over the gutters etc.

I was toying with the idea of a shared traffic/pedestrian space in the orange zone - but haven't convinced myself that it would work as yet.

Also I have the idea that the intersection in the centre of the square could be mounted by some kind of spire or other architectural feature that is accessed from the supporting pillars at each of the four cardinal points (NE, SE, SW & NW) around the intersection (the red crosshatches and the green blobs). Perhaps even providing a pedestrian overpass to the tram stop?

Additionally certain buildings around the perimeter would be allowed to 'invade' the square to small degrees. An example might be an extension of the Central Markets Arcade or if the Law Courts become a shopping centre an extension of their entry to accommodate outdoor cafés etc. Perhaps a low rise cultural building of some sort could be constructed in a corner for whatever purposes can be thought of.

The green areas would be landscaped in such a way that would facilitate the best balance between the daily functions and the special events functions.

Here's a really rough sketch I made with crayons in my lunch break weeks ago... *shame*


I stress it's a really rough sketch, I was just jotting down the idea before I forgot it. And it's a really rough outline of where I was going with this before I changed jobs and lost my life. Do with it what you will.

Prince George wrote:The council's website now has the "Guiding principles and vision" for Victoria Square up.

http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/scri ... =PC_151184

Prince George wrote:The council's website now has the "Guiding principles and vision" for Victoria Square up.

http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/scri ... =PC_151184

Wayno wrote:

Prince George wrote:The council's website now has the "Guiding principles and vision" for Victoria Square up.

http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/scri ... =PC_151184

a few key sentences in the doc:
* Residential Population: The Square will greatly benefit from a significant increase in residential population overlooking the Square and in the immediate area. Strategic mixed-use residential projects within the surrounding precinct will be encouraged