Sensational-Adelaide.com

ORIGINAL ARTICLE.

Adelaide CBD's second-tallest building plan for Waymouth St

by:
Tim Williams

From:

City Messenger March 21, 2013

A 34-storey tower planned for Waymouth St would fall just metres short of Adelaide's tallest , featuring vertical "sky gardens" spanning half its height.
The $140 million office and residential tower is slated for the site next to the old Queen's Theatre and Uno Apartments that is now a 24-hour parking lot.

It would be up to 128m tall, just 4m short of Westpac House.

The City Council last year sold the property to developer Datong on the condition that a project start by early 2014.

Architect and JPE Design Studio director Adrian Evans said one design option was a series of four-storey tall "cutouts" on top of one another on the western side of the building.

Each would house a garden space tall enough for mature trees.

Viewed from the street or Light Square, the effect would be a vertical garden spanning 16 storeys.

"The ideas are quite exciting for Adelaide,'' Mr Evans said.

"There could be a plaza between (the) Uno (apartment building) and the new building which we hope will be a proper piazza with trees.

"The ground floor would be high end retail and cafes and possibly a restaurant.''

The tower is likely to include some two-level loft apartments, penthouses with rooftop pools and a communal rooftop garden.

It would have several carpark levels.

Mr Evans said the project would also create a new laneway between Waymouth St and Playhouse Lane, possibly with room for a bar.

"It suddenly will be another way to get through to Currie and Hindley St,'' he said.

Mr Evans said his firm was "scrambling madly'' to finish the design so it could submitted to the Development Assessment Commission next month, in the hope of gaining planning approval as a soon as possible.

"If they are going to tender and to get a builder to start early next year, they need all the time they can get.''

Town Hall's strategic property manager Mike Philippou confirmed the sale contract included a condition that building works must start "by early 2014''.

"Conditions like this are standard practice in council sale contracts,'' he said.

He would not reveal the sale price.

Waewick wrote:i can't work out the article, who actually owns it?

Reb-L wrote:

Waewick wrote:i can't work out the article, who actually owns it?

What's there to work out? Sounds pretty straightforward to me:

"The City Council last year sold the property to developer Datong on the condition ..."

(Who they might sell it to once/if finished is another matter.)

All I can add is: Thank the powers that be for Chinese investment here. Without the savings from from their hardworking people what would happen in Adelaide when the guv'ment coffers run bare?

Patrick_27 wrote:Well, hopefully it takes off. Seemingly, a lot of these proposals go nowhere.