[COM] Uni of Adelaide - Med School | 70m | 15lvl | $120m

[rhino]

Looking much better with those white tiles.

Definitely. Looking good!

[EBG]

Here are some pictures from today (22 Sept 2016) taken from the north (railway side). They put in the last window pane after I took the picture. There is still some work to do on the lower levels 1 to 4.

[Spurdo]

The climbing cradles for the cladding of the core are currently going up on the north-east and south-east sides of the eastern core. I'm probably a bit late with posting this link but if anyone wants to watch the last few months of construction, I have posted the link to the webcam below.

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/west-end/news/webcams/

[Pikey]

Am I the only person to find this building a little underwhelming when compared to the renders? It looks as though some of the architectural features (main curtain wall appeared more "layered" than the louvred glass applied) have either been removed or dumbed down.

Don't get me wrong, I believe it's a good design, just not as good as originally shown.

[Ben]

Hmm I think this is borderline as almost actually terrible. Will need to await further finishes I suppose but it looks kind of bland.

[Pikey]

Talk about looking nothing like the renders... These were the amended renders send to the DAC too!!

Some minor layout and facade changes are now on DAC website.

Renders:

IMDAC_Agenda_Item_3.jpg

[rev]

I think they had a clear vision but have fallen short in delivering it.
That black looks like it's some sort of giant mesh sun shade from Bunnings.

[Blimp]

IMO that render above isnt very realistic, Im struggling to even imagine when it would ever resemble that.

having said that though the outcome definitely falls short of the initial/revised concepts. Either way, I'm still liking this building, the dark blue is striking and it sticks out from a distance. Cant wait to see this + the Unisa building finished.

[serca]

I like how it looks and the impact this has on North tce. Looks much better from that side than it does the railway side

Certainly doesn't resemble the render which has a better finish

[phenom]

This really stands out from the Light Square area. Had to ask my passenger to take a quick snap as I drove past. The sharp corner is actually quite 'dramatic' to see in real life - certainly a nice break from the often boring architecture we get subjected to.

download_20161001_140229.jpg (157.61 KiB) Viewed 4104 times

[ghs]

I think they had a clear vision but have fallen short in delivering it.
That black looks like it's some sort of giant mesh sun shade from Bunnings.

Good call rev.
I agree the black glass is dull. The render looked bright and light and we've ended up with
a dark black look.

[Listy]

FYI, on Wednesday the Faculty of Medicine sent out a message to all med staff announcing that one more 'floor' will be constructed on the rooftop of the AHMS building. There weren't really many details given in the email, except that this will address some space related shortcomings in the new building, compared to the existing med school. The rooftop was designed with such a future expansion in mind - it's just happening a lot sooner than anticipated. There's a fair bit of infrastructure already up there, so I don't think the floor will occupy the whole roof space, but I don't know for sure, as no plans were shown in the email.

With regards to the windows - I went on a site tour a few weeks ago, and the glass was specifically discussed - we were told that its quite special, and the project team seemed genuinely proud of it. Maybe it doesn't look perfectly photogenic during the middle of the day, but the glass was chosen for a variety of important functional reasons - It's been modelled that it (combined with the horizontal glass sun shades) will reduce cooling costs by ~30% compared to the types of glass typically used in modern office buildings. There will also be lots of photosensitive equipment, chemicals & research material in the building & given the open plan interior & all glass construction of the building, it will be impossible to shield that material from direct or reflected light all the time, so the windows have to act as the protective barrier against photodamage. And finally, it will help protect the privacy of the public enrolled in clinical trials or visiting the dental clinics within.

There are a few cool features of the building I learnt about while on that tour -
Incorporated into the sunshade panels (and also windows I think?) on the North Terrace side of the building is a giant 'photograph' of the railyards behind the building. It sounded like its a kind of architectural 'easter egg' as the complete image is only really properly visible from the air (ie by google maps etc.). The whole nth eastern corner is cantilevered out over open space, with no structural elements underneath. This allowed that part of the building to be constructed out over the diagonal (future railway tunnel) easement located between AHMS and the UniSA building. There's also a wide open space stretching right through the ground floor (its become part of the main entryway) - this is the consequence of an ACC requirement that Fenn Place retain a river view. And finally, if you ever want a free medical education - the main ground floor lecture theatre will be fully visible from North Terrace - in fact it looked like peering down into that sunken lecture theatre will be almost unavoidable as you walk past, its so close.

[ml69]

I think they had a clear vision but have fallen short in delivering it.
That black looks like it's some sort of giant mesh sun shade from Bunnings.

Good call rev.
I agree the black glass is dull. The render looked bright and light and we've ended up with
a dark black look.

It's easy to say in hindsight, but I think the one critical mistake they made was to make the sunshades the same colour as the black Windows. If the sunshades were a silvery aluminium, it would have looked totally different even keeping the black Windows.

[Nathan]

It's easy to say in hindsight, but I think the one critical mistake they made was to make the sunshades the same colour as the black Windows. If the sunshades were a silvery aluminium, it would have looked totally different even keeping the black Windows.

Except they're not. They're a mix of yellow and white shades.

[Waewick]

will be interesting to see what it looks like at night, like what the render has shown.