Sensational-Adelaide.com

Historic Adelaide shopfronts to be revealed again
Alice Monfries From: AdelaideNow June 12, 2011 12:00am

IT'S the Adelaide you've forgotten - or perhaps never seen.

The original facades of many of the city's historic buildings are hidden away behind "ugly iron cladding", put up in the 1960s and '70s when a more modern, simple look was in vogue.

Now an Adelaide City Council scheme is seeking to uncover the Adelaide of old, by chipping in funds to encourage property owners to strip back dated frontages and restore the original architecture.

Through its Historic Facade Restoration Scheme, approved this week, the council will split restoration costs 50-50 with property owners, with grants up to $50,000.

It has allocated $250,000 for the scheme, with the aim of restoring at least five historic facades in the next financial year, and will look to expand the budget the following year.

Councillor Sandy Wilkinson said the project would target buildings in Rundle Mall, Rundle St and Hindley St.

Buildings in Hutt St, Gouger St and O'Connell St, North Adelaide, would also be eligible.

Cr Wilkinson, who has over the past 18 months researched records of many original facades and complied photos of their current frontages, said the scheme would be "like unwrapping presents".

"I've searched the council archives ... and I could see from those architectural drawings that many buildings have the original facade all intact behind (the iron frontage)," he said.

"People didn't appreciate architecture back then; they wished they had modern buildings so they clad over what they thought was a dowdy, old tired building to make it look like a modern, new building."

Cr Wilkinson said the 1998 restoration of Beehive Corner, on the corner of Rundle Mall and King William St, was a great example of how restoring original facades could generate economic and tourism benefits for the city.

"By capitalising on the historic buildings, restoring and improving them and then floodlighting them at night, that would make the streets shine," he said.

"It would set Rundle Mall apart from any Westfield ... and allow Rundle and Hindley streets to draw labels that aren't in suburban shopping centres because they're more likely to be attracted to beautiful historic buildings.

"At the moment Hindley St buildings just look downtrodden and dumpy."

The scheme requires property owners to sign a land-management agreement, agreeing not to knock down the building after receiving $50,000 from the council to restore it.

"They spend $100,000, they get $50,000 back from (the) council and their building goes from looking like a B Grade or C Grade building to a premium, prestige building," Cr Wilkinson said. "It's massive improvement potential for relatively little dollars.

"And once you've restored a building, they're done once, they're done forever."

jspaceman wrote:Hello,

I am very curious about the gallerie basement. Does anyone know what shape the basement is in (where the food court was)? I went there today and there is work going on inside the ground floor but you can't see the old escalators anymore. Is it possible that the entire food court is still down there, as it was when they shut the doors? It was a huge space and it's unbelievable that it has been vacant for so long. Surely, someone has got to know the story? Anyone?

J

Nathan wrote:

jspaceman wrote:Hello,

I am very curious about the gallerie basement. Does anyone know what shape the basement is in (where the food court was)? I went there today and there is work going on inside the ground floor but you can't see the old escalators anymore. Is it possible that the entire food court is still down there, as it was when they shut the doors? It was a huge space and it's unbelievable that it has been vacant for so long. Surely, someone has got to know the story? Anyone?

J

Via: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 108&type=1

I remember them posting a shot where you could see the bottom of where those escalators were, but can't seem to track it down.