Shuz wrote:Well, a picture tells a thousand words. And I think we should capitalise on a project that will transform Adelaide's image.
The riverbank precinct is just exactly that, Adelaide's most commonly seen perspective. It's on the forefront of our postcards, media, even when visitors coming in by plane, everyone sees it. And frankly, its not a pretty sight to be seen.
It looks quite good to me.
Just a brief summarisation of what should happen;
Rejuvenate the Festival Theatre, either through extensive refurbishment or construction of a new facility.
How would this be an improvement on the existing Festival Theatre?
Finish construction of Parliament House dome.
That's something I think should be done last, when all the other stuff is complete.
Festival Drive should be a busway, with an interchange point integrated with the northern side of the Adelaide Railway Station.
No, it would be silly to build a busway to divert the buses away from where the passengers want to go! North Terrace is a much better route for buses, despite the traffic.
Also, Festival Drive currently serves three main functions: enabling cars and taxis to take people to and from the Festival Centre, giving vehicles access to the car parks near the Festival Centre, and as a service road to the Festival Centre, railway station, Hyatt and Convention Centre. How could you fulfil those functions without Festival Drive?
Close vehicle access from North Terrace into Festival Drive, and create a new pedestrian plaza in place.
Do you remember what the area used to be like before Festival Drive was daylighted? The hot barren landscape of a pedestrian plaza that pedestrians usually avoided? Having more plaza to walk over won't necessarily make things better for pedestrians!
Refurbish Old Government House into a boutique resturant, with courtyard used for outdoor dining which opens up into the pedestrain plaza.
Do you mean Old Parliament House? That's been turned into offices to service the parliamentary business. If those are no longer required, I'd rather they restore its former use as the Constitutional Museum. It's not like we're short of boutique restaurants.
Relocate SkyCity Casino elsewhere, and restore the Adelaide Railway Station to its former glory.
Why move the casino? Is there anything else that has to go directly above the station concourse?
Adelaide Railway station should have provisions of new platforms for interstate trains
,
Are you aware of how long interstate trains are?
and access from the eastern entry via new pedestrian plaza.
While I'm in favour of reopening the eastern entry, the number of passengers using it would be small, as apart from a very short stretch of King William Road, it doesn't enable anywhere to be accessed more quickly.
What would be more useful is a western entry!
Earthworks on riverfront area to create resturants and shops into the slope of the hill to minimuse visual impact and maximise waterfront public space.
Sounds good, but we have to be careful - it's one of those things that could so easily be counterproductive.
Demolish the ASER precinct, Exhibition Centre, offices and the Hyatt, or at least relocate their premises west of Morphett Street bridge.
Transform ASER precinct into a Federation-Square open space with integrated transport links to bus interchange and railway station.
You'd spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying up and demolishing buildings, then plonk a
bus interchange in their place?
Expand Convention Centre over railway tracks west of Morphett Street bridge, with new Hyatt hotel within the complex.
Would the Convention Centre go over or under Morphett Street Bridge? Or would it be split in two?
And how much do you imagine it would cost to persuade Hyatt to move to a less central location?
Construct a large-capacity multipurpose stadium built on old railyards site.
Create a waterfront resturant and apartments precinct adjacent Torrens Lake and railway tracks, with extensive pedestrian links to stadium.
As this has a thread of its own, I won't comment on it here!