News & Discussion: Redevelopment of RAH Site
Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:47 pm
A FEDERATION Square-style "green plaza" designed to host festival events and fitted with cabling for giant TV screens is planned for the Royal Adelaide Hospital site.
Health Minister John Hill wants the site of the hospital, which will be relocated to the western railyards in 2016, to become the location of the city's newest public square.
Permanent underground cabling would be hidden under sculpted mounds, powering large-screen TVs to televise sporting events and regular festivals such as the Fringe.
Venues such as Elder Park need temporary power cables strung along lawns to show live telecasts of sporting events and to support open-air festivals. Rundle Park is specially configured every year to house the Fringe's Garden of Unearthly Delights.
In Mr Hill's vision, which has been captured in a master plan prepared by architecture firm Woodhead International, the RAH's heritage buildings would be handed over to arts and cultural groups to establish a vibrant arts and festival centre.
Mr Hill said Adelaide could do a better version of Melbourne's Federation Square on the city's premier boulevard. "Victoria's Federation Square is a very hard-edged thing with a lot of commercial sites," he told The Advertiser.
"I would like to have a green space, but with a mix of buildings with cultural impact and open green space."
"This is the end of town where the Fringe and festivals congregate, so it would be a natural extension of that."
The city's newest public space would be of a similar size and capacity to Melbourne's Federation Square, which last year became the most visited tourist attraction in Victoria.
Opened in 2002, it has has attracted more than 12 million visitors.
Mr Hill has received a master plan which links the site to the Botanic Gardens and the Adelaide Zoo precinct. A more detailed proposal is being prepared for Cabinet approval.
Design and architecture professor Laura Lee, SA's newly arrived Thinker in Residence, said a proposal must not only work with what is on North Tce, but must add something new.
While she was not ready to endorse a Federation Square-style development after just one week on the job, Professor Lee's preferred characteristics – a public, interactive space that works with its surrounds – would give the Government further ammunition for a "big-picture" development.
"These are the things I would think about in reclaiming that site: the value of the heritage buildings, the collection in the art gallery, the collection in the museums, the Botanic Gardens . . . and the academic community," she said. Mr Hill said Professor Lee's studies would be used in determining future use of the site, which is contingent upon construction of the Government's $1.7 billion new hospital.
The proposal must also pass the test of Adelaide's public opinion.
The redevelopment of Victoria Square has foundered for years as various design plans have collapsed. Development of the Torrens Riverbank has bounced between those wanting to protect the open space and those wanting to build a Southbank-style development.
Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith last year flagged a Federation Square-style precinct – on the railyards site of the planned new hospital. SA did not need a hospital "smack bang in the middle of the potentially magnificent City West precinct", he said at the time.
Save the RAH Group chairman Jim Katsaros said the Government had gone too far by thinking about what was to happen after the RAH moved. The group released survey results last week showing 48 per cent of respondents wanted to keep the RAH on its current site, while 36 per cent were in favour of a new hospital.
"They should put their public space where there is an ugly railway site," he said.
Property Council of Australia state director Nathan Paine warned of the need to link the site into the wider city. "We want to make sure it is not just another park that nobody uses."
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html
Health Minister John Hill wants the site of the hospital, which will be relocated to the western railyards in 2016, to become the location of the city's newest public square.
Permanent underground cabling would be hidden under sculpted mounds, powering large-screen TVs to televise sporting events and regular festivals such as the Fringe.
Venues such as Elder Park need temporary power cables strung along lawns to show live telecasts of sporting events and to support open-air festivals. Rundle Park is specially configured every year to house the Fringe's Garden of Unearthly Delights.
In Mr Hill's vision, which has been captured in a master plan prepared by architecture firm Woodhead International, the RAH's heritage buildings would be handed over to arts and cultural groups to establish a vibrant arts and festival centre.
Mr Hill said Adelaide could do a better version of Melbourne's Federation Square on the city's premier boulevard. "Victoria's Federation Square is a very hard-edged thing with a lot of commercial sites," he told The Advertiser.
"I would like to have a green space, but with a mix of buildings with cultural impact and open green space."
"This is the end of town where the Fringe and festivals congregate, so it would be a natural extension of that."
The city's newest public space would be of a similar size and capacity to Melbourne's Federation Square, which last year became the most visited tourist attraction in Victoria.
Opened in 2002, it has has attracted more than 12 million visitors.
Mr Hill has received a master plan which links the site to the Botanic Gardens and the Adelaide Zoo precinct. A more detailed proposal is being prepared for Cabinet approval.
Design and architecture professor Laura Lee, SA's newly arrived Thinker in Residence, said a proposal must not only work with what is on North Tce, but must add something new.
While she was not ready to endorse a Federation Square-style development after just one week on the job, Professor Lee's preferred characteristics – a public, interactive space that works with its surrounds – would give the Government further ammunition for a "big-picture" development.
"These are the things I would think about in reclaiming that site: the value of the heritage buildings, the collection in the art gallery, the collection in the museums, the Botanic Gardens . . . and the academic community," she said. Mr Hill said Professor Lee's studies would be used in determining future use of the site, which is contingent upon construction of the Government's $1.7 billion new hospital.
The proposal must also pass the test of Adelaide's public opinion.
The redevelopment of Victoria Square has foundered for years as various design plans have collapsed. Development of the Torrens Riverbank has bounced between those wanting to protect the open space and those wanting to build a Southbank-style development.
Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith last year flagged a Federation Square-style precinct – on the railyards site of the planned new hospital. SA did not need a hospital "smack bang in the middle of the potentially magnificent City West precinct", he said at the time.
Save the RAH Group chairman Jim Katsaros said the Government had gone too far by thinking about what was to happen after the RAH moved. The group released survey results last week showing 48 per cent of respondents wanted to keep the RAH on its current site, while 36 per cent were in favour of a new hospital.
"They should put their public space where there is an ugly railway site," he said.
Property Council of Australia state director Nathan Paine warned of the need to link the site into the wider city. "We want to make sure it is not just another park that nobody uses."
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html