Source: SA Government
A long shadow over democracy’s cradle
- The SA Parliament, the place that first gave women full democratic rights, is possibly the most significant women’s historical site in the world for that reason. A huge adjacent tower looming over Parliament by more than 30 floors would become a world symbol of disrespect for women, and display ignorance of this profoundly significant global achievement, though surely not intended as such. That this, a giant private office building, has no civic purpose beyond a single storey of cafes, and is in an intensely civic and irreplaceable space, makes this even more puzzling and distressing.
- The Federal government should not allow the tower to be built. The plaza should be turned over to more appropriate publicly accessible and civic uses such as was promised, a plaza with low-level cultural or entertainment related buildings which might include a global visitor space to celebrate democracy, and the big ideas that Adelaide was founded on.
Our View: ADELAIDE AS THE GLOBAL CAPITAL OF DEMOCRACY
Creating a world gathering place to celebrate democracy
We have come to realise that this project represents a vast opportunity to celebrate the world birthplace of full democracy for women, and therefore of full democracy for all.
This cannot occur in a vacuum, or simply in some sort of public relations campaign, and it would be completely trivialised as a dedicated three storeys in a huge tower. It needs to be attached strongly and exclusively to that place, Parliament House, and to what is effectively its forecourt, Festival Plaza, by the development of Festival Plaza as a world gathering place to celebrate democracy, with associated facilities such as a women’s suffrage, indigenous suffrage, and democracy centre.
This would revert the design of Festival Plaza to what was envisaged, an open, civic and celebratory space, a space with the dignity and gravitas that such an epochal achievement demands.
We feel state government must be prepared to move heaven and earth to seize this moment which would not simply make Adelaide a global must-visit destination, but make Adelaide a first rank global small city.
It has the potential to make Adelaide economically also. There are huge volumes of literature demonstrating the link between a city’s character and its economy Jan Gehl is credited with turning then car-choked and then relatively struggling cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam into prosperous places so long ago that we assume they were always like that. He has contributed to Melbourne’s recent success, and is behind the re-making of Sydney that is occurring in areas of the city such as the radically transformed George St. Both his and Charles Landry’s reports on Adelaide around the year 2000 both emphasised the link between city character and economy. The following quote comes out of his studio.
| ““We have reached an interesting time when the drivers of sustainable cities are the same as the drivers of liveable cities, namely, mixed use, connectivity, high-quality public realm, local character, and adaptability. When these characteristics come together as they do in Barcelona, they provide an alchemy of sustainability, social benefit, and economic vitality.” (from “Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life” by “David Sim, Jan Gehl”). |
We will be presenting our point of view to the Commonwealth Government; the achievement that was full democracy also brings much prestige to Australia as a nation, and could be, and in fact should be, supported by Commonwealth money as a national project, especially in the light of the bicentenary of the state in 2036.
We represent the huge level of dissatisfaction, and disbelief, in the community at the proposal for a second tower on Festival Plaza which seems to be above all else a captain’s pick, rather than community supported.
JOIN US: savefestivalplaza@gmail.com
Make your voice heard before it is too late!
Premier Peter Malinauskas (SA)
Email: premier@sa.gov.au
Hon. Andrea Michaels (SA Minister for Women & Arts)
Email: ministermichaels@sa.gov.au
Hon. Susan Close (Deputy Premier & Environment Minister)
Email: ministerclose@sa.gov.au
Hon. Bob Carr (Chair, Australian Heritage Council)
Email: heritage@dcceew.gov.au
Hon. Tony Burke MP (Federal Minister for the Arts)
Email: Tony.Burke.MP@aph.gov.au
Steve Georganas MP (Federal Member for Adelaide)
Email: Steve.Georganas.MP@aph.gov.au
Lucy Hood MP (SA State Member for Adelaide)
Email: adelaide@parliament.sa.gov.au
How has the Festival Plaza proposal come to this?
Starting from a vision of a Federation Square-style open plaza, what is proposed for Festival Plaza is a second huge tower, and that the actual plaza area will be shrunk to a fraction of what was envisaged and further compromised by aluminium shade trees that act as shade, and with questions about downdrafts that seemed problematic during the recent Festival of Arts, with only one of the towers in the space.
The quite acceptable three-storey building that was negotiated under the Liberal Government has been taken off the table. Instead we are offered a thirty-eight storey tower to accompany the existing twenty-eight storey. The only public consultation has been the recent consultation to amend the code to raise the allowable height to allow the building of this structure that would be perfectly fine in the CBD proper.
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