Architecture

An “infamous” lot in North Adelaide that has sat empty for more than 30 years could soon be occupied by a three-tower complex with apartments, shops and offices.
Designed by Woods Bagot, the 88 O’Connell Street project goes before South Australia’s State Commission Assessment Panel on Wednesday, 23 June, three and a half years after the City of Adelaide purchased the site to kick-start its development. Since furniture retailer Le Cornu sold the site in 1989, numerous development proposals have fallen over, leaving a noticeable gap in the otherwise bustling high street.
The council purchased the site in 2018 and then called for expression of interest to find a suitable developer. Commercial and General, and its Woods Bagot-designed proposal for a mixed-use building, was selected. Under the agreement with council, the developer will have to include 15 percent affordable housing and provide public open space at the ground-level corner of Tynte and O’Connell Street as well as ensuring that the planned terrace atop the podium will be publicly accessible.
Above the two-storey podium, the north and south towers will each reach 13 storeys, while the central tower will be 15 storeys. In total the complex will include 176 residential apartments and townhouses, six shop tenancies at ground level and 2,114 square metres of office space on levels one and and two. There’ll also be a 1,006-square-metre “consulting room” on level one, a gym, basement carparking and pedestrian throughfares running both east-west and north-south.

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88 O’Connell Street by Woods Bagot.

Woods Bagot says the tripartite composition will maximize opportunities for corner apartments and capture key views, but members of the public and South Australia’s government architect have some concerns.
Government architect Kirsteen Mackay noted that the city had initially expressed a preference for an eight-storey limit, which “may have established height expectations for the community.” She also expressed concern about the overshadowing consequences to the lower level apartments in the central and southern buildings and overshading impacts to the broader precinct, though her office later acknowledged that the apartment configuration – which ensures east or west frontages with living spaces pushed to the corners – “goes some way to mitigating overshadowing impacts.”
The Advertiser reports that 180 people attended a meeting protesting the development, with a spokesperson for a residents’ group calling the proposal a betrayal. “It is completely inappropriate to overwhelm a historic centre of international significance with a block-long monolithic structure,” he said.
The City of Adelaide supports the proposal. CEO Clare Mockler described Woods Bagot’s design as “an exemplary standard and market leading in South Australia.”
“At a street level, the proposal integrates both commercial and retail spaces to bridge the lifeless gap between Archer and Tynte Street,” she wrote in a letter of support. “At a vertical level, the proposal provides open space for public use as well as sufficient vertically massed residential offerings to organically grow the North Adelaide population.” More

The Architects Accreditation Council of Australia has welcomed the announcement of an in-principle free trade agreement between Australia and United Kingdom, noting that it will pave the way for mutual recognition of qualifications between the two countries.
“This new arrangement enhances the global exchange of skills, expertise, collaboration and employment opportunities – something we have not had with the UK for decades,” said AACA CEO Kathlyn Loseby.
“The AACA, with DFAT’s authorization, is in the final stages of negotiating a Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) that will ‘recognise the professional credentials of architects registered in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand’ and ‘ support their mobility by creating the opportunity to practise beyond their borders’.”
The MRA with the UK was instigated under the AACA’s former CEO Kate Doyle and will “facilitate the registration of an architect registered in the United Kingdom as an Australian architect or New Zealand architect; and the registration of an Australian architect or New Zealand architect as an architect in the United Kingdom.”
“While COVID-19 has put a halt temporarily to international travel and migration, we are forging ahead with this MRA so that when Australia’s borders re-open both our architects and our communities here will be poised to benefit from a much more straightforward skills recognition process,” Loseby said.
“Recognizing architects’ credentials globally will literally open up a whole new world of tremendous opportunities to transform the lived experience of our built environment.”
According to the OECD, Australia’s exports of professional services (which includes architectural services) was about $5.6 billion or 8 percent of Australia’s total service exports in 2016. The UK is the third largest destination market behind the United States and Singapore.
The Royal Institute of British Architects reported in a submission to the UK government that “In 2017, revenue earned by RIBA Chartered Practices from work in Australasia came to £11 million, which is 2% of the sector’s total international revenue.
“There are significant market opportunities for UK architecture in Australia if a mutual recognition agreement can be struck, enabling easier access to the market for UK architects and allowing Australian architects to work in the UK.”
Australia’s trade minister Dan Tehan said, “The FTA will improve working holiday opportunities for youth in both countries. Eligibility to participate will be raised from 30 to 35, stays allowed up to three years, and people will have more freedom to choose where they work.”
Australia has existing mutual recognition arrangements with Canada, New Zealand and the United States through the APEC Architect Project. More

A school on the NSW Far North Coast will get a $20 million upgrade with new and refurbished spaces for teaching and core facilities. Designed by SJB, the project includes a new library, new creative and performing arts building and purpose-built outdoor sports pavilion. An existing block will be refurbished to create flexible learning spaces […] More

Two towers of 30 and 28 storeys will be built adjacent to Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium after councillors gave the green light to Cox Architecture’s amended proposal.
The $400 million project includes the provision of 676 build-to-rent apartments across both towers, along with 3,382 square metres of retail and associated uses within a three-level podium.

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Build-to-rent tower proposed adjacent to Docklands Stadium

Located on the south side of La Trobe Street, the towers will front between Wurundjeri Way to the east, Harbour Esplanade to the west and the concourse of Docklands Stadium to the south.
Although the increased height of the towers – from 23 and 21 storeys – will result in some shadowing of the Docklands Stadium playing field in winter, City of Melbourne planners note that given the lighting technology now employed by the Australian Football League “this will not detrimentally impact the playing surface.”
The podium level will also include a large function space, which could potentially be used by the AFL.
Also located within the podium, at level two, will be communal facilities for the towers’ apartments, including a 25-metre pool, gym, change facilities, lounge and dining, laundry, working hub, resident lounge, pet centre, treatment rooms, kitchen, cinema and a rooftop outdoor terrace area.
Cox Architecture’s design seeks to emphasize the breakup of two towers and the podium, with diverse façade materials and articulation breaking up the building mass to create a “building of buildings.”
With City of Melbourne councillors in support of the proposal, the application will now go before the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. More

The adult and children’s hospitals at the Westmead Health Precinct in western Sydney are connected for the first time with the stage one completion of a more than $1 billion transformation.
HDR is the architect of the completed stage one project, having provided design work from the masterplanning stages and designing concept plans (then as HDR Rice Daubney) with MSJ Architects in 2015.
An overall masterplan for the Westmead Hospital Precinct was prepared by MAAP.
The centrepiece of the project is a new 14-storey Central Acute Services Building, which physically links the children’s and adult hospitals. It is designed to provide timely access to “world-class” clinical services and advanced research and development, with a theatre floor with advanced interventional and MRI capabilities shared between the adult and children’s services.

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Westmead Health Precinct state one development by HDR. Image:

Brett Boardman

HDR national director of health Ronald Hicks said the project was a demonstation of the transformative effect architecture can have in health care contexts.
“When it was conceived 10 years ago, the level of integration we proposed was ahead of its time, almost unfathomable for stakeholders, but they supported the vision and the outcome has been incredibly positive.”
Along with the integration between the exiting hospitals, the acute services building also integrates research and education with health care provision.

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Westmead Health Precinct state one development by HDR. Image:

Brett Boardman

It includes education, training and research facilities on each floor as well as dedicated floors for the University of Sydney. There are also two new emergency departments (one for adults, one for children); 25 digital operating theatres; expanded imaging; pharmacy and logistics; more than 300 patient rooms and dedicated carer zones.
HDR said the design had a pronounced focus on wellbeing with natural light brought into the hospital and views extendng to the Sydney CBD.
Also completed is the six-level innovation centre, which is designed to support education and development of the latest clinical technologies and research and has the capacity for future development of biomedical services.
It includes an exhibition space, large meeting environments, social spaces and a flexible work environment on the top floor.

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Westmead Health Precinct state one development by HDR. Image:

Brett Boardman

HDR director Alan Boswell said the projet “develops a significant identity for Westmead Hospital as a pre-eminent teaching hospital at the cutting edge of science and technology. It has reinvigorated the urban fabric of the precinct, and it has re-engaged the community through good quality public space and connections.” More

A design competition will be held in 2021 to find the architect for the redevelopment of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney’s Ultimo, with between $480 and $500 million to be allocated to the project in the NSW budget.
The state’s arts minister Don Harwin and Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences CEO Lisa Havila made the announcement today, telling media that along with the $1.1 billion committed to Powerhouse Parramatta the spending represented the largest cultural infrastructure investment in the state since the Sydney Opera House was built.
The Ultimo museum had been earmarked for closure, before the state government backflipped on its decision to sell the site, to fund its relocation to Parramatta, and announced it would be retained in July 2020.
The redevelopment will deliver renewed and expanded exhibition and public space, connecting the museum to the city by re-orienting it to the Goods Line and connecting to adjacent precincts.
The renewed museum will focus on design and fashion, showing off the museum’s significant collections and hosting exclusive international exhibitions and programs, while the Parramatta museum will focus on science and technology.
The development of a “creative industries precinct” will also deliver subsidized studio and workspaces at Ultimo for creative industries, while “more than 5,000 regional and remote students from across NSW will further their design and fashion education through immersive experiences at The Academy, which will provide residential accommodation within the museum precinct.”
The $480-500 million in the budget will cover the cost of the design competition and approval processes.
“When the Ultimo project is finished we will not only have a new museum but a great new day and night precinct that will continue the activation of the Southern CBD,” said Harwin, Arts Hub reports. “This area is focused on technology and design but it will also keep a nod to the past.”
Powerhouse chief executive Lisa Havilah said, “The renewal of our institution will deliver two world-class museums – with a design and fashion focus at Powerhouse Ultimo and our flagship museum focused on science and technology museum, Powerhouse Parramatta.
“This visionary investment will see the expansion of our exhibition spaces as well as renewal of our historic exhibition spaces. We will create a vibrant public square beside the Goods Line, and creative industries workspaces that will become home for Australian designers.”
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet will hand down the budget on 22 June.
The budget is also expected to include more than $1 billion for the development of the Aerotropolis, now known as Bradfield, around Western Sydney Airport. More

Six people have been recognized for services to architecture in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Among them are Charles Justin, founding director of both Plus Architecture and SJB Architects; Epaminondas (Nonda) Katsalidis, founding partner of Fender Katsalidis; Lolita Mohyla, architect, lawyer and author; Shelley Penn, architect, academic and government advisor; Dominic Charles Richards, architect, educator and LGBTQI activist; and Roger William Poole, former director and chairman of Bates Smart.
Charles Justin was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the museums sector, arts administration and architecture. He was a founding director of Plus Architecture (1997) and SJB Architects (1980s) and has been the planning and project advisor for the Caulfield Hebrew Congregation since 2013. He is a life fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects and was president of the Institute’s Victorian chapter from 1986 to 1988. He was president of the Jewish Museum of Australia from 2004 to 2009 and is the founder and director of the Justin Art House Museum.

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Nonda Katsalidis.

Nonda Katsalidis also appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, for significant service to architecture and sustainable construction innovations. He was the co-founding partner of Nation Fender Katsalidis , (1996-2001) and, later, Fender Katsalidis (since 2001). His citation notes that his is a “leader in the integration of art into architecture” with notable buildings including the Melbourne Terrace Apartment, Republic Tower and Eureka Tower.
Lolita Mohyla was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant services to architecture and construction law. She is the author of Construction in Australia: Law and Project Delivery (1996) and has been senior counsellor for the Australian Institute of Architects’ South Australian chapter since 2002. She is also a commissioner for the Environment, Resources and Development Court of South Australia and is managing partner of Mohyla Architects Interior Designers.

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Shelley Penn.

Shelley Penn was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for architecture and design in the public realm, and to professional institutes. She is an associate professor in architecture at the Melbourne School of Design and has been the principal architect and owner of Shelley Penn Architect since 1993. She was president of the Australian Institute of Architects from 2012 to 2013, associate Victorian government architect from 2006-2010 and has sat on numerous government advisory boards in Victoria, NSW and the ACT.
Elsewhere in the honours, Dominic Richards was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to architecture and the community. He is the co-founder and chief executive of Our Place, London and a director of Architekton. He is also chairman and co-founder of Prosper Education, Sydney and RoyalABC and was previously chairman of LGBT London and co-founder of Queercompany.
Roger Poole was also awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to architecture and the community. He was a director of Bates Smart from 1981 to 1997 and chairman from 1998 to 2015. He has been director of Roger Poole Architects from 2015 and has sat on various committees and boards for the Property Council of Australia and Committee for Melbourne.
Interior designer Sue Carr was also appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to interior design, to education, and to women in business. The founder of Carr Design Group is also a member of Women Chiefs of Enterprise in Australia. She has been inducted into the Australian Businesswomen’s Hall of Fame and the Design Institute of Australia’s Hall of Fame, and was named one of 100 Women of Influence by the Australian Financial Review in 2016. More

The community of Drysdale, east of Geelong on the Bellarine Peninsula, will soon have a new public library. Designed by Melbourne firms Antarctica Architects and Architecture Associates, the two-storey library will be circular in form and will “stitch together” surrounding parkland and the town centre. The design incorporates a planted roofscape and an amphitheatre and […] More