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Perth Now
13-06-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
'Parliament tower' approval a tall order for opponents
Approval for a 160m tower that will loom over a heritage-listed parliament house has sparked an angry backlash from opponents who say it disrespects state history and heritage values. They have vowed to fight the Walker Corporation's $600 million Festival Plaza Tower 2, which will be built directly behind the SA parliament. The 38-storey tower, adjacent to the 29-storey Festival One, will accommodate up to 5000 office workers and is due for completion by 2027. In granting the development application this week, the State Commission Assessment Panel found it "is not considered seriously at variance" with the Planning and Design Code. The building is only the second skyscraper approved for Adelaide, after the Freemasons' 183m city tower received the green light in July. Similar buildings would barely receive a second glance in other cities, but Adelaide does not yet have a building that meets the skyscraper definition of 150m. The world's tallest building is the 828m Burj Khalifa in Dubai, while Australia's tallest is the 322.5m Q1 on the Gold Coast. East coast capitals have dozens of 200m-plus buildings, but they dwarf Adelaide's tallest - the 138m Crowne Plaza Hotel. An open letter from more than 120 prominent South Australians, including former premier Lynn Arnold, said the festival tower would overshadow parliament house, create a wind tunnel, block views from the city parklands, and "place private profit over public purpose". Save Festival Plaza Alliance convenor Robert Farnan said the assessment panel's role was "limited to assessing compliance, not consequences". "The panel doesn't ask: is this tower in the public interest? Will it respect our history, heritage and future?" he said. "That question now sits squarely with the premier." Premier Peter Malinauskas has hailed the project as "transforming our capital for the better, and demonstrative of Adelaide's rise as a truly global city". Urban Development Minister Nick Champion said the "refined plans ensure that we preserve the visual integrity and heritage of parliament house". Heritage conservation architect Elizabeth Vines questioned whether other capital cities would approve a 38-storey building "8.7 metres from their parliament". "Have the politicians been consulted on whether they want all their windows on the north face blocked out by a high-rise building?" she said. Greens MP Robert Simms said he would introduce a motion in the upper house to call on the government to intervene and halt the project, for which foundation work has begun. He called it an "appalling outcome" and said it was "outrageous" that Walker Corporation had been granted "exclusive use of this parklands site". "If ever there was a symbol of the power of developers in our democracy, this is it … like something out of Lord of the Rings, overlooking our parliament house and reminding everybody who's boss," he said. Walker Corporation managing director David Gallant said the company "appreciates the trust South Australians have placed in us to deliver a development of the highest quality and long-term civic value". SA's old and new parliament houses were listed as National Heritage Places in 2006.
ABC News
12-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Second Festival Plaza tower receives planning approval despite heritage concerns
A 38-storey office building with shops, restaurants and a public plaza is set to tower over South Australia's Parliament House, after the concept was granted planning approval despite a number of concerns raised by the government's heritage agency. The State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) granted planning consent to developers Walker Corporation on Wednesday to build a 160-metre-tall skyscraper in the Festival Plaza precinct, directly behind Parliament House. The tower, scheduled for completion in 2027-28, is expected to accommodate up to 5,000 office workers and will stand alongside Walker Corporation's 29-storey "Festival One" office tower which opened in 2024. The new 38-storey building will feature outdoor dining areas and retail tenancies on the ground-floor, an elevated plaza space on level one, commercial office space from levels six to 16 and 19 to 35, and a restaurant on level 36. The SCAP — a panel of planning experts appointed by the State Planning Commission to assess major CBD development applications — determined the Festival Tower plan was not "seriously at variance" with the planning code, according to minutes of its meeting published on Thursday. The panel granted the project planning consent subject to nine conditions, five of which were heritage matters concerning the relationship between the tower and Parliament House. The Malinauskas government strongly backed Walker Corporation's proposal after asking the company to revise its earlier plan for a three-storey retail hub that would have stretched across the northern facade of Parliament House. Planning Minister Nick Champion said the SCAP approval was "unambiguously good news for the state", adding that the Festival Plaza will be "vibrant and teeming with people" once the tower is finished. "We want to activate this plaza and office workers will do that," Mr Champion said. "They will provide the customers for food and beverage, they'll wander down to the theatre after work, they'll have drinks in bars in the train station and in town. "This will bring vibrancy to the square and activity to the square, it will make this beautiful place even more vibrant and welcoming." The second Festival Tower has not been without controversy, particularly due to its size and location on public land between the Adelaide Festival Centre and Parliament House. A self-described coalition of 125 eminent South Australians, headlined by former Labor premier Lynn Arnold, campaigned against the tower and argued the Festival Plaza should be "open and civic in character". The SCAP's approval also comes despite a number of concerns raised by the government's heritage agency, Heritage SA, about the impact the tower would have on Parliament House, a national heritage place. In a submission to the SCAP, Heritage SA raised concerns that the "visual dominance" of the proposed tower would leave views of Parliament House's northern facade "compromised". "The currently open setting to the north of Parliament House will be enclosed by the tower, compromising the historic landmark scale of Parliament House along the North Terrace boulevard," Heritage SA's principal heritage architect Michael Queale wrote. Government planning officer Ben Scholes, who prepared a summary report for the SCAP on the development, noted Heritage SA's concerns but said the agency had "not directed refusal of the application". "Instead, through detailed conditions to be assigned to any Planning Consent granted, Heritage SA has recommended design amendments to mitigate the concerns raised," Mr Scholes wrote. "This position from Heritage SA, while highlighting significant impacts, indicates that these impacts may be considered manageable and would be capable of resolution through design adjustments, rather than representing a fundamental incompatibility with policy expectations." Mr Scholes said the Walker Corporation proposal represented a "delicate balance" between the strategic vision for the precinct and heritage impacts. He added that the proposal was "not considered to be so fundamentally inconsistent or materially detrimental to the heritage and cultural values of Parliament House" to be "seriously at variance" with the planning code's heritage policies. "The circumstances of this application are consistent with this precedent, where a balance between strategic aspirations and heritage values was implicitly accepted." Mr Champion said the heritage conditions imposed on the planning consent primarily relate to the building materials that "will be used to match the features of Parliament House". "Every indication that we've had from Walker [Corporation] is that they care about complimenting the … heritage features of Parliament House," he said. "That was one of the things that was worked on a lot by the Government Architect and the Design Review Team … a lot of thought going into that as we blend the old and the new." The ABC has contacted Walker Corporation for comment. The SCAP's approval marks one of the final stages of the redevelopment of the Festival Plaza precinct — a process that began in 2014 when Walker Corporation entered a partnership with the state government to redevelop the Festival Plaza car park. That preceded a public-private partnership to upgrade the Festival Plaza's public realm, followed by construction on the 29-storey Festival One tower, which is now home to Flinders University and Deloitte. Early works behind Parliament House are already underway to prepare for the construction of the second tower, which is planned to hold 1,354 car parking spaces and around 47,000 square metres of office space. The second Festival Plaza building will rank among Adelaide's tallest buildings when completed. At 160-metres in height, the tower would eclipse the city's current tallest building, Frome Central Tower One, which stands at 138-metres-tall in the east end of the CBD. An even taller 180-metre, 37-storey hotel was given planning consent last year for construction behind the Freemasons Lodge at 254 North Terrace.
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Adelaide's first skyscraper criticised as ‘profound mistake' and ‘hugely questionable' by opponents
Adelaide's first skyscraper will be a 'phallic' construction overshadowing the birthplace of women's suffrage, critics say. The Walker Corporation has begun work on a 38-storey commercial building next to Parliament House on North Terrace, which is known as the city's cultural boulevard. The planned building will be 160m high – the threshold for a skyscraper is 150m. Adelaide's tallest building is 138m, although there are also plans under way for a 183m building. Walker Tower 2 will span almost 50,000 sq m, accommodate up to 5,000 office workers and 100 retail workers, and will include a rooftop bar and restaurant. The Walker Corporation has already built a tower in the Festival Plaza precinct. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But Adelaide resident Robert Farnan, who has convened a working party composed of planners, architects, lawyers, residents' groups, the Greens and others to raise awareness of the issues and lobby state and federal governments to intervene, said it was a 'hugely questionable' development and a 'state-supported skyscraper on public land'. 'The word is spreading about the significance of the site [as] the place where full democracy first occurred,' he said. In 1894, the parliament passed world-first laws allowing women to both vote and stand for election. Aboriginal women were also enfranchised – although they faced multiple barriers. Both old and new parliament houses are on the national heritage list because of 'a series of radical reforms to political laws and processes that Australians now take for granted'. 'It was here that the democratic ideals of all men and women having the right to vote, secret ballots, and one person/one vote were first introduced,' its listing reads. Stewart Sweeney, a retired academic and public policy advocate who worked with SA's famously reformist premier Don Dunstan, described the proposal as a 'phallic logo-ridden tower of exclusion'. 'It's the wrong building in the wrong place,' he said. 'It's next to the parliament, but that's not just any old parliament, it's a special parliament in a global sense. 'It's the parliament where the breakthrough on women's suffrage, for the right to vote and to stand for parliament was first legislated, and it's hard to think of a place where erecting a tower whose main claim to fame is the highest tower in Adelaide is the right place to do that.' Loine Sweeney – daughter of Stewart and former executive officer of the Women's Suffrage Centenary – said the tower would be a 'profound mistake' that would not just overshadow a building but a legacy. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Adelaide city council is opposed to the development because of its impact on Parliament House and because the site is part of the Adelaide Park Lands. The Adelaide Park Lands Association called it a 'monster', a private high-rise development that undermined what the Park Lands represent – being 'free, green, and public'. Historian Samuel Doering said on social media that the space was 'hallowed' and agreed it should be used for 'suffrage storytelling'. The outgoing History Trust of SA chief executive officer, Greg Mackie, responded to Doering, saying it was a 'shameful grab of priceless public Adelaide park land for private profit that destroys the deserved sense of place of SA's parliament and our proud democracy'. Work has already started on the site, although the current design does not yet have formal approval from the State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP). The planning minister, Nick Champion, said it would be up to the SCAP to assess the development application. 'It's important the SCAP remains an independent authority to assess and determine major development proposals in South Australia and not be influenced by politics,' he said. Announcing its design, the state government said it would be set back a minimum of 9m from Parliament House to 'preserve its visual integrity, heritage value and to preserve view lines to Parliament House'. The premier, Peter Malinauskas, has said the development showed the 'state's economy is growing, and our city is growing up', and would bring in $1bn a year in economic activity. 'This will be an iconic building that will define Adelaide's skyline,' he said when the building designs were revealed. Guardian Australia has approached Walker Corporation for comment.
