Hyatt Hotel in Adelaide poised to get planning approval in face of criticism of chief government architect and city council
Design concerns over a high-rise hotel have not stopped the demolition of a heritage-listed CBD bank with the state’s planning signing off on the major Pirie St development.
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The demolition of a heritage-listed property for a $160m Hyatt Hotel has been given the go-ahead despite high-level concern about the new design.
The state’s planning authority has approved the 21-storey hotel for the southwest corner of Pirie Street and Gawler Place.
The project will involve the demolition of a local heritage-listed former Bank of South Australia facade, which has been opposed by Adelaide City Council.
The hotel’s developers, CEL Australia, were last month asked to redesign the building after the panel raised concerns about the canopy, facade and that reflectivity of the glass.
In her report to the panel meeting, the planning commission’s principal planning officer Gabrielle McMahon said the project displayed “sufficient merit” to warrant approval.
But in correspondence sent to Ms McMahon on August 13 a spokeswoman, writing on behalf of Government Architect Kirsteen Mackay, said the building’s base and canopy was “not yet considered convincing to warrant removal” of the bank facade.
“The GA’s support for the removal of the heritage facade is contingent on the new proposition providing a significant contribution to the streetscape and achieving a high quality design and material outcome, which has not yet been demonstrated,” the submission said.
The council wrote that a previous hotel design was “more elegant and highly refined” than the current proposal, which it argued would make “considerably less contribution to the city”.
Planning consultant Chris Vounasis, on behalf of CEL Australia, wrote to Ms McMahon that the demolition of the heritage place “as conveyed to us is not an issue now”.
The proposed glazing material had been changed and Mr Vounasis said “reflectance” of the buildings’ facade is the reflection was comparable to and “in some cases less than” other recent developments in Adelaide.
“Further, the level of reflectivity will not result in any unreasonable level of discomfort for surrounding building occupants or safety risks to transport users and/or pedestrians,” he wrote.
CEL Australia executive director Robert Lee said his company wanted to start the project as soon as possible.
The Advertiser revealed that major hotel projects across Adelaide were in limbo due to COVID-19.