Parklands advocates reject call for new Riverbank concert hall, saying the green space is already ‘iconic’ and should be better promoted
Why build a concert hall when we already have a city icon nowhere else has? That’s the rebuke from parklands advocates, who say we don’t need a big building on our Riverbank.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Parklands advocates have rejected a call for a new Riverbank concert hall to drive cultural tourism, saying the green space is already “iconic” and should be better marketed.
The Sunday Mail yesterday revealed eminent architect Guy Maron’s vision for a concert hall, which he designed in a bid to “rattle the chains” and spark renewed debate.
He said there were multiple site options, including Lot Fourteen, but he was drawn to the “romantic” notion of having the hall in a Riverbank location, possibly Elder Park.
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra wants a new concert hall, and has examined designs from architects other than Mr Maron. However, it lacks funding for a full business case despite “in principle” State Government support for one.
Former defence minister Christopher Pyne today also weighs into the parklands debate, arguing in his weekly Advertiser column: “The parklands aren’t a museum piece. They aren’t supposed to be a patch of scrub in the middle of a modern city of over one million people”.
Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association (APPA) president Shane Sody said developments should be considered only if they met two of three requirements – open, green or public.
“This (concert hall) proposal is for something ‘iconic’. We already have something iconic. We have something that no other city in the world has got or could ever get,” Mr Sody said.
“We have got a national heritage-listed, world-unique feature. This is to take away from that.
“It is almost criminal how little we have promoted the fact we have a world-unique asset.”
Mr Maron, who also produced Premier Steven Marshall’s early Lot Fourteen designs, said he knew the idea of a parklands site would be controversial.
“Everything there (on the Riverbank) is parklands,” he said.
“You know Adelaide, the moment you let that cat out of the bag you will get 100 people saying ‘no, not in my backyard’.
“It is time to talk about that. “We should be proactive, and not just look at the parklands as bits of wild gum trees, but do something beautiful there and develop them.
“It’s very nice to have a city surrounded by parks. Some facilities will actually fit in the parklands, provided they are done very sensitively and do not overshadow the park.”
APPA gives examples of ideal developments, including grassed public sports fields and event spaces or gardens and bushland.
In 2013, former premier Jay Weatherill released a $20 million “soft infrastructure” plan for the parklands and said they parklands should be enjoyed by all, not “a moat around the city”.
