Uni housing towers over Trinity Church prompting heritage fears for Adelaide CBD skyline

A huge 33-storey student housing tower will dwarf our state’s oldest church. What do you think of the design? Vote in our poll.

Holy Trinity Church in Adelaide. Picture: Matt Loxton

SA’s largest student housing tower with its 1002 rooms will dwarf the state’s oldest church on North Terrace after it was given the green light.

Hot on the heels of the controversial government approval of the state’s highest building outside the Adelaide CBD at Glenside, Acting Premier Susan Close revealed this morning that developers 1835 Property would start work at the North Terrace site in January next year.

Developers planned to have the $400m 33-storey housing tower opened behind the heritage-listed Trinity Church by April, 2028, after the plan won approval from the State Commission Assessment Panel.

The news was met with concern by heritage consultant and planner Sandy Wilkinson who said that while the new building’s setbacks respected the church’s heritage he feared the city needed far stricter height and ratio controls to protect its skyline.

“The city is becoming a bit of a dog’s dinner of minarets popping up everywhere,” he said, claiming design problems stemmed back to building controls being weakened in 2007.

“If you remove planning controls over height limits and plot ratios you give planners no leverage to negotiate better design outcomes.”

Adelaide's largest purpose-built student accommodation development will dwarf the city’s oldest church at 88 North Terrace. Picture: Supplied

Trinity Church in Adelaide. Picture: Matt Loxton

Ms Close said the new building would be the city’s largest purpose-built student accommodation development, and would support the merged University of Adelaide and University of South Australia’s bid to attract more international students.

Developers 1835 Property said on its website that Adelaide University was hoping to attract an additional 6000 students by 2030.

Managing director Jason Di Iulio said the new housing would deliver “an enduring economic asset” with the building to rise from the current church car park site.

As part of the construction work, the church where the state’s first governor Captain John Hindmarsh laid the foundation stone on January 26, 1838, would receive “significant heritage upgrades”.

Adelaide University co-vice chancellor Professor Peter Hoj said the new towers would help house new international and Australian students expected to attend the merged University of Adelaide and University of South Australia.

Artist impression of the lobby and cafe area for the proposed tower for Trinity Church on North Tce. Picture: Brown Falconer

“Adelaide University welcomes this development because it will offer students, in particular those who move here from interstate and overseas, an excellent chance to experience the heart of our city while they settle into university life,” he said.

The new student accommodation is much larger than the next largest city offering – the 16-storey Y Suites Waymouth Street building with its 811 beds.

Trinity Church Adelaide senior pastor Paul Harrington welcomed the new building saying it would “place us at the heart of a vibrant university precinct as well as provide an opportunity to deploy some of our resources into the growing network of churches we have across metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia”.

The latest building approval followed the controversial decision earlier this month to allow a 20-storey high rise in Glenside after a code amendment was approved to raise the maximum building height from eight to 20 storeys.

Furious residents in The Glenside Development Action Group planned to fight the Cedar Woods plan to build the state’s tallest building outside the CBD.