Des Houghton: Push for Olympic pool to be built on Mt Coot-tha

A prominent architect wants to see the pool for the 2032 Brisbane Games built on top of Mt Coot-tha. VOTE IN THE POLL

Prominent architect Richard Groves wants to see the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games swimming pool built on top of Mt Coot-tha.

And he wants to see “legacy projects” built to enhance Brisbane’s subtropical lifestyle long after the Olympics are over.

“The key to the Olympics is not to overbuild so it looks good on paper and ends up being a white elephant when everyone goes home,” he said.

He does not approve of the proposal to build the Olympic swimming venue in a new Roma St entertainment complex and tear it down later. “It’s wasteful,” he said.

“Besides, a swimming pool in a big shed is like watching a washing machine.

“There is no sense of place and they all look the same.”

And why stop there. I suggested a cable car ride to the top where a thirsty traveller might also find a wine bar and restaurant. Groves said Barcelona got it right when it hosted the 1992 Olympics and placed the swimming pool on a hill overlooking the Sagrada Familia basilica, Antoni Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece.

An impression of the Olympic swimming pool on Mt Coot-tha suggested by Richard Groves

“A pool will cost $10-15m so why build it somewhere where you will have to pull it down later?’’

He said Barcelona received a tourism surge after its Olympics thanks to the “billions of extra eyeballs” focused on the pool and the skyline.

Groves is a master planner and one of the original architects for South Bank after Expo 88. He has also completed a design concept for a Breakfast Creek sports precinct embracing Albion Park raceway, Brothers’ Rugby Union, the Allan Border fields and the Breakfast Creek Hotel.