Flashback: The plan to redevelop Evandale to become a hi-tech island in the Nerang River
IF you thought the $60m art gallery at Evandale was wild, check out this. This was the plan to see Bundall’s parkland redeveloped as a giant floating Island in the Nerang River.
History
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CREATING the future of the Gold Coast has never been easy.
From the Q1 to Coomera Town Centre, sometimes good things can take a long time to move from the drawing board to reality.
And the Gold Coast Cultural Precinct is no exception, having first been discussed more than 40 years ago.
Bundall’s Evandale was first tapped as the site of the Gold Coast’s civic administration headquarters in the early 1970s and the famous “beehive” chambers took shape in 1975.
By by the early 1980s, Mayor Keith Hunt was keen to pursue his dream of a cultural precinct near the chambers and secured the support of his colleagues.
But Alderman Hunt died suddenly in late 1982, unable to fulfil his dream.
40 YEARS OF POLITICAL HISTORY INSIDE EVANDALE
His successor, Mayor Denis O’Connell was a fellow supporter of the project and called on his political will to secure the votes, using his own casting decision to vote the Gold Coast Arts Centre into reality in 1985.
This controversial call played a role in costing O’Connell the mayoralty at that year’s election but the arts centre was built in the late 1980s and became a major landmark on the Coast.
Fast forward to the late 2000s when the Gold Coast was hit hard by the global financial crisis.
Mayor Ron Clarke, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, dreamed of a major cultural centre for the Coast.
In 2009 the Gold Coast City Council commissioned a design competition to create a new-look Evandale, securing 61 entries from across the country.
The winning design was a bold concept, the Island of Culture which was to sit in the middle of the Nerang River.
It was to connect by pedestrian bridges on three sides to Evandale, Surfers Paradise and Chevron Island.
Within its walls were housed the mayoral chambers, performing and visual arts facilities, some council staff offices, restaurants and public spaces.
ART LEADERS CALL FOR CULTURAL PLAN
Its perimeter was to be wrapped in a luminous ‘scalloped glaze curtain’ which would glow at night.
Evandale would have had its existing buildings demolished and replaced by parkland, paths and trees.
The design came from firm Super Colossal which won $90,000 for its efforts.
Cr Clarke told the Bulletin at the time the winning design would go into a melting pot of ideas.
“Now we’ve got to sort out the ideas and sort out the reality of it,” he said.
PAUL WESTON: WHT THE CULTURAL PRECINCT MEANS FOR YOU
The design was ultimately abandoned a year later and the cultural precinct was put on hold until 2012.
Following that year’s elections, new mayor Tom Tate revived the cultural precinct idea and finally secured funding for the project.
The $37.5 million first stage will be completed in December with stage 2 to begin in late 2018.
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