This was published 7 months ago
Opinion
How Perth ended up with a convention centre that’s no icon but an eyesore
Mark Naglazas
Journalist and sub editorNo matter how often I gaze down from Kings Park at the sprawling shed-like structure wedged between the Perth CBD and the Swan River it never fails to jar.
I’m speaking, of course, about the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, the $300 million-plus architectural aberration aptly dubbed The Cockroach by locals, which has come to symbolise our failure to use our mining riches to create buildings that make us proud and draw tourists.
Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Even Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas, the eternal optimist who finds the upside in most things to do with the city, struggles to come to terms with a large part of his patch being taken up with a monstrosity that seems to have been inspired by a Bunnings outlet and is arse-about; that is, the building has its back to the river.
“It’s a blot on the landscape,” scoffed Zempilas, who must put his big hands up to the side of his head when he drops in for a visit to his cherished Elizabeth Quay, the area adjacent (and the subject for another article).
Looking back as a major transformation is unveiled, I have to confess that when the centre was being planned and debated back in the late 1990s and early 2000s I wasn’t really paying attention – there was enough horror on the big screen to preoccupy this former film critic.
I assumed it was built in the bad old days when lousy public buildings were as predictable as Rick and Susannah reading the nightly news (see the Bell Tower) and that structures of value, such as Council House, were dodging the wrecking ball.
However, talking to people close to the process, digging into the archives and reading the Hansard record of a riveting parliamentary debate that took place during the tender process brought home to me home to me how much opposition there was to the Richard Court’s Liberal-Nationals government awarding the project to Multiplex and Cox Architecture.
The exhibition centre in Perth’s CBD.
The WA Tourism Commission, which ran the process, and the Court government were repeatedly warned they were sinking $110 million into a building – on a prime chunk of central city real estate – that would be an embarrassment. Opponents castigated them for passing on an eye-popping proposal from Leighton Contractors and its architect, Sir Norman Foster.
“[That] was an astonishing building,” confided one of the few people fortunate enough to see Foster’s model , a member of now-defunct thinktank CityVision. He and everyone else who clapped eyes on the spectacular model had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
“It was like a huge armadillo whose scales moved with the sun to capture the light. It shimmered. It was a technological marvel way ahead of its time. You only have to look at Norman Foster’s other buildings, such as The Gherkin in London and The Reichstag in Berlin, to get a sense of what our convention centre might have been like,” he said.
We human beings, collectively, can recognise ugly when we see it.
CityVision convenor Bill Warnock in the year 2000.
“We had the chance to rival the Sydney Opera House in terms of beauty and innovation and the ability to attract the kind of tourists flocking to Bilbao to see Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim. When you look at what we ended up with, it is a tragedy.”
Foster’s proposed building was to have sat on the banks of the Swan River, affording convention-goers and visitors views across the river to South Perth. What we got was a building that turns away from the best view in the city and is a barrier between the city and its lifeblood waterway.
When the model chosen instead was unveiled in July, 2000 CityVision convenor Bill Warnock fired off an angry letter to The West Australian.
“At the public launch of the chosen design for the convention centre the shocked silence that greeted the presentation said it all,” he said.
“We human beings, collectively, can recognise ugly when we see it. And ugly is what we’ve got, unless we collectively do something to stop it,” spewed Warnock, who along with CityVision chair Ken Adam campaigned for the Foster marvel.
Labor took up the cause via then-deputy leader Eric Ripper and shadow tourism minister Mark McGowan.
“A large public investment will be made in this project. Why are we not getting a building that will be an icon for Perth … if the government signs this contract, this ugly building will be the Premier’s legacy to the CBD,” said Ripper.
There was very little public outcry, however, as nobody was allowed to see the three shortlisted proposals until after the government declared the victor.
It was the secrecy that caused the anger even more than the monstrosity finally unveiled.
“The people were presented with a decision,” thundered an editorial in The West Australian. “The site and design remain controversial. That is not to say either or both are wrong — much of the argument comes down to taste. But many people are left with a sense of grievance about the absence of consultation.”
When the winning design was finally displayed at Perth Town Hall many who saw it were horrified. The people might not know much about architecture, to borrow from Monty Python, but they know what they like — and they hated the box with the weirdly undulating roof.
Apparently the Leighton/Foster dazzler was rejected because the Court government thought it financially risky; ironic, as the centre that subsequently opened in 2004 went way over budget, though the precise amount spent is impossible to ascertain from the publicly available records.
Equally ironic is that designs released yesterday by Premier Roger Cook and Tourism Minister Rita Saffioti, who has pushed for an extreme makeover since stepping into the job, bring the convention centre to precisely the place the Leighton/Foster proposals had placed it — right on the edge of the Swan.
While the building does not have the stunning beauty of Sir Norman’s vision and may be accused of being another box-like structure, it does at least face in the right direction and sync with Elizabeth Quay. It may even create a link to Kings Park (you can bet Basil is this very minute brainstorming where the Perth cable car will go).
The decision to go with the shed over a Norman Foster potential tourism magnet was so nuts I approached who was close to the process and asked him about it.
“It was an appalling decision, but I can assure you it was all above board,” laughed a veteran political consultant I approached. This did not make me feel better because it means the dozens of architects and design folk on the advisory panel for the convention centre just had monumentally bad taste or were willing to capitulate over petty and ill-founded financial concerns.
“We’ve seen it too often in Western Australia — nobody willing to put their head above the parapet and fight for a building that pushes the boundaries yet has a real chance of being iconic, a champion willing to go out on a limb and building something that is breathtaking and makes the world sit up and take notice,” he said.
“I worry that the same thing will happen to the First Nations cultural centre to be built in front of the Perth Concert Hall by 2028 . We are going to build something that is half-arsed to save a few dollars. If we are going to do it, let’s be world leaders. We can’t possibly afford another embarrassment on this scale.”
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