Top of the Myer centre

[Aidan]

The upper floors have one downside, they are part of that building !

The lifts are crazy and more like an amusement ride themselves, the escalators are slightly dangerous and involve far too much walking from one flight to the next. The sane way to get to floor #3 was to use the escalators in Myers.

Had they built Dazzleland in a normal multi story shopping center it might have survived. But when the first scary ride is getting to floor #5 you have to wonder what the builder's were thinking.

The main escalator layout was very badly designed, but there's no need to detour into Myer just to reach level 3. Just use the side lifts. Unlike the main lifts there's hardly any wait, and they're not scary at all, unless of course you find all lifts scary.

[Will]

After having read this thread I ventured into the Myer Centre. I think we take it for granted, as I travelled on the escalators within the Myer department Store where the central atrium is. I also went out to the deserted level 5 where the Dazzleland cafe used to be. The atrium of the shopping plaza is spectacular. One can easily tell why this building cost $1 billion. The materials and grandeur of the building is exemplary. It feels as though it could be THE flagship Myer Centre in Sydney or Melbourne.

I know many people dislike the exterior of the building, but inside it is hard not to like it.

[monotonehell]

It was THE flagship Myer at one point.

I think the major thing that saw its fall was the decade long recession we had here. Given an economic upswing, and a management with a plan, the whole place could be brought back from the brink. Right now they seem to be concentrating on condensing all the tenancies into the lower three levels. Perhaps they do have a plan for the upper levels?

[Aidan]

I'd be fairly sure someone's already thought of opening cinemas up in the Myer Centre, but I think realistically, the structural reconfiguration of doing so would actually compromise the structural integrity for the rest of the building. Remember, it was built for Dazzle-land and shops, not a cinema - whereas Melbourne Central actually accommodated for the cinemas as part of its construction (which is obviously where the idea's spurred from).

This has nothing to do with Melbourne Central - it's not as if it was the world's first CBD shopping centre with cinemas! This is more to do with Brisbane.

Brisbane's Myer Centre was the original. And I don't think ours was ever the flagship - theirs was always better.

The Brisbane Myer Centre now has cinemas, which does suggest it would be feasible to install them in ours - despite the shoddy construction of ours!

Would be too late to make a recommendation now, but Harris Scarfe could've raked in a fair bit of moolah in building new cinemas as part of their redevelopment. They have a very large, and rare site in the city centre - one of the few good ones remaining capable of encompassing cinematic presence. Shame, another oppurtunity lost. Same goes for City Cross - which if memory serves, wasn't a 20 level office tower initially meant to built on site?

I seem to recall reading here that the foundations can accommodate a 20 storey office building and they intend to construct one once the economy improves. Is that incorrect?

Would be another good 10-15 years before either Myer or David Jones look at renovating their premises and or expanding... David Jones are actually in a bit of a compromised position, because they can't expand anymore than they already are limited to - try resolving parking issues with the 225 North Terrace apartment building atop!

Expanding their car park may be a problem, but I find it hard to believe that expanding their store would be! Couldn't they expand into the Gallerie? IIRC John Martins used to connect to it on more than one level.

If I had to make any bets - I'd say they'd seek redevelopment on the Central Markets site - utilising the Supreme Court building (as it used to be a department store) for their fashion outlet - would be a perfect match to their identity as seen in Sydney's Elizabeth Street store. Central Markets has always been touted for redevelopment - possibly sooner than you'd think - getting a little gritty and rundown; good candidate for new city cinemas again.

I'd rather have Central Market. Even if there were no other prospect of City cinemas at all, I'd prefer to keep it as a market.

And wasn't it the District Court building that used to be a department store? I don't suppose they'd want to abandon that, but if they did, the building does itself look as if it might be suitable for cinemas...

[Will]

Aidan, do you have any evidence to back up the claim you are making over the 'shoddy construction of our Myer Centre?"

[AtD]

There's plenty potential redevelopment sites that could include a cinema around Rundle Mall. Ones that come to mind are Gallarie, Woolworths, Southern Cross, City Cross and Renaissance Arcade.

The office block above City Cross won't happen, thank you Mr Markis. To be honest, I worry that the Harris Scarfe proposal will meet the same fate.

Shuz: The Central Markets is not supposed to resemble a Westfield.

[fabricator]

The upper floors have one downside, they are part of that building !

The lifts are crazy and more like an amusement ride themselves, the escalators are slightly dangerous and involve far too much walking from one flight to the next. The sane way to get to floor #3 was to use the escalators in Myers.

Had they built Dazzleland in a normal multi story shopping center it might have survived. But when the first scary ride is getting to floor #5 you have to wonder what the builder's were thinking.

The main escalator layout was very badly designed, but there's no need to detour into Myer just to reach level 3. Just use the side lifts. Unlike the main lifts there's hardly any wait, and they're not scary at all, unless of course you find all lifts scary.

Its not just how fast it moves, its the way it skips floors at random. eg goes from 1-5-2 all because someone pressed 2 last. I never said anything about scary lifts, only crazy ones.

I know about the side lifts, but its easier to get to the Myer ones, say via the food court. Far less walking if coming from the railway station.

[Aidan]

Aidan, do you have any evidence to back up the claim you are making over the 'shoddy construction of our Myer Centre?"

I'm only going by what I learned at university. The columns were made of steel, welded into tubes and then filled with concrete. During the construction phase it was discovered that some of them hadn't been welded together properly - instead of the entire gap being fillet welded, they had been stuffed with welding rods and only welded over the outside of those.

They never found who was responsible, but the structural engineers had to be called in. Fortunately they determined that it was still structurally sound.

[Prince George]

Its not just how fast it moves, its the way it skips floors at random. eg goes from 1-5-2 all because someone pressed 2 last. I never said anything about scary lifts, only crazy ones.

That isn't a bug, it's a feature In fact, this is the "Elevator Problem", beloved of algorithm designers, queueing theorists, operations planners and formal language theorists the world over. The control software in an elevator has to balance: how long people have been waiting to be collected after requesting the elevator; how long their ride will take once they are on; how much load the elevator is carrying, to avoid having people unable to get on the elevator because it is already overcrowded. That last one is particularly thorny in a busy shopping centre like Myer, especially during the sales seasons, as it means the elevator going past a busy floor to drop passengers off at an empty one.

This is the way that elevators work around the world. The problem with those elevators in the Myer atrium is not so much their programming as the fact that you can see it at work. That way, we get to see the sometimes uncomfortable fact that attempting to balance many competing priorities means that we are often "unfair" in specific cases; in particular, it is sometimes unfair to us and our sense of justice is never stronger than when it applies to us(*). I believe this is why so many new elevators no longer even have the current floor tracker on each of the entrances telling waiting passengers where the car is, so they don't have to watch justice at work.

(*) I recollect an old proverb along the lines of "a man's toothache matters more to him than a thousand dead a kingdom away"

[Wayno]

Its not just how fast it moves, its the way it skips floors at random. eg goes from 1-5-2 all because someone pressed 2 last. I never said anything about scary lifts, only crazy ones.

That isn't a bug, it's a feature In fact, this is the "Elevator Problem", beloved of algorithm designers, queueing theorists, operations planners and formal language theorists the world over. The control software in an elevator has to balance: how long people have been waiting to be collected after requesting the elevator; how long their ride will take once they are on; how much load the elevator is carrying, to avoid having people unable to get on the elevator because it is already overcrowded. That last one is particularly thorny in a busy shopping centre like Myer, especially during the sales seasons, as it means the elevator going past a busy floor to drop passengers off at an empty one.

This is the way that elevators work around the world. The problem with those elevators in the Myer atrium is not so much their programming as the fact that you can see it at work. That way, we get to see the sometimes uncomfortable fact that attempting to balance many competing priorities means that we are often "unfair" in specific cases; in particular, it is sometimes unfair to us and our sense of justice is never stronger than when it applies to us(*). I believe this is why so many new elevators no longer even have the current floor tracker on each of the entrances telling waiting passengers where the car is, so they don't have to watch justice at work.

(*) I recollect an old proverb along the lines of "a man's toothache matters more to him than a thousand dead a kingdom away"

Great post PG, very informative - and love the toothache quote!

[The Scooter Guy]

Also on top of the Dazzleland floors are the 'Musical Fountain' and probably a sign which says 'WARNING: Extremely unstable flooring'

[Shuz]

Wow, you made your first post without an exclamation mark at the end of it!

[AtD]

And only one smilie too. Maybe he's not feeling well?

[monotonehell]

Wow, you made your first post without an exclamation mark at the end of it!

lol mean.

The musical fountain was ripped out ages ago, all that's left of it is the tiled base.

Oh wait...

!

There.

[fabricator]

Its not just how fast it moves, its the way it skips floors at random. eg goes from 1-5-2 all because someone pressed 2 last. I never said anything about scary lifts, only crazy ones.

That isn't a bug, it's a feature In fact, this is the "Elevator Problem", beloved of algorithm designers, queueing theorists, operations planners and formal language theorists the world over. The control software in an elevator has to balance: how long people have been waiting to be collected after requesting the elevator; how long their ride will take once they are on; how much load the elevator is carrying, to avoid having people unable to get on the elevator because it is already overcrowded. That last one is particularly thorny in a busy shopping centre like Myer, especially during the sales seasons, as it means the elevator going past a busy floor to drop passengers off at an empty one.

This is the way that elevators work around the world. The problem with those elevators in the Myer atrium is not so much their programming as the fact that you can see it at work.

Yes, I have that 'how things works' episode too
The thing is though, there are hardly any people around most levels, so not much point in having the fancy software for high traffic areas.

I've never encountered another lift that behaves the same as the Myer Center atrium ones, certainly not one that forces the contents on my stomach further down. Even the ones inside Myers itself behave in the conventional manner. All which makes me suspect the atrium lifts have and 'express lift' setup, that is higher speeds+skipping floors to achieve those speeds, which implies they have software from Asian style elevators as fitted to skyscrapers.

I put it to you, that one reason the 4th and 5th floors aren't used it the elevators, suicides and people falling over the railing. These things have put people off travelling to the higher floors, as there is a sense of risk (which in reality doesn't really exist).