City Squares

[crawf]

Even Victoria Square despite the millions spent and all the "useable" structures and space at the northern end seems largely deserted during the day.

Quite the opposite. The times I have gone down there on my lunch break, there has always been lots of people around.

It's a nice place to chill and people watch.

[thecityguy]

If anyone is interested in a great doco, watch "the social life of small urban spaces" explains what makes a great public space, quite an old doco but very relevant still


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[monotonehell]

I keep forgetting to post this, but someone was talking about decorative lighting in squares like Whitmore square. Just as an aside, there's been LED bunting lighting bisecting the square for a few weeks now. It runs down the North-South and East-West paths in their entirety. I've only seen it at day, however.

The Festive Lights display in Whitmore Square has now been installed, with this year’s display our most spectacular to date! Our new colour-changing LED bulbs are being used for the first time along the entire length of the Festoon runs in addition to the large floods at each end of the Square and the colour changing spots on selected trees within the Square. The lights will stay up to the end of the Festival season in mid-March.

http://citysouth.org.au/festive-lights- ... ming-soon/

I can't see any actual events to match the lighting though. So I'm unsure what the CSA thinks this will achieve.

[claybro]

Agree to that. But this is an issue with so much of the maintenance of adelaides green space. Poorly maintained and barely irrigated. And not just the city council. Suburban councils have become very lazy, and just blame everything on cost and climate. Cluttering the squares up with more stuff, won't make them any better maintained, or apparently more utilised if vic square is anything to go by..

[monotonehell]

...or apparently more utilised if vic square is anything to go by..

I agree with you up until this point. Victoria Square (at least the northern half) has become more utilised since the upgrade. Even when there's no event occupying the space, there's been more workday-lunchtime people doing things like eating their lunch, kicking a ball around on the lawn, as well as organised gym classes etc. And after hours there's often families hanging about at night, kids mucking about in the fountains etc.

I'd say that Victoria Square is a bad example of your point.

[Ben]

Too many roads dissecting the squares. That's the issue I see as the biggest obstacle to be overcome. Especially Hindmarsh square, its not very pedestrian friendly. I can never see Pulteney Street being closed through the middle though.

[crawf]

Too many roads dissecting the squares. That's the issue I see as the biggest obstacle to be overcome. Especially Hindmarsh square, its not very pedestrian friendly. I can never see Pulteney Street being closed through the middle though.

The biggest thing I dislike about Hindmarsh Square is the unsightly vast bitumen around the perimeter of the square.

There is hardly any traffic and could sufficiently be made half the current width or even narrower. So much potential for Hindmarsh Square, but the roads and that hideous suburban low-rise campus ruin it.

[[Shuz]]

Hindmarsh Square has so much opportunity to build a multi level underground carpark underneath it, and bring the parks right up to the buildings on its western and eastern edges, like they've done with the NE and NW corners.

[Nathan]

More car parking around/under Hindmarsh Square? The last thing the area needs is more parking lots.

Significantly reducing the roads around Hindmarsh Sq was highlighted in both the Jan Gehl reports. Even with the on street parking there's absolutely no need for them to be so wide and it creates a significant barrier to people using the square.

[Goodsy]

More car parking around/under Hindmarsh Square? The last thing the area needs is more parking lots.

Significantly reducing the roads around Hindmarsh Sq was highlighted in both the Jan Gehl reports. Even with the on street parking there's absolutely no need for them to be so wide and it creates a significant barrier to people using the square.

Why does it matter if the carpark is underground and not taking up any space?

[Nathan]

More car parking around/under Hindmarsh Square? The last thing the area needs is more parking lots.

Significantly reducing the roads around Hindmarsh Sq was highlighted in both the Jan Gehl reports. Even with the on street parking there's absolutely no need for them to be so wide and it creates a significant barrier to people using the square.

Why does it matter if the carpark is underground and not taking up any space?

You're still adding something that by its very nature will attract additional traffic. And it's not like there's a lack of off street parking in the area, you can't throw a stone in any direction without hitting one. The only ire is the cost of the non-council owned carparks, but given how much more it would cost to construct an underground park compared to an above one you could guarantee the parking fees wouldn't be (comparatively) cheap.

[monotonehell]

Too many roads dissecting the squares. That's the issue I see as the biggest obstacle to be overcome. Especially Hindmarsh square, its not very pedestrian friendly. I can never see Pulteney Street being closed through the middle though.

Roads dissecting squares is a problem, but making the squares islands by running a road around their perimeter is also an isolating problem.

Take your example of Hindmarsh Square. The southern half is bisected by Pulteney Street and surrounded by roads, making them something of an island. While the northern half is bisected by Pulteney Street, but is connected to the surrounding buildings, meaning there's no barrier to people getting to and using them.

Sometimes I think the squares would be better off bisected by the cross roads, forming four little squares directly connected to the buildings around them. Except Victoria Square where the little triangles should be flush against the buildings instead.

squares.jpg (285.02 KiB) Viewed 4165 times

[ml69]

Take your example of Hindmarsh Square. The southern half is bisected by Pulteney Street and surrounded by roads, making them something of an island. While the northern half is bisected by Pulteney Street, but is connected to the surrounding buildings, meaning there's no barrier to people getting to and using them.

Sometimes I think the squares would be better off bisected by the cross roads, forming four little squares directly connected to the buildings around them. Except Victoria Square where the little triangles should be flush against the buildings instead.

squares.jpg

Totally agree Mono with your proposal of bisecting cross streets, forming four little squares directly connected to buildings. I have long thought that this would be the best solution for Light, Hindmarsh, Whitmore and Hurtle Sq.

Then activate the square edges by encouraging cafes, restaurants and bars on the ground level, even in residential buildings fronting the squares. Cafe Troppo on Whitmore Sq is a good example of what I'm thinking of. Have outdoor dining areas which informally spill out onto the adjacent squares.

Then screen the traffic noise with planting or earth berms like they have on the NW and NE parts of Himdmarsh Sq, which I incidentally think are the most successful spaces in our city squares. Some ground undulations in the squares also wouldn't go astray (again like we have on the NW corner of Himdmarsh Sq). Also, plant lots of shady trees in a beautiful and organised way, not the random hotchpotch of different trees we have at the moment.

Finally, a funky little playground in both Whitmore and Hurtle Sq (in either the SW or SE corner of those squares) would be a useful addition to the area to activate those squares.

[thecityguy]

I agree, roads dissecting the squares are needed, but not roads going around the squares....can't agree more with what you said about the random ugly trees in the squares. Some structure would be nice. Lining the roads with trees (like frome street but smaller trees) would go a long way to making the squares much more attractive


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[slenderman]

Too many roads dissecting the squares. That's the issue I see as the biggest obstacle to be overcome. Especially Hindmarsh square, its not very pedestrian friendly. I can never see Pulteney Street being closed through the middle though.

Agree with this. I wish the money existed to sink the roads underneath each square, as this would create much more space. Don't know enough about how this would impact traffic though.

In my experience, Hindmarsh and Hurtle Squares at least suffer from being four little islands which aren't really useful for anything other than sitting around in, while Light and Whitmore have a moat in the form of those roads surrounding them. Victoria Square is kind of a combination of both. Obviously, these things don't mix well for a combination of creating attractions/being attractive for pedestrians to enter.

If the green spaces could all be merged together and the side roads removed, the squares would have far more potential for attractions to be built.

Ideally, these areas could become quite family friendly, with parents sitting outside a café while their kids kick a ball/run around in the safer, more open spaces.

The areas could also provide greater scope for their own community events/festivals/pop up markets (I'm not sure if these already happen, they probably do, but they would be better and attract more people if they were bigger). Not to mention more space for public art/better looking decorations, which is another obvious issue with the squares at present. A random hotchpotch of trees doesn't look good in an urban area.

But this is more a pipe dream. As it stands, mono's proposal is clearly more feasible. Not certain if cutting up Light and Whitmore Squares is a great idea, as the larger spaces have a greater scope for attractions, even though they are harder for pedestrians to enter.