[COM] Uni of Adelaide - Med School | 70m | 15lvl | $120m

[Dog]

Would be good to see those train tracks covered.

[Ben]

Fro InDaily:

Delay threatens start date of $130m medical school

Liam Mannix | 24 July 2013

The University of Adelaide’s $130 million medical school project may be delayed because the State Government has not yet signed off on approval for the build.

Construction of the project is due to start early next year and be finished by 2016, but university leaders are concerned those dates may have to be pushed back because of the government’s seeming reluctance to sign.

“If it takes much longer, it will affect our construction start,” university vice-chancellor Professor Warren Bebbington told InDaily yesterday.

The university has received $60 million in Federal Government funding – to which it will add $70 million of its own funds – to relocate its east end medical school across to the site of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital in the west end.

But despite an official government announcement and the release of concept images in June, no one has yet signed on the dotted line.

Bebbington said he didn’t know the reason for the delay.

“We’ve been at this for 11 months. I had a letter from the Minister of Health which said this would be wound up by the 17th of June. It is now late July.

“There was a further message passed to us that it would be ready the day before the Prime Minister announced the $60 million (on June 15) – it wasn’t ready then, either.

“It’s a complicated transaction, but it’s just hard to believe that you can’t, as a government, with all that manpower, get all the players into one room to sort out whatever it is that’s holding it up. We’re ready to sign.”

The medical school is to be built next to a new $80 million cancer research centre being partially funded by the University of South Australia. The two new buildings are slated for the western corner of North Terrace and Morphett Street, on the northern side alongside the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

State Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis did not respond to InDaily’s request for comment by deadline.

[Ben]

From In Daily:

Subway plans force change to uni building

Liam Mannix | 30 July 2013

The University of Adelaide has been forced to modify the designs of its new medical school to incorporate a future North Terrace subway.

The State Government required the university to leave an area of land in the new west end development vacant to allow access to a future subway track.

Despite asking the university to change the shape of its building to accommodate the subway, the transport department says no modelling has been done on the potential multi-billion dollar proposal, nor are there any plans to fund the project.

The $130 million North Terrace medical school was announced earlier this year and will be built next to the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

University of Adelaide Vice Chancellor Warren Bebbington let the subway idea slip during an interview on the university’s radio station.

“If you look at the picture (of the new medical school) you’ll see there’s a kind of bite out of the building at one end,” he said.

“That relates to the fact underneath the site there is a future plan for an Adelaide subway, an underground railway, and if that were ever to be built they have to get access from above ground to sink pylons and things, so we’ve had to allow some air space at one corner of the building which accounts for the slightly unusual shape.”

Bebbington later told InDaily the land next to SAHMRI for the new medical school was given to the university by the State Government with an “easement” which required no development in the area earmarked for the subway.

The “bite” is clearly visible in renders of the medical school’s northern side. The render suggests the land would be covered by an elevated walkway, which presumably would not impede access.

The easement on the North Terrace site appears to be the only part of the subway program that has been put in place.

A spokesperson for the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure confirmed the university’s site was the only one with a subway easement, which was established in 2010.

No detailed study of the proposal has been done, nor has any funding been allocated to it.

“This provisioning is simply about long-term planning for Adelaide,” the spokesperson said.

“The easement has now been refined as part of the planning and building design for the proposed University of Adelaide medical school.

“While there has been a concept for an underground train link through Adelaide for many decades, the city’s population and transport demands are still not sufficient to warrant making this infrastructure a priority. Consequently no funding has been allocated to this proposal.”

RAA senior manager of automotive policy Mark Borlace applauded the government for having a long-term vision but said there were many better ways to spend the billions that would be needed for a subway.

“It would be a massive piece of infrastructure. And for such a relatively short couple of kilometres. It would be billions.

“There’s a lot better ways to spend that sort of money.

“More importantly, they’ve got to get the public transport system that’s above ground now working. That includes frequency and those sort of fundamentals that get people actually wanting to use public transport.”

[metro]

^ They should put the underground rail closer to the riverbank then.

[claybro]

I just love the way the RAA thinks it has to have a say on public transport. About the only time they care about PT is when the bus lanes take up valuable road space from their one to a car drive everywhere commuting members. Surely it is not so much of a big deal to ask for the footings of a building not yet planned to allow for un underground? At least we now know one is being considered for the future the CBD.

[Ben]

Plans are now on ACC. Too many renders to post atm. This thing look massive!!

http://ncapps.adelaidecitycouncil.com/a ... Part_A.pdf

http://ncapps.adelaidecitycouncil.com/a ... Part_B.pdf

http://ncapps.adelaidecitycouncil.com/a ... Part_C.pdf

http://ncapps.adelaidecitycouncil.com/a ... Part_D.pdf

http://ncapps.adelaidecitycouncil.com/a ... Part_E.pdf

[Waewick]

looks fantastic.

[[Shuz]]

Safe to say the cat's well and truly out of the bag re; DPTI's underground rail corridor. Look at PDF D for detailed plans.

[Patrick_27]

Safe to say the cat's well and truly out of the bag re; DPTI's underground rail corridor. Look at PDF D for detailed plans.

A family friend works in the transport department; they're well under way in the planning for an underground rail loop. Not sure whether they're doing it for the purpose of building it, or just placing a time-line on when they'd like to build it. I must say, by what the PDF shows, it's going to take an interesting path..

[[Shuz]]

Patrick27, I know planning's well underway. I've seen the details for myself.

It's just this is the first time to my knowledge that DPTI (whether intentionally, or unintentionally) have released a detailed drawing of the tunnel portals. Of course it would have been necessary for the route alignment to be shown as part of the DA application to the ACC / DAC, however I do wonder if there has been an internal oversight in the release of those particular drawings? Usually with matters like that, they would have issued a 'page blackout' over that particular page before uploading it online. I suspect that there has been an oversight.

And yes, the route and scale of the project is erm, interesting.

[Dvious]

Building is 69.7 > 70 metres if you count lower ground level. Nice!

[Nathan]

The council DAP & Park Lands Preservation Society being pests again.

Adelaide City Council refuses to rubber stamp plans for new Adelaide University Medical School building
TIM WILLIAMS CITY MESSENGER OCTOBER 10, 2013 11:37AM
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger ... 6736691823


CITY Council planners have refused to rubber stamp plans for a new $120 million Adelaide University Medical School, saying it should be built over the rail lines west of the Morphett St bridge rather than on North Tce.

The council's Development Assessment Panel has knocked back the university's unusual bid for a "pre-lodgement agreement" that would have denied the council any further say once plans for the 12-storey building are lodged with the state Development Assessment Commission (DAC).

The panel concluded the building "should be built over, straddle, or at least significantly cantilever over the rail yards", in line with the council's push for new health precinct buildings to be set in a new swathe of parklands over the train lines.

Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Society president Ian Gilfillan has backed the council's position, urging the State Government to avoid replicating the "complete fortress wall" the Adelaide Convention Centre creates on North Tce east of Morphett St.

"(This) overshadows the street and cuts off views and access to the river, leaving a dank and foreboding streetscape for a considerable distance along North Tce," Mr Gilfillan wrote in a submission on the government's Riverbank rezoning plan.

A Transport Department easement for a potential future underground train line will be used for a small park from North Tce to the rail yards, with the medical school and a new UniSA cancer centre either side.

The easement would likely complicate any plans to build over the rail yards.

An Adelaide University spokeswoman said the pre-lodgement agreement was sought "as a way of co-ordinating various views on the proposal in an efficient manner" before seeking approval from DAC, which will have the final say on the medical school.

Current plans leave the top five floors empty, most likely for a future dental school.

"Feedback on the building design from the State Government Architect has been positive and we are looking forward to continuing the development process in the coming months, ready to start construction in the new year," the spokeswoman said.

Having battled the council DAP over a St Andrew's Hospital development since August, Mr Rau said: "I have said all I want to say in relation to the Adelaide City Council DAP."

[Nort]

This isn't an over zealous parklands preservation thing, the ACC vision for that area is actually a really good one.

[Nathan]

This isn't an over zealous parklands preservation thing, the ACC vision for that area is actually a really good one.

Except the ACC vision for the area includes the medical school (and UniSA building) in their proposed location.

[Nort]

This isn't an over zealous parklands preservation thing, the ACC vision for that area is actually a really good one.

Except the ACC vision for the area includes the medical school (and UniSA building) in their proposed location.

In that sketch the buildings on North Terrace seem to be a bit smaller and more spread out, with the one closest to the bridge pushed back from North Terrace a little.

If we manage to get all the currently planned buildings without building over the lines as is currently planned that will still be a big improvement to the area, however that will effectively create a wall closing North Terrace off from the river, which the ACC idea aims to avoid.