SA Chief Architect

Ideas and concepts of what Adelaide can be.
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AG
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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#16 Post by AG » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:21 pm

:applause:

"better improve the quality of life of our cities and communities around the state through better design and fostering innovation'' <--- It's great that the government recognises this, because this is ultimately the key reason as to why we design and build things in the first place and yet so many authorities and groups involved in property development and construction completely overlook this vital point. Communities are not just about buildings and spaces, but about the people who use and live in these spaces.

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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#17 Post by cruel_world00 » Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:12 pm

From Mike Rann's Twitter (if anyone was interested):

"# Grateful for advice of 2OO8/9 Thinker in Residence Prof Laura Lee and her local team of architects, planners,industry, local govt leaders.
about 12 hours ago from txt


#

We'll establish Aust's first Integrated Design Comm to better co-ordinate and add value to changing face of our city and reg communities.
about 12 hours ago from txt


#

Not just better design of buildings but the spaces between..for a greener, more vibrant city for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as cars.
about 12 hours ago from txt

#

We want SA to be as celebrated for quality of design as we are for our wines,festivals and leadership in renewable energy.
about 12 hours ago from txt

#

Through COAG PM has challenged Prems to do better with urban design. SA will meet that challenge and lead Australia in doing so.
about 12 hours ago from txt


#

With unprecedented development and investment in infrastructure we must again embrace world's best practice in urban design and architec ...
about 12 hours ago from txt "

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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#18 Post by SRW » Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:54 pm

The announcement comes as Adelaide City Council enters the final stages of planning for the redevelopment of Victoria Square.

AdelaideNow understands the council now plans to keep the square open to through traffic and will release a master plan in the new year.
That's awful news!
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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#19 Post by Wayno » Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:33 pm

Laura Lee talks about IDC, Chief Architect, and Next Steps

From "The Adelaide Review"
In a recent speech Premier Rann announced the first step towards making former Thinker in Residence Laura Lee’s dream of an integrated approach to design, planning and development in South Australia a reality. Amanda Ward talked to Lee and local design professionals about the proposed Integrated Design Commission and what it could mean for the future of South Australia’s built environment.

When Thinker in Residence Laura Lee departed Adelaide last year, she left behind a prescription for some “holistic” medicine that would cure the state’s design ills and create “a prosperous, responsive, sustainable and vibrant South Australia”. The announcement of an Integrated Design Commission (IDC) clearly signals the government’s intention to take its medicine and respond to the recommendations Lee has made. Premier Rann was quick to point out that the Commission will “not be another level of bureaucracy”, although his own press release described the Commission as fulfilling an “enabling and coordinating” role, rather than having any real power to cause change where it is needed.

Lee commented that “SA makes a compelling case for establishing a leading infrastructure model of “practice-based and use-inspired” built environment research to improve the liveability, prosperity and sustainability of our communities.”

However, she also noted that during her residency, despite observing “pockets of excellence and world-class innovative practices in integrated design” in Adelaide, these efforts are disconnected and isolated, lacking impact in a broader community sense. Lee states that design, rather than representing a simple aesthetic, is inherently connected to everything we do. “The value of design lies precisely in this integrated and holistic approach based on values and vision,” says Lee. “It is essentially human centred.”

Speaking to The Adelaide Review from Europe, Lee explained that the Integrated Design Commission is a response to her recommendation for “Intelligent Investment” that was identified during her residency.

“Intelligent Investment values design as a process for collaborative, integrated, multi-disciplinary decision-making and as a process to drive innovation, build communities and expand opportunities,” she said.

Just how the IDC will facilitate this remains to be seen, but according to Lee, the key will be to tap into a deep lode of expertise across all design disciplines and avoid hierarchy.

“The Commission is intended to demonstrate equity and inclusivity across design disciplines and create a trans-disciplinary model, that is, integration in depth and breadth, and not a hierarchy or bias of professions. The highest aspiration for the Commission would be for the government and the public to demand good design.”

Part of the IDC brief is to appoint a Government Architect, a role that has never existed in South Australia. State Chapter President of the Australian Institute of Archtiects, Tim Horton has been lobbying for this role for some time and welcomes the decision to incorporate it into the broader scope of an IDC.

“It is only through the collaboration of all (design) disciplines that true progress is made,” he said. “An IDC with a Government Architect, if it sits within the Department of Premier and Cabinet, has the ability to reach across all government agencies,” said Horton. This may not be good news for individual departments with their own agendas, but Horton is confident the move will ultimately benefit all, with the IDC acting as a facilitator between DPC and other departments.

“There are many good people working in good faith in the various government agencies. The power has to start percolating down from the front bench into the agencies. They should not feel challenged by the IDC. It will only amplify the good work they are already doing.”

Horton also believes that an IDC could take the political heat out of important design decisions.

“(With an IDC) it’s not “Mike’s hospital” or “Isobel’s stadium”,” he said. “The IDC, with the Government Architect, will provide a set of guiding principles to work by.”

Horton also believes the IDC could save South Australia from a rash of poorly designed speculative building that might spring up around the much-vaunted Transit Oriented Developments (TOD) if proper design controls are not established.

“Spec building could be a big problem for the TODs. In NSW they introduced a new regulation specifying that every residential building over three stories must be designed by an architect after seeing some poorly designed dwellings spring up around the time of the Sydney Olympics,” he said.

So who will take up the positions of Government Architect and the advisory roles to the IDC? Lee, as ever, is diplomatic in her response.

“Advisors to the Commission would cover a range of disciplines, but also be experienced in the relationship between disciplines. The Commission is also concerned with the integration of education and research with practice, so advisors from academia, industry and professional organisations are needed,” she said.

“As a generator of ideas and innovation, it would be desirable if some advisors have significant international and national experience to complement the local wisdom in SA.”

Horton agrees that the talent, particularly for the role of Government Architect and Commissioner, must be drawn from a global pool but also have “deep roots” in South Australia. “It is not necessary for the GA to be a South Australian,” he said. “They do need to ensure that whoever does get the position is respected across the industry.”
It is crucial that the GA be able to move comfortably in both government and design worlds, a point underlined by Lee who peppers her responses with the term “constructive engagement”.

“The role of the Commission – to enable, to connect, to add value – will be via new models of collaboration and highly inclusive decision-making processes. The Commission would make constructive engagement through community consultation a major part of its work.”

Although nothing has been revealed as yet about how the Commission members will be selected, Greg Mackie, Deputy Chief Executive, Cultural Development and Corporate, Department of the Premier and Cabinet said South Australia’s model has drawn inspiration from similar programs around the world.

“While what we are proposing has a much stronger focus on integrated design, the British model informed our thinking with regard to lifting the awareness of and demand for good design, establishing collaborative models for working with key stakeholders such as local government and industry, developing guidelines to inform good practice and providing case studies as an evidence base for good practice,” he said.

Some points of difference in the SA model include a stronger focus on the integration of decision-making across a broader range of professional expertise, a clearer link to key government strategies and a direct link to the Premier.

The DPC hopes to have the commission up and running by July 2010 and all eyes in the design professions will be on the selection process for members that will take place between now and then. For his part, Horton hopes that the establishment of the IDC will “depoliticise the future of the city” and lead to independent and transparent design decision-making.

Lee, typically, is already looking ahead to the next recommendation on her list.

“While all nine of the residency recommendations are important and related, the next I hope to be realised is “Collective Action” across agencies and tiers of government and stakeholders.”

According to Lee, this will be achieved through an Integrated Design Strategy (IDS) for Adelaide City, regional areas and communities.

“The IDS represents the future of “Intelligent Investment” as the relationship between design, planning and development. Not only better buildings, communities, cities and regions but also integrated infrastructure and transport to address the immediate and long-term challenges of climate change and population growth.”

Lee describes her vision for Adelaide with great passion, so much so that one wonders if she herself might not be working on her CV in anticipation of an international call for someone to oversee the enactment of the plan with which she has been so intimately involved. Whoever takes the role, they will certainly have a major impact on where and how the anticipated $11.4 billion set aside for infrastructure investment in South Australia over the next four years takes place.
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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#20 Post by Prince George » Sun Feb 14, 2010 9:26 am

This is a cheering story, but there's some parts that strike me a little oddly. For example, how to reconcile this
Just how the IDC will facilitate this remains to be seen, but according to Lee, the key will be to tap into a deep lode of expertise across all design disciplines and avoid hierarchy. ... “It is only through the collaboration of all (design) disciplines that true progress is made,” he [Tim Horton] said.
With this
“An IDC with a Government Architect, if it sits within the Department of Premier and Cabinet, has the ability to reach across all government agencies,” said Horton. This may not be good news for individual departments with their own agendas, but Horton is confident the move will ultimately benefit all, with the IDC acting as a facilitator between DPC and other departments.
That is to say, the initial stresses on pooling multiple disciplines and holistic approaches on the one hand, and the talk of nothing but a government architect on the other. Is there any talk of an equivalent from any other discipline, what disciplines will that even be? In that second quote (and elsewhere) the remainder of the IDC appears to be getting composed from members of government departments and representatives from industry bodies. Still, the article does mention that the composition of the IDC hasn't been settled, so we'll see what we see.

I disagree with Mr Horton's hope to “depoliticise the future of the city”. The future of the city is an eminently political issue, in the best sense of the word; coming from polis, the classical Greek term for a city state, politics is literally the way a city makes decisions about its future. Truly "depoliticising" the issue, making an IDC essentially answerable to no-one, would make it another form of disenfranchisement, much like a laissez-faire approach leaving the developers fully deregulated would also be.

On the contrary, my own hope is to see it become radically political, to have it become the subject of vigorous and stormy debate. I want communities to be deeply involved in planning what happens around them, and to understand the consequences of their actions. I want groups like "Save St Clair" to really understand that to preserve what they have now means new developments must encroach further and further from the city, that a housing estate at Concordia is largely the result of groups like them insisting that their neighbourhood must remain untouched. I want people to be really thinking about why it is that so many 20-35 year olds are leaving the city, never to return, and to ask what their own children and grandchildren are going to do.

When Prof. Lee says “The value of design lies precisely in this integrated and holistic approach based on values and vision, [it] is essentially human centred.” and "The highest aspiration for the Commission would be for ... the public to demand good design", I feel that she is of a similar mind too. I am concerned that for people like Mr Horton and the Australian Institute of Archtiects this represents an opportunity to reassert the traditional role of the architect, and to return some prestige to what has become a somewhat tarnished profession in this state. It will be a missed opportunity if that is all it is allowed to be.

And a note to Amanda Ward:
Lee describes her vision for Adelaide with great passion, so much so that one wonders if she herself might not be working on her CV in anticipation of an international call for someone to oversee the enactment of the plan with which she has been so intimately involved.
Amanda, you're writing for The Adelaide Review, not The Advertiser - don't go backstabbing your celebrity interviewee by suggesting she may be after something.

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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#21 Post by Wayno » Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:00 am

Agree with your sentiments in the post above Prince George, although not on the last one. I consider Amanda Ward's point that Laura Lee may be polishing her CV to be a compliment to Laura - and a big vote of confidence about the opportunities inherent in such a role here in SA.
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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#22 Post by iTouch » Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:11 pm

cruel_world00 wrote:From Mike Rann's Twitter (if anyone was interested):

"# Grateful for advice of 2OO8/9 Thinker in Residence Prof Laura Lee and her local team of architects, planners,industry, local govt leaders.
about 12 hours ago from txt


#

We'll establish Aust's first Integrated Design Comm to better co-ordinate and add value to changing face of our city and reg communities.
about 12 hours ago from txt


#

Not just better design of buildings but the spaces between..for a greener, more vibrant city for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as cars.
about 12 hours ago from txt

#

We want SA to be as celebrated for quality of design as we are for our wines,festivals and leadership in renewable energy.
about 12 hours ago from txt

#

Through COAG PM has challenged Prems to do better with urban design. SA will meet that challenge and lead Australia in doing so.
about 12 hours ago from txt


#

With unprecedented development and investment in infrastructure we must again embrace world's best practice in urban design and architec ...
about 12 hours ago from txt "
Translation: Adelaide's the most important city in the world and should be considered a Holy City
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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#23 Post by Prince George » Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:33 pm

Can't find a link yet, but there were reports on the ABC this evening that Laura Lee will not be the head of the Integrated Design Commission, at least not at the moment. Prof Lee had met with Mike Rann last week during his trip and asked to delay starting, due to family circumstances. The state decided that they wanted to start sooner than later, and it seems that starting July 1st Tim Horton (AIA South Australia chapter president, senior partner at Hassell) will be the Integrated Design Commissioner.

UPDATE: found a link - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 936657.htm

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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#24 Post by Wayno » Sun Jun 27, 2010 9:56 am

Prince George wrote:Can't find a link yet, but there were reports on the ABC this evening that Laura Lee will not be the head of the Integrated Design Commission, at least not at the moment. Prof Lee had met with Mike Rann last week during his trip and asked to delay starting, due to family circumstances. The state decided that they wanted to start sooner than later, and it seems that starting July 1st Tim Horton (AIA South Australia chapter president, senior partner at Hassell) will be the Integrated Design Commissioner.

UPDATE: found a link - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 936657.htm
i hope we hear from Tim Horton soon, at least in action if not in words.
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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#25 Post by Omicron » Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:25 pm

I hope Tim Horton brings donuts.

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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#26 Post by Wayno » Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:07 am

No donuts from Horton, but more about the disappearance of Laura Lee

From the Independent Weekly - July 10 edition:
The curious case of Laura Lee

It was touted as an auspicious occasion – the evening of Wednesday, October 14, last year.

Town Hall was well-filled by the public, the design community, a sprinkling of MPs, local government members, assorted intellectuals and other Adelaide VIPs. According to several present, Premier Mike Rann was standing at the back.

One local professor of architecture described it as an eagerly awaited event he hoped would be “a defining moment for the state”.

On stage, the director of the Adelaide Thinkers-in-Residence program, Gabrielle Kelly, spoke glowingly about it and the guest speaker, Professor Laura Lee, before her end-of-residence speech. Ms Kelly said that since March, Lee had attended more than 100 meetings, led seven partner workshops and met more than 1000 people. These included six ministers and the Premier. Lee visited Adelaide three times in 2009: in March during the Fringe Festival, in June during the Cabaret Festival and in September-October.

Planning Minister Paul Holloway then introduced Lee, describing her as “highly regarded internationally as a leader in integrated design education, practice and research in architecture”.

Indeed, the curriculum vitae of this 40-something Canadian runs to many pages. Apart from prestigious jobs overseas, the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon professor is an also honorary fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects and was appointed to the national Built Environment Industry Innovation Council by federal Innovation and Industry Minister Kim Carr.

For almost 50 minutes, Lee gave the expectant crowd a potted history – with slides – of her “journey through the residency”. It ranged from discovering the Central Market’s “theatre of life” to the Jam Factory (“one of the most recognised environments and attributes of South Australia”), the Fringe and Womadelaide; from walking in the Botanic Gardens and enjoying “exquisite” dining experiences, to visiting the Barossa and a housing development at Noarlunga (“one of our greatest adventures and one of my favourite days in the residency”).

She was at pains to suggest that although she was an architect, the cap she was wearing was that of Thinker. She would not be talking about buildings, but the “spaces in between them”.

“I will be speaking about building in terms of building confidence, building knowledge and, particularly, building culture,” she said.

There was a great deal more, and she broadened her concept of integrated design to embrace politics and the importance of leadership. The Premier may have been pleased to hear her say that SA has advanced policies on environmental sustainability and very admirable targets “so that there’s leadership in this regard coming from the top down”. She described SA’s early childhood development programs as “emulated on a national basis and recognised internationally”. She praised the state’s Strategic Plan – around which her Thinking was formulated – and even picked out the Labor Government’s new Royal Adelaide Hospital project as an example of vision.

At the end of her speech she recommended the Government introduce a “multi-disciplinary integrated design commission at the level of the Department of Premier in Cabinet”. The role of the commission, she said, would be to advocate for good design, to advise at the highest levels of government and also to communities and individuals, and to “do a review that would have to do with quality-of-life issues”. She also recommended the appointment of a government architect.

Response to her speech was mixed. Some described it afterwards as brilliant and inspirational. Others were less impressed, suggesting it was all theory and “a mish-mash of personal first impressions”.

“I expected an inspirational delivery and stimulating subject matter,” wrote a suburban newspaper correspondent. “I got a tedious blow-by-blow account of her Residency predicated on the SA Government’s Strategic Plan, validating the Government’s policy directions. Professor Lee even managed to include the magic word ‘Dunstan era’ to warm the hearts of any Labor faithfuls in the audience, and also claimed the process of arriving at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital on the railyards proposal to be a shining example of an integrated design strategy. Premier Mike Rann must have been very pleased.”

Fast forward to April 30, 2010. A couple of small paragraphs in the little-read Government Gazette announced that Lee had been appointed to head her own visionary Commission for Integrated Design, which the Premier had announced in December. Neither Planning Minister Holloway nor the Premier sent out a media release about the appointment. When questioned, Mr Holloway said the job was not advertised but that Lee was “best suited for it”.

The Minister went on: “I don't think anyone would challenge the credentials of Professor Lee in relation to this matter. Professor Lee is not only the professor of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in the USA, she’s an internationally renowned authority. When we announced that there would be an integrated design commissioner for Adelaide, we pointed out that we wanted someone of international stature to take this position.”

The Australian Institute of Architects, which gave Lee an honorary fellowship, was quick to praise the appointment as “the right choice”. The institute’s SA president, Tim Horton, said the appointment “re-positions SA at the centre of the national debate on sustainable cities, population and lifestyle”.

On May 5, Carnegie Mellon announced Lee would be leaving her job to take up the Adelaide position.

But in one month all that changed, and the reason for her decision not to come to Adelaide remains something of a mystery.

Lee met the Premier overseas, but Rann had made no mention on his now-famous Twitter feed of meeting her over dinner in London and strolling along the Highline, the Manhattan above-ground garden project in New York.
sundeck.jpg
An early sundeck rendering of the Manhattan Highline, which Laura Lee suggested Rann visit in New York. Photo: Courtesy the City of New York
sundeck.jpg (44.59 KiB) Viewed 8187 times
After his meetings became public, his subsequent parliamentary travel report mentioned their London encounters, though not the one or more in the United States. The Premier says that while in London, Lee argued for the Government to work with Adelaide City Council to redesign Victoria Square, and that the components of the Riverbank precinct – hospital, research centre, convention centre and stadium – must be closely co-ordinated and “embrace world’s best practice”.

Rann’s report, dated June 23, says Lee was in London to promote her husband’s new book. The report also mentions that Lee indicated she may not be able to start on July 1 as planned, but it gives no indication that this later starting date would be a problem. “Officers within the Department of Premier and Cabinet are currently discussing with Professor Lee her request to delay taking up her appointment,” he said. It is not clear from the report whether this was discussed with the Premier during or after his London trip.

So how has the story of Laura Lee developed so quickly from that of eagerly sought-after international architect heading up a key design position in Adelaide to her not coming at all?

The progress through June makes subsequent developments more intriguing.

Lee met Rann in Covent Garden on June 3. They were photographed by a South Australian, who thought Lee was Rann’s wife. The Premier told ABC local radio he had dinner with her. There was no mention in the interview that Lee might be having second thoughts.

On June 13, Lee was still expecting to come to Adelaide. An Adelaide journalist emailed her asking for an interview to be done after she arrived on July 1. She replied: “I would be pleased to meet with you when I am next in Adelaide. There are several exciting developments in South Australia — the RAH, the Research Institute, the Riverbank development including the convention centre extension, Victoria Square, Bowden, and the potential of the former Tonsley-Mitsubishi site. I am aware of these projects through the partners in my Thinker’s residency and have maintained a keen interest. We are in the establishment phase of an Integrated Design Strategy for Adelaide City, having received $1 million in federal funding for this work. When my diary is being set for my time in SA, I will be sure to make contact and arrange a time to meet. Kind regards, Laura.”

Just five days later, on the morning of Friday, June 18, The Independent Weekly reported exclusively that Rann had met Lee in New York. Later that same day, a staffer for the Premier said Lee had requested a delay to the start of her job “due to changed family and professional circumstance” and this was being “considered” by the Government.

There was little to suggest, officially, that Lee’s short delay would be a major problem, given her contract was for three years.

The Government staffer also said Lee would be working part-time, and at a lower rate than the rumoured $250,000 a year.

But on Thursday, June 22 – the day the news was dominated by Julia Gillard’s ascension in Canberra – Paul Holloway told the Legislative Council the Government had declined Lee’s request for a delay to September 1. His stated reason was that there were too many projects the Government had to get on with. Not only that, he said, but the Government had already moved to appoint the Institute of Architects’ Tim Horton to fill the post.

Some might suggest Lee’s replacement in the position was handled with even more alacrity that Kevin Rudd’s removal as Prime Minister.

Efforts to contact Lee to discuss her apparently sudden change of heart have so far proved unsuccessful.

But some observers might be forgiven for thinking we have not heard the whole story from the Government and there are now conflicts between what Rann wrote in his report and what Holloway told Parliament.

Rann’s June 23 travel report says: “I understand that Professor Laura Lee is also assisting the Hon Paul Holloway, the Minister for Urban Planning, in arrangements for his forthcoming visit to Europe to look at urban design initiatives.”

Yet Holloway initially denied in Parliament he had such a trip planned.

On July 1, more than a week after Rann’s report, shadow finance minister Rob Lucas asked Holloway about the cost and make-up of the minister's proposed overseas trip.

“Will the minister be catching up with Ms Lee whilst he is overseas to discuss matters of mutual interest?” Lucas inquired.

Holloway was flummoxed. “I would have thought hypothetical questions are clearly out of order. To ask about a trip that I have not even gone on yet, that I haven't even planned or booked is a bit it outrageous,” he replied.

Mr Holloway then went further, accusing public servants of breaching the Public Sector Act to supply Lucas with information – information which had simply come from Rann’s own parliamentary report.

“Perhaps we do need an ICAC ((Independent Commission Against Corruption) for these corrupt public servants who are actually breaching the law and telling the honourable member. Perhaps the Hon Mr Lucas's telephone should be one that you would tap all the time. You might pick up a few journalists he is talking to.”

The suggestion he would countenance tapping journalists’ conversations was stunning enough, but Holloway then changed tack. He next suggested Lee would not be coming because of “constant attacks that were really unnecessary … why would any international person want to come to our city?”

“Is that why she’s not coming here?” host Matt Abraham asked Holloway on ABC radio.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove,” Holloway responded.

“It’s just that he had, well he has, a friendship with Laura Lee and knew her quite well I think. Met her in London and New York as part of his overseas trip and then it all sort of fell in a heap. It went pear-shaped,” co-presenter David Bevan had said earlier.

But this may not be the end of Lee’s involvement. Holloway has now revealed the professor will still be on the public payroll, funded through the Commonwealth Government, to work on a project with Adelaide City Council.

“Laura Lee has been very helpful and continues to be helpful. She’s working on another project for integrated design for the city,” he said.

But what will she actually do, and what could she have done had she taken the original job?

“Laura Lee was appointed to an exceptional new position, one that is well remunerated, and has not given an interview and has refused interviews since that appointment,” Sunday Mail editor Megan Lloyd said on ABC radio. “So she pops up overseas. She has meetings with the Premier. You’ve got media who have been trying to put some reasonable questions to her. This is someone who the Opposition asked questions about in Parliament. Paul Holloway actually couldn’t answer about what her record of achievement was prior to this appointment in terms of what has she actually built or constructed.”

ABC Stateline editor Simon Royal also voiced reservations.

“The oval will go where it is and there is no alternative. The hospital will go where it is and there is no shifting that. The City Council has its plans for Victoria Square. These are really important things that you would think a commissioner who is supposed to be … whose reason for being is the integration of Adelaide, might have something to say about it,” he said.

“What is she going to do? Choose the lighting and pavers? If we were serious about getting the maximum value from that sort of position, the integration of Adelaide, and you have a number of really expensive projects coming up, maybe you would want that person to actually have a say in where those projects should go rather, than just lighting and pavers.”

Channel 7 political reporter and some-time FIVEaa presenter Mike Smithson finds some aspects of the Lee story difficult to explain.

“I specifically asked the Premier, ‘Did you meet anyone from Carnegie Mellon in America?’ and he said, ‘No, I didn’t’. Now, subsequently, we’ve found out that he did meet with Laura Lee in America as well as in London and Laura Lee is on the Carnegie Mellon University Board. She’s an academic on the board.

“There is a little bit of a cloud over what her exact role is in life. Why did the Premier say, ‘I didn’t meet anyone’, but he actually met her. Again, does this – I’m not saying make us suspicious – but it just, something doesn’t seem right with this whole thing.”

Meanwhile, the Premier is refusing to say how much public money Carnegie Mellon University has been promised for its Adelaide campus for the next four years.

The Opposition criticised the original funding agreement for establishing the campus, which involved up to $19.5 million.

Rann told Parliament that the agreement has expired and a new one has been based on the university’s growing enrolments.

“The new agreement is exempt from public disclosure under the Department of the Premier and Cabinet Circular 27 Disclosure of Government Contracts,” he said.

Meanwhile, the concept of integrated design seems to have slipped in the Adelaide Hills. This week Mt Barker Council decided to oppose the Government’s plan for an extra 50,000 people in the area in just 15 years.

“It can’t be supported at this time because as a responsible council we’ve got to provide for the future for our community and it’s our community now – our grandchildren and our great grandchildren,” mayor Ann Ferguson said on Tuesday.

“I know we’ve been identified for growth, but it has to be managed, sustainable. We must have solar, we must have rainwater. These people need to have parks to go to, they need their toilets to be flushed to provide them with this basic day-to-day living, and at this time we don’t have that,” said the mayor.

Local Government Association president Felicity Lewis said other councils were similarly worried. “I think it’s important to understand that local government isn’t anti-development,” she said. “It’s about orderly development.”

Holloway is unrepentant. “We’re responsible to the people of SA for growth,” he emphasised. “If every council said, ‘We don’t want growth in our area’, and they tend to do it these days, what are we supposed to do? Just stop all growth?”

Integrated design is a concept, Laura Lee explained at that Town Hall meeting, and about spaces between buildings. It is, she said, about “building confidence”. Yet from Mt Barker to Adelaide, and in the spaces between, the jack-in-the-box appointment and sudden disappearance of the Carnegie Mellon professor provokes as much controversy as the urban environment which the government creates.
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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#27 Post by Prince George » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:22 am

Long article, but not much content. Beyond veiled suggestions that something may have been going on between Rann and Lee -- like that photo of sunbathing on the Highline -- it hasn't shed any light on the situation.

When I'm in a paranoid mood, I wonder if there aren't groups here that prefer a position of authority to be filled by someone that isn't too independent of them. Before Tim Horton as IDC said things that people (ministers, councillors, developers, architects) didn't like, he would have to consider the relationship he has with them once he leaves the post; Prof Lee has CMU to go back to, she's in a position to speak more freely.

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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#28 Post by Wayno » Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:38 pm

Here's the first snippet of what the IDC is all about, including projected time frames (seems to be based on doing as much as possible before federal funding lapses).

http://www.sensational-adelaide.com/ima ... 202010.pdf. By Jason Pruszinski from the ACC. It's a ppt presentation and is hence lacking the spoken word which obviously went with it - but you'll still get the general gist of it.
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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#29 Post by Prince George » Fri Jul 23, 2010 4:23 pm

Hmm, that really does need the accompanying talk.

I had taken the IDS/IDC to be operating across Adelaide meaning the metro-area, but this is looking like Adelaide meaning the couple of square miles surrounded by parklands, or was that just because of the audience for this presentation. On that subject, who was this talk given to? Some of the topics (like relating population density to CO2 production) I would hope would be already well known to the council itself, was this a public lecture? I hope that we can see more engagement with the public as part of the "cultural change" aspects of this group. There are a lot of people that need convincing before our vast plain of low-density suburbs can start seeing density growth.

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Re: Does Adelaide have a Chief Architect?

#30 Post by SRW » Fri Jul 23, 2010 4:48 pm

Thanks very much for posting that Wayno. Unfortunately, I still have very little clue about the IDC. Doubly unfortunate, really, in that I would have thought that part of being 'integrated' would include the community being clued in.
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